Steve Colgate

A former Olympic sailor, America’s Cup competitor and ever-present participant on the racing circuit, Steve personifies the sport of sailing. 

Steve grew up in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York and started sailing Atlantic Class sailboats and Lightnings in Long Island Sound at the age of nine.  A 1957 Yale graduate, he served two years as an Air Force officer and then sharpened his knowledge of all things maritime during a four-year stint at a boat supply store in New York City, before launching Offshore in 1964.

With his wife and co-owner Doris, Steve guided Offshore from its modest two-instructor, two-boat beginning to the world’s most widely respected name in sailing instruction.  Today, Offshore boasts more than 40 boats, multiple branches and a staff of highly qualified instructors. It is the only sailing instructional program that has been approved for continuing education by the American Council on Education for several of its courses.

Steve’s racing career spans six decades and includes nearly every significant race in the world. In addition to the Olympics and two America’s Cup competitions, he has completed numerous class championships and international distance races, completing his 20th Newport-Bermuda Race in 2008. In January, 2007 he sailed up the Beagle Channel and around Cape Horn on the yacht SEAL (shown above).

Steve served as president of the International Sailing School Association from 1997 to 2006.  He is an active participant on several national boards and committees, including US SAILING, where he was Chairman of the Commercial Sailing Committee, headed the Training Committee that established the US SAILING certification system, and served as a National Faculty member for many years. He is also a former member of US SAILING’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee.  Steve is a member of the Cruising Club of America and was a longtime U.S. delegate to the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) where he served as a member of that organization’s Youth and Development Committee. He is also a member of the St. Charles Yacht Club, New York Yacht Club, Royal Ocean Racing Club and holds the Royal Yachting Association’s Yachtmaster Offshore Instructor Certificate and a U.S. Coast Guard license.

Steve’s expertise extends well beyond sailing instruction.  With noted architect Jim Taylor, he created the design concept for the Colgate 26, an acclaimed small craft which was awarded the 1997 Cruising World magazine’s “Boat of the Year,” in the Pocket Cruiser Division.  Considered the definitive training boat, fleets of Colgate 26 sailboats are used by the U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Maine Maritime Academy, United Kingdom Sailing Academy and Eckerd College as well  as other service institutions and sailing schools.

In 1996, Steve and Doris received SAIL magazine’s prestigious Industry Award for Leadership.  Steve is also the recipient of the US SAILING President’s Industry Leadership Award (1999) and US SAILING Timothea Larr Award recognizing leadership and excellence in sailing education in 2003 (shown at left with then US SAILING president Jim Muldoon and Training Commitee head Rich Jepsen). Steve is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the East, and Who’s Who in the World.  He has published two extensive volumes on sailing with W.W. Norton, many of the other textbooks used by Offshore, and with Doris co-authored Fast Track to Cruising,(2005) and Fast Track to Sailing (2009), both published by International Marine/McGraw-Hill.

Steve and Doris reside in Ft. Myers, Florida, headquarters of the Offshore Sailing School and Colgate 26 enterprises. To talk to Steve please call 888-454-7015, 239-985-7505 (direct line) or just click here.