August 1, 2026
Dear Manhattan Yacht Club Members,
I am pleased to announce the formation of the Manhattan Yacht Club’s new Skipper Certification & Review Board.
The mission of the Skipper Certification & Review Board is to encourage excellence in seamanship through education, mentorship, and fair review. The Board exists to help members grow as sailors, promote safe boating, and ensure that incidents become opportunities for learning whenever possible.
The Board will be chaired by Rob Goldstein and will include:
- Caner Dinlenc (representing the Racing Program)
- Chris Gizzi (representing the Fleet Captain Program)
- Mac True (representing the Racing Program)
- Sara Burke (representing our Sailing School)
- Scott Crow (representing the Mentor Program)
Since Manhattan Yacht Club was founded in 1987, one of our guiding principles has been to make sailing more accessible by creating opportunities for people to learn, grow, and continue developing their skills throughout their lives.
The purpose of the Skipper Certification & Review Board is to support this philosophy.
The Board’s primary responsibility is to help members earn and maintain skipper privileges through constructive coaching, mentorship, and thoughtful evaluation. Just as importantly, when sailing incidents occur—whether a boat is damaged, a grounding occurs, there is a racing collision, or a difficult judgment call is made on the water—the Board will review the circumstances in a fair, objective, and consistent manner.
The purpose of these reviews is not to assign blame or discourage members from sailing. Every experienced sailor has made mistakes, encountered difficult situations, or learned valuable lessons through experience. Those moments, when approached thoughtfully, often become the most important learning opportunities in a sailor’s development.
Whenever possible, our goal is to use these experiences to help all members become more knowledgeable and safer skippers. The Board brings together experienced members with a wide range of backgrounds who can provide perspective, identify lessons learned, and recommend constructive paths forward that benefit both the member and the Club as a whole.
When a member of the Board contacts you regarding an incident or certification matter, I ask that you extend to them the same cooperation and openness that you would extend to me.
Their role is to listen, understand what occurred, and help us continually improve the quality of seamanship within Manhattan Yacht Club.
Our greatest strength has always been our willingness to help one another. That spirit of encouragement and lifelong learning remains at the heart of Manhattan Yacht Club today, just as it did when the Club was founded nearly forty years ago.
Thank you for your continued commitment to safe sailing, good seamanship, and to helping make Manhattan Yacht Club one of the finest sailing communities in the United States of America.
Fair winds,
Commodore Michael Fortenbaugh