Nigel Calder

Nigel is best known for his Boatowner’s Mechanical & Electrical Manual and Marine Diesel Engines.  In addition to hundreds of magazine articles, he has authored “A Cruising Guide to the Northwest Caribbean”, “Nigel Calder’s Cruising Handbook”,  “How to read a Nautical Chart” and Shakedown Cruise”.  Nigel is currently the Technical Editor or an Associate Editor of Passagemaker, Professional Boatbuilder, Sail, and Ocean Navigator magazines and a freelance consultant on marine energy issues.  He and his wife, Terrie, spend several months every year aboard their Malo 46, Nada.

Tom Trimmer

Tom Trimmer is the founder and owner of Custom Marine Products, a company specializing in marine solar systems for the cruising sailor. Mr. Trimmer has been a cruising sailor for more than 20 years and understands that the number one challenge to comfortable cruising is the availability of electrical power. His company has helped many sailors analyze their power requirements, evaluate solar products available and design systems to meet their needs. A graduate mechanical/electrical engineer from the University of Michigan, Mr. Trimmer has been involved in the marine industry for over 20 years. He and his wife cruise the Great Lakes for six weeks each summer testing and evaluating solar equipment. (Somebody has to do it.) 

Capt. Patricia Miller Rains

Pat cruised around the Sea of Cortez for five years aboard her own 26-foot sailboat, then ventured further with friends on larger boats, both sail and power. She married Capt. John E Rains and joined his yacht-delivery team for 15 years. Pat earned her U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Masters License in 1986 and has logged more than 100,000 n.m. between the Med and Hawaii, but mostly in Mexico and Central American waters, including 36 transits of the Panama Canal. Her nautical guidebooks include “Cruising Ports: the Central American Route” and “Mexico Boating Guide.”

Pat uses her degree in journalism as a news reporter, freelance writer and photographer, and she presents cruising seminars. Since the Captains Rains retired from yacht delivery, they now go cruising with friends to places where Pat can keep her guidebooks updated and explore a few new horizons.

Steve Zimmerman

Steve Zimmerman is the founder and President of Zimmerman Marine, Inc. Steve has logged several thousand miles on the water, including the entire East Coast from Canada to the Caribbean, the Pacific Northwest from Anacortes WA to Glacier Bay Alaska, and over forty trips between the Chesapeake and Long Island Sound. He has raced, cruised, and worked as a paid hand and captain.

Jeff Merrill

Jeff Merrill, CPYB a lifelong boater, started out racing sailboats as a boy and has been involved in the boating business his entire career.  Jeff is the founder of JMYS, a worldwide brokerage that specializes in trawlers.  He has a very popular YouTube channel and has been a TrawlerFest presenter for nearly twenty years.  His Trawler Transactions column in PassageMaker magazine includes helpful insights for buyers and sellers.  Jeff has traveled over 20,000 miles offshore with his clients and loves being out at sea.

Rudy and Jill Sechez

Authors of ‘ANCHORING–A Ground Tackler’s Apprentice’, and living aboard and cruising for the past 24 years, Rudy and Jill Sechez built both of their cruising boats, first a 36’ wood cutter, and later, their current 34’ sail-assisted trawler Briney Bug, their own design, also of wood. Their travels have included the Bahamas, Gulf coast, East coast, Chesapeake, Tenn-Tom/Tennessee River, plus a trip to Bermuda. They’ve also authored many articles on seamanship and anchoring, published in a variety of magazines, including Passagemaker.

Annie Dike

Annie is a best-selling author and international sailor, followed by thousands, and an inspirational speaker sharing her adventures, humor, and insight on topics of work-life balance, opportunity, attitude, teamwork, and the need for new experiences, challenges, as well as failures.

Bob Arrington

Bob Arrington has 45 years boating experience on the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay and off-shore waters of the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard and Caribbean. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100 Ton Master’s Certificate. Bob shares his love of the water as a writer, marine industry consultant, boat training captain, and scuba instructor. He provides boat owners with lessons in seamanship, safety systems, handling and vessel operation, at the TrawlerFest boat show seminar series and boat brand owner’s clubs.   Based in St. Petersburg, Florida, he and his photographer wife Dori cruise extensively aboard their trawler Liberdade, looking for the next story to tell.