About island sailing
OUR MISSION
Promoting personal freedom through positive self empowerment for our community by providing easy affordable access to the world of sailing.
OUR COMMITMENTS TO THE WORLD
Diversity & Inclusivity
“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” – Martin Luther King, Jr
Diversity is a simple fact and inclusivity is our mindful choice to embrace the incredible source of power that is our differences, and guide our behavior to keep in line with our beliefs.
Island Sailing will always strive to foster an environment in which everyone can bring and be their authentic selves. Whereby embracing our differences and offering respect for all, we create a truly welcoming space.
Kindness & Generosity
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
– Maya Angelou
In our actions, deeds, and words we will always ask ourselves: ‘is it kind? Is it necessary? And how can we be more generous?’ In being selflessly kind and generous we actively and mindfully take an active part in creating our experiences that bring us joy while taking nothing from others or the world.
Truth & Honesty
Only by being truthful and honest with others and with ourselves can we actually grow and mature.
In short - we can evolve. As a community it is how we can make and strengthen our bonds (the alternative: lying and hypocrisy, will only break them).
As sailors we don’t question the importance of truth: denial, or “lying to ourselves or others” could even result in avoidable tragedy - the ocean, the winds, the fury of a storm at sea - these will not lie to you.
Authenticity Matters
We will strive to empower everyone we interact with to be themselves.
We will always strive to be true and honest to our crew, our clients, our students, our instructors, our members - and to ourselves, and thus to our community regardless of what adverse pressures we may be under at any given moment.
Authenticity is like that cool early morning breeze that blows steady and full and refreshes all of our senses and our joy of being.
Responsibility is freedom
The more responsibility we take for ourselves the more freedom we attain.
We take responsibility for ourselves, for our actions, and for our behaviors. By practicing responsibility we access a deep sense of liberty and joy that comes from experiencing true authentic freedom.
We are responsible for creating our experiences, our impressions, and our stories - we are not victims - we take responsibility.
We experience joy from being in service to others
We believe altruism is hardwired in us.
It should be no secret that helping others, and to do so with humility & respect and free of expectations of validation, leads to living a life that is happier and deeply rewarding.
We mindfully choose to be this way because it’s the world we want to live in, not because we seek validation, rewards, or recognition.
Humility
If the oceans of this big blue marble don’t make you humble, sailing may not be for you…
To access lightness; to allow ourselves selflessness; to bring out our dignity and share it with the world; to stay stable; and to be able to truly listen to and accept others - all of these ways of being are made possible only by mindfully practicing humility - and we are committed to that way of being. We can always accept that we may not always be right because we strive to always be humble.
Professionalism As a Way of Being
Professionalism should be a default just like good seamanship.
Helping everyone involved and engaged with us to fulfill their role, be it students, members, instructors, skippers or crew - to achieve their goals to the best of their abilities is why we do what we do. Doing it with the best professionalism we can muster is a goal we are always focused on.
Like seamanship, professionalism is as much an attitude as it is a guiding principle for our actions - we will maintain the standards that help keep everyone safe and preserve the powerful traditions of sailing that have been handed down to us by so many previous generations.
Respect
Respect is an essential human right.
We accept others for who they are, not who we think they are being. When they appear to us as different from us, when we don’t agree with them, we still accept them. It is how we can create feelings of trust, wellbeing, and safety in our relationships.
The source of our respect comes from within us and is born from our inner dignity that is formed of our sense of value, worthiness and self-respect.
We treat everyone with dignity and respect not because it’s written here, but because it’s the kind of world we want to live in and only by being respectful can we create and have that. It is mission critical.
SAILING with I.S.C.
a little history…
We believe good seamanship should be at the heart of everything we do.
Island Sailing School & Club was founded in 1979 and for over forty years we've been training sailors ever since. We are located on Tomahawk Island (an "isthmus" of Hayden Island), on the edge of The Mighty Columbia in Portland, Oregon. We are dedicated to creating a space and environment in which we strive to empower and inspire the emerging or growing sailor to best achieve their own sailing goals. Under new ownership, Island Sailing continues to improve and create opportunities for anyone in pursuit of what we believe to be the most empowering experience, sailing.
At our core, we are sailors. We started where you are, following an intuitive desire to sail. Many of us started young, while others began sailing later in life. We’ve trained and practiced. We've sailed classics and yachts, big and small, in back rivers and on exotic waters, and with countless sailors.
Over time, our passion for sailing became our profession. We're not a boat broker, or a charter company. As an American Sailing Association Certification Facility, our focus is to provide the best possible training and coaching by coast guard licensed captains for sailors to practice great seamanship and develop the skills needed to truly enjoy sailing. As seasoned ASA certified instructors, our captains apply careful attention to each individual’s desires and learning styles to keep the focus on their goals.
Over decades, our fun, adventurous, and interactive community has built a place to hone their sailing skills, create lifelong friendships and most importantly share their passion for sailing.
OUR Instructors
MARK NUTCHER
USCG Licensed Captain
ASA Certified Instructor
CHRIS WADE
USCG Licensed Captain
ASA Certified Instructor
JOSEPH BRUZDA
USCG Licensed Captain
ASA Certified Instructor
DAVE SPENCER
USCG Licensed Captain
ASA Certified Instructor
RICKMAN TRIEM
USCG Licensed Captain
ASA Certified Instructor
stephen frankland - owner/operator
Pushing my sunfish away from the dock at the wonderful club in the little lakefront town of Pentwater, Michigan - sailing the “little lake” and tacking out the channel to the '“big lake” gave me a sense of responsibility that fueled my experience of freedom - which to this day is at the very core of what this life has made of me.
At the age of 12 I was fortunate to become part of an incredible boat’s life for 6 years: The 1938 Sparkman & Stevens 12 Meter - The Northern Light. “Adopted” by the crew, I sailed frequently on day charters and local day sails and helped to work on the boat with the crew. I’ll never forget being tied along side in a little rubber raft and wet sanding the water line and learning how to steer the boat in a stiff breeze without “dodging submarines”… At 14 they invited me to join the racing crew and I crewed for four seasons as we campaigned the boat on Lake Michigan and Lake Huron - the high point of each season being the iconic Chicago Mac race.
After living in Germany for six years upon completing high school I was attending the University of Oregon and focused on a degree in history when an opportunity to go to Alaska and “work on boats” was presented to me, and, well, as they say…
For six seasons I worked the waters of Alaska from Prince William Sound all the way out west to Norton Sound on the Bearing Sea. I started as a “herring tech” - worked on countless tenders - and long lined cod and halibut on the Gulf of Alaska. Needless to say, I still owe a few history papers that are due…
Upon washing ashore here in Portland in the early nineties I discovered that “they sail on that river?!?!!” I had driven up to the Glisan boat ramp just to explore and upon driving into the parking lot I saw the tops of several masts and immediately realized it was a race - the boats were bearing down in a stiff breeze toward “A” mark and dousing their spinnakers to prepare to round to windward.
Later that day, looking through the “phone book” I found a place I could rent a boat and when I called, they said, “well you might actually be interested in our membership”. That was how I discovered the community of wonderful people who make Island Sailing the great place that it is. I joined, immediately got involved with the Monday night race group, started working there, and started teaching as well.
I was racing locally quite a bit back then when I started working in the film industry which took me away from being able to commit fully to crewing - and when I did have time off I was sailing my own boat for fun and traveling until another movie would come to town - so it’s been years since I’ve been out actively racing myself.
Finally, upon looking to get back into teaching sailing I formed my Parent company, Agwé Sailing and began teaching again here locally on my boats and at the club, as well as spending time in The Leeward Islands in the winter teaching on catamarans. It was then that the opportunity presented itself to take the helm at Island Sailing.
I am so very grateful as I consider myself one of the luckiest sailors out there to be able to focus my time and efforts on introducing so many new people now to the incredible world of sailing through their involvement with the wonderful community that is Island Sailing.