Captain Geoff Byrne

I started sailing at the age of eight in little bathtub looking sailboats called Sabots. It wasn’t long until sailing became a fundamental part of my being. From the early days of sabots it wasn’t long until I was spending every day of every summer sailing any boat I could get my hands on. I joined the sea scouts for a period of time and started teaching sailing at the age of 14. Around that same time I got heavily into racing. By the age of 16 I was helming J/105’s and J/120’s to season championships and began racing with the King Harbor Youth Foundations Match Racing Team. We did very well in the youth match racing circuit and were invited to compete in venues in New Zealand, Australia, Bermuda, and England. To be on the start line competing with sailing legends such as Russel Coutts, Ed Baird, and Jimmy Spithill in the Swedish Match Tour (Now known as the Americas Cup World Series) was a humbling experience.

After a short hiatus from sailing to finish school I found myself in San Francisco and it wasn’t long before I was entrenched in the sailing community, this time bit hard by the cruising bug. I started teaching sailing for OCSC Sailing, the top rated sailing school in the country, and was introduced to an amazing sailing culture. Not long after I bought a full keel Tayana 37 which I fully rebuilt over the period of four years with the intentions of sailing her around the world. Well, I got lost cruising the San Francisco Bay for three amazing years while providing sailing charters on my home. In that time I found myself skippering monohulls and catamarans in the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Greece. A couple months was spent sailing South into the Sea of Cortez and a couple months in the Puget Sound, San Juans, and the Northwest Coastline. Haven’t made it around the world (Yet!) but after an incredible experience in San Francisco a time came when it felt like a change was in order.

Before you know it I found myself on a tugboat in Nome, Alaska. On sailboats I felt I knew everything. On a tugboat, I knew nothing. One of the incredible things about the maritime world is the more you know, the more you know you don’t know. It is always humbling. For the next three summers I would spend six months at a time piloting an 80’ tug and 165’ barge northward from Seward to the northernmost point of Alaska, Barrow. Sailing Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea, navigating hundreds of miles up the Yukon River, and through sea ice in the arctic. Walrus, polar bears, moose, Aurora Borealis, and the Siberian Alps were all common views out of the window. The experience to share toothless smiles and joyous story telling with natives of dozens of native Inuit villages rarely visited and to witness one of the true last frontiers was incredible. After working six straight months in the summer, I’d get six straight months off in the winter. You’d think Id take off to the Caribbean or somewhere warm, but nope. I’d move into my 1982 VW Vanagon and live as a full time ski bum camping in the woods in Mammoth, Ca.

In an effort to focus on other areas of life, I hung up my Alaska hat and moved back down to Southern California. As I sit writing this I am off watch in the wheelhouse steaming North on a tugboat in the Santa Barbara Channel. Whales, dolphins, and sea lion pups surround us. North winds and a sizable swell are making for perfect surfing waves along the Ranch just to Starboard. The Channel Islands, the painted cave, elephant seals, and all of their wonder are a short distance to Port. After 20+ years of sailing in some of the most incredible places around the world, it is hard to believe that some of the best sailing in the world is right here in Southern California.

Alchemy, my 36’ Cape George Cutter, is a hand made sailing machine designed and built to sail anywhere in the world safely and comfortably. Her classic lines, exceptional sailing ability, and no frills purpose built attitude are the perfect way to experience the beauty of these waters in the purest way. Looking out the window right now reaffirms that truly my greatest passion in life is being able to introduce and share these experiences with you.

Professionally speaking I hold a United States Coast Guard Master 1600-Ton license. Endorsed to sail any ocean, master of tow, unlimited radar, advanced firefighting, medical first aid responder, ARPA, ECDIS, and a number of other fancy sounding acronyms. I am also a certified sailing instructor for both US Sailing and the American Sailing Association. Current First Aid & CPR.