BIOS

Bill Biewenga

Ken Campbell

Lee Chesneau

Stan Honey

Peter Isler

Dr. Leonard Walstad

 

Bill Biewenga

Bill Biewenga is one of America's most accomplished offshore sailors. He has accumulated approximately 320,000 sea miles including 26 transatlantic crossings, several TransPacs, numerous record attempts, deliveries and races, as well as participation in four round the world races. He has worked as skipper, navigator, weather analyst/router, watch captain, helmsman, deck hand, and project manager collecting a vast amount of knowledge and experience. He now uses his extensive background in his work as a photojournalist and weather routing consultant while continuing his participation aboard a variety of vessels in the world's major offshore events.

In his work as a photojournalist, Bill has published over 210 magazine articles and numerous photographs in more than 20 magazines worldwide since September 1989.  He is the author of Weather for Sailors, published in 2004 by North U.  Also ashore, he works as a routing consultant for boats in the Atlantic as well as the Pacific. Vessels include both multi-hulls and monohulls doing speed record attempts, races, deliveries and cruises. Currently he's the Marine Consultant for Commander's Weather, Inc., a weather consulting business for a variety of sports, events, and record attempts where he works in conjunction with Ken Campbell and George Caras, two of the country's most highly regarded meteorologists in marine forecasting.

Bill's sailing career began relatively late in life and far from the ocean. Born September 11, 1947 in Berwyn, Illinois, he later attended Lyons Township High School and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps upon completion of Junior College in June, 1967. He was trained as a Morse Code intercept operator, duty that was under the direction of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He volunteered for and was sent to duty in Vietnam in the fall of 1968. Upon returning he received an Honorable Discharge with the rank of Corporal. Bill attended and graduated from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois with a Bachelor's Degree in History in 1971. He also earned a Black Belt in "American Self-Protection", a hybrid offshoot of Aikido and Judo, in which he was an instructor and undefeated in competition. Working as a laborer, form-carpenter and finally as a foundation crew foreman in a concrete company Bill gained the experience to start his own general contracting company in 1972. He continued his education by entering first Northwestern's Graduate School of Business in their night school division, and later the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business while teaching Construction Planning and Scheduling for one semester at the DuPage County Junior College.

Bill discovered sailing as a means of relaxation and respite from Biewenga Brothers Concrete, Inc., a company he started with his brother, David. In three years they built the company into a $2 million per year grossing venture with 25 employees. Beginning in 1974, Bill raced several summers in Chicago, racing in Chicago-Mackinaw and Port Huron-Mackinaw Races as well as the regular series of weekend races in Chicago. He eventually extended his sailing season to include East Coast and Caribbean racing and deliveries on such yachts as Sleuth, Running Tide, Tenacious, Nirvana and Matador. In 1981, Bill did two pre-Whitbread trans-Atlantics with Flyer and the first two legs of the 1981-82 Whitbread. He then returned to Chicago from New Zealand to help rebuild Biewenga Brothers Concrete, Inc. during the recession, eventually leaving the company to pursue a career in sailing in the spring of 1985.

In August, 1985 Bill's offshore sailing career began in earnest as he sailed Thursday's Child single-handed from Plymouth, England to Newport, RI to qualify as alternate skipper for the 1986-'87 BOC Challenge. He raced on Drum in the 1985-'86 Whitbread Round the World Race and returned to act as project manager, alternate skipper, and router for Thursday's Child's BOC Challenge Single-handed Round the World Race campaign. Working with Phil Steggall on Sebago, an Adrian Thompson ultralight 60' trimaran-foiler, as assistant and tactical advisor provided Bill with cutting edge multi-hull experience.

Bill's photojournalism work began during the 1988-'89 Whitbread Round The World Race where he sailed as co-navigator/weather analyst/watch captain/helmsman for Legs 1, 2, and 3 on The Card and aboard Charles Jourdan as weather analyst and crew for the final leg of the race. During his round the world races and subsequently he has contributed feature articles to yachting magazines in England, U.S., Australia, South Africa, Germany, Japan, Spain, Argentina, Israel, and elsewhere.

In addition to involvement with two more Whitbread campaigns and two more BOC Challenges, Bill has taken part in diverse record setting voyages. As co-skippers of Great American II in 1993, Bill and Rich Wilson set the record from San Francisco to Boston, for which they were listed in the "Guinness Book of Records". In the 1999 TransPac Race Bill was the navigator on Magnitude, finishing second and successfully breaking the old elapsed time course speed record while setting a new daily speed record of 353 NM during the race. In 2000 Bill has taken part as co-navigator and weather router on board Zephyrus IV which took 2 days off the previous 14 day record in the Cape Town to Rio Race and beat the 72 hour record in the Middle Sea Race (Malta-around Sicily-Malta) by 8 hours. Additionally, during the Spring of 2000, Bill was alternately navigator or watch captain aboard the new Swan 56, Lolita II. As a brand new boat, Lolita II was First in Class or First in Fleet in each of her first six races. Recently,Bill returned from French Polynesia where he met with members of a team preparing for the 2001 TransPac.

In October 1993, Bill's experience in weather routing led him to co-found Bob Rice's Weather Window, Inc., a sports and special events weather consulting firm. The company achieved profitability the first full calendar year it was in business and he sold his interest in the company in June of 1996. Continuing in this field he has presented numerous weather routing seminars including events held at the New York Yacht Club, San Francisco Yacht Club, U.S. Naval Academy and elsewhere. He has also co-hosted several in-depth weather routing seminars with Ken Campbell of Commander's Weather Corporation. In March 1998, Bill assumed the role of North American Distributor for KiwiTech Software, a sailing and performance analysis software that provides charting, weather display and route optimization capabilities to the advanced navigator.

Currently Bill is actively engaged in racing and delivering a variety of vessels, routing for some of the world's top offshore campaigns and writing articles on navigation, marine weather and how to efficiently use weather information, as well as other marine topics. In order to more effectively disperse that information, Bill, with the help of several friends, is now launching and continuing to improve his linked websites, WxAdvantage.com and NavSolutions.net.

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Ken Campbell

Bachelor and Masters degrees in meteorology from Florida State University. Graduate thesis, Frontal Passages on Mars. Cataloged and researched weather data collected by the Viking Project to Mars. Interned at National Hurricane Meteorological Weather Labs.

Weather forecaster at Weather Services Corp, 1978 into 1995. Owner and President of Commanders' Weather Corp from 1996 to the present George Caras is equal part owner of Commanders' Weather Corp. Provides on-site weather support to Nippon Challenge in 1995 and 1999-2000. Weather consultant to:

Other major weather projects:

Weather forecaster for:

Other long term clients:

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Lee S. Chesneau

Senior Marine Meteorologist, Ocean Prediction Center Marine Weather Instructor NPFVOA, MITAGS, and Ocean Navigator's School of Seamanship, Recreational Yacht Clubs, Safety at Sea Seminars (SASS)

Lee graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison Wisconsin in Jan 1972 with a BS Degree in Meteorology and concurrently received a commission as Ensign in the US Navy. Military tours of duty extended over a seven and half year period serving two US Navy capital ship assignments (USS Saratoga CV-60 & USS Guam LPH-9), supporting the Vietnam conflict, several deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. Lee performed tasks as CIC Watch Officer and Officer of the Deck(OOD), and as   Meteorological Officer.   He also served tour at two naval weather central activities (Fleet Weather Centrals Rota,Spain &Norfolk VA) as a Forecast Duty Officer(FDO) and Command Duty Officer(CDO). After leaving active service, Lee continued in reserve military service before retiring a year after being recalled to active service in support of the SW Asia conflict (Desert Shield/Storm), routing and forecasting for ships involved in the sealift to and from the Persian Gulf from ports in the US east Coast and Europe.

As a civilian, Oceanroutes, Inc, a marine consulting and ship routing firm employed Lee services. He advised and forecasted and routed commercial ships on a global scale. Lee then entered federal government service with NOAA's Satellite Service, in Anchorage Alaska as a satellite meteorologist, then served with the Navy's Naval Western Meteorology   &Oceanography Center, Pearl Harbor, Hi, in the capacity of senior civilian ship router and marine weather and oceanographic forecaster, where he forecasted and routed ships under US Navy and Department of Defense contracts both the north and south Pacific and Indian Oceans. Lee then transferred back with the National Weather Service (NWS) serving assignments in Seattle, Wa., as a marine forecaster, dealing with regional and local marine warnings and forecasts issues. Lee finally landed with his present employer of 13 years, the National Weather Service's (NWS) Ocean Prediction Center (OPC), keepers of north Atlantic &Pacific HF weather fax boradcasts, the Boulder WWV and GMDSS Safety net (C) broadcasts . Lee also serves as a Coast Guard certified instructor at the Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS), in Linthicum Heights, MD and the Pacific Maritime Institute, Seattle WA, where he teaches Advanced Meteorology, formerly Heavy Weather Avoidance courses.   Lee also is a marine weather instructor with Navigator Publishing's   (Professional Mariner, Ocean Navigator and Ocean Voyager magazines) School of Seamanship weekend marine weather seminar program. Additionally, he teaches two-day marine weather workshops with the North Pacific Fishing Vessel Owners Association (NPFVOA), Puget Sound Cruising Club in Seattle, Stamford Yacht Club, and other Yachting organizations.

During Lee's career span with several agency of the US government and the private sector, he provided detailed marine weather and oceanographic warnings, analyses, and forecasts on a global as well as synoptic and micro-scale, covering all oceans and seasons. Lee developed a keen awareness of the issues that confront mariners, their vessels of all types, from commercial to recreational. For the boat races, special attention is given for example, on NWS warning and forecast products and their interpretation. Additional focus is given to Gulf Stream weather and Tropical Cyclones and their potential threat to the safety and well being of the participants and the general public at large.

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Stan Honey

Transpacific Racing Experience as Navigator

16 Sailing Records Held as navigator including:

Studied meteorology and engineering at Yale University.

Extensive experience with meteorologists and routers in ocean racing.

24 patents in navigation and remote sensing technology.

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Peter Isler

Peter Isler has participated in four America’s Cup campaigns winning twice as navigator aboard Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes. He also covered three America’s Cup on television. He served as expert analyst for ESPN's Emmy Award winning coverage of the America's Cup racing in San Diego and he joined the OLN broadcast team as the on the water analyst covering the 2002-3 Louis Vuitton Cup in Auckland. A former Collegiate Sailor of the Year at Yale University, Isler resides in San Diego with his two daughters, and his wife, JJ, a two time Olympic medalist (Silver in 2000, Bronze in 1992) and tactician for the America3 all Women's America's Cup team in 1995. They co-authored the best-selling book, Sailing for Dummies (IDG/Wiley Books). Isler’s business book, At the Helm: Business Lessons for Navigating Rough Waters (Doubleday 2000) that was co-authored with Peter Economy has been widely acclaimed and serves as the basis for Isler’s motivational presentations. He is president of Isler Sailing International, Inc. a sports marketing and television production company. Peter competed in two legs of recent Volvo Ocean Race serving as Navigator aboard Team News Corp. He recently served in the afterguard aboard Stars & Stripes in the New York Yacht Club’s America’s Cup challenge (his 4th Cup campaign).

Major Career Sailing Highlights:

Positions held:

Broadcast background:

Author:

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Dr. Leonard Walstad

Leonard began his career working with the first team to produce regular forecasts of the Gulf Stream region. At the same time, he developed new models and analysis techniques for the upper ocean and applied these to the Sargasso Sea and the California Current System. He also worked with altimeter data from the GEOSAT mission.

After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard University, Leonard conducted research and taught at the College of Oceanography, Oregon State University and the Horn Point Laboratory of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

Field Studies:

North Pacific

North Atlantic

Chesapeake Bay

Data Analysis:

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