Offshore Sailing School has retained the services of Nate and Heather Atwater to develop and lead an expanded roster of flotilla cruises.
Under the Company’s new Colgate Offshore Sailing Adventures™program, the Atwater’s are charged with exploring and formulating new flotilla cruise options, and personally guiding each flotilla adventure. “With the Atwater’s at the flotilla cruise helm, we are excited to open participation in these cruises to all sailors, as well as Offshore Sailing School graduates,” states Offshore Sailing School’s president and CEO, Doris Colgate.
“Nate and Heather are the perfect couple to re-energize the flotilla cruise program Steve and I started for our graduates in 1972, explains Colgate. Nate worked for Offshore Sailing School as an instructor and manager in New York and Florida in the early 90’s. He met Heather when he took the school’s sails for repair at her father’s sail loft, Hild Sails, on City Island, NY. The Atwater’s currently own a 1980 Person 40 named Moonshine that they plan to move aboard sometime in early 2017.
Nate started sailing at age four on the English Channel. He went through formal sail training between the ages of 8 and 17, and became skipper on the National Champion High School Sailing Team in 1978. He taught sailing at Sakonnet Yacht Club that year, Elephant Rock Beach Club in 1979, was a carpenter’s apprentice at Tripp’s Boat Yard in Westport, Mass in 1980, a rigger at Lambeth Rope in New Bedford, Mass in 1986, and in 1989 joined Offshore Sailing School as a sailing instructor and then manager of the Offshore Sailing School then City Island, NY branch.
“It was during my time with Offshore Sailing School in the early 90’s that I met Heather Hild, when I took the school sails to her father’s Hild Sail Loft for repairs,” says Nate. The couple fell in love, married and raised two boys, now age 19 and 22.
Nate’s extensive cruising and yacht delivery experience started in 1978 when he cruised a Concordia yawl from Camden, Maine to Jamestown, RI. He captainedmore than 30 deliveries over a three-year period on a Nautor Swan in the 80’s, sailing 15,000 miles offshore between Maine and St. Lucia in the West Indies. His sailing resume includes many deliveries on boats ranging from 45’ to 60’ between New England, Florida and the British Virgin Islands. The family does annual cruises on their own boats, exploring Western Long Island Sound, Cape Cod, and the Elizabeth Islands.
Racing extensively since 2005, on boats up to 50 feet (including the Bermuda Race on a Beneteau Sense 50 in 2016), Nate reports placing well as skipper/owner or navigator/tactician. He has a BA in history, with a minor in international business from Washington University in St. Louis, MO (1986) and worked in the telecom industry from 1991 to the present time.
Heather grew up sailing with her family and worked at Hild Sails on City Island, NY from 1988 to 1995, “cruising my entire life,” she says. There she was responsible for managing 15 employees and all aspects of marketing, sales, advertising, finance, purchasing, manufacturing, design and customer care. She has owned many sailboats including a Dyer Dhow, Bluejay, Laser, Etchells 22, and with Nate a J24, a Beneteau First 30E and currently a Pearson 40. She has skippered races including those for women only, on 22’ to 36’ sailboats; and crewed in all positions on 34’ to 40’ yachts. From 1995-1998 she was in charge of marketing and sales at Island Nautical, Inc., also on City Island, NY. A landscape designer, she has a BS in Landscape Architecture from the University of Connecticut (2009) and BA in Psychology from Skidmore College (1988). A world traveler, Heather spent a semester abroad in Bath, England, and has toured England, Switzerland, Italy, France, andthe Netherlands. A master gardener, Heather considers herself a “foodie, with interests besides sailing in skiing, dance, entertaining and yoga. She will conduct yoga sessions for interested cruise participants.
“The flotilla cruise development position at Offshore Sailing School begins to fulfill our sailing bucket list,” reports Nate. “Our goal is to transition back into fulltime sailing and see the world under sail so this is a perfect fit for us,” reports Nate who also enjoys gardening, music, history, travel, geography and reading in addition to offshore sailing and racing. They are members of American Yacht Club, the Off Soundings Club, and Sakonnet Yacht Club. Nate is on many committees and boards related to sailing.
The couple will lead the flotilla cruise in Abacos, Bahamas in late November 2016, and in 2017 St. Lucia in Marchand the Amalfi coast of Italy in September. They are currently working on adding more 2017 summer flotilla cruise, and a roster of flotilla cruises in 2018.
Based in Ft. Myers, Fla., Offshore Sailing School currently operates five resort-based locations: in Florida at South Seas Island Resort on Captiva Island, the Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina on Ft. Myers Beach, and the downtown Hampton Inn & Suites St. Petersburg; and in the British Virgin Islands at The Moorings base and Mariner Inn on Wickham’s Cay in Tortola, and Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina on Scrub Island. In addition to sailing lessons and comprehensive sailing certification courses at Learn to Sail, Performance Sailing, Bareboat Charter Cruising, and Passage Making levels; the company runs Performance Race Weeks and sailboat racing clinics, women-only courses, family courses, corporate team building programs, group regattas, and flotilla cruises all over the world for graduates and friends. Powerboat cruising courses are also taught on The Moorings yachts in the British Virgin Islands. The company’s fleet includes Colgate 26 sailboats, and 40’-54’ cruising yachts and catamarans.
