Dear Fellow Members,
It is with great pleasure that the Sailing Director Search Committee announces that Fran Charles will be joining the Eastern Yacht Club as its Sailing Director on June 1, 2023. Fran is joining us upon his retirement as Sailing Master at MIT and Fleet Manager at the Northeast Harbor Fleet after many years of dedicated service at both institutions.
Fran graduated from Tufts University in 1980. During his four years at Tufts, Fran was a member of the Tufts team that went to the National Championships in both dinghies and team racing. During that time he was a member of the US Olympic 470 team and won both US and North American titles in the 470 Class. He won a silver medal in the Pan American Games and finished 4th, 6th and 8th in 470 World Championship events. He has won both the Interclub Frostbite Dinghy Nationals and the 210 Class Nationals twice.
Fran joined MIT in 1992 as a varsity sailing coach and assistant to former Sailing Master Hatch Brown. Taking over from Hatch in 1996 as only the fourth Sailing Master since 1935, Fran was responsible for the largest college sailing program in North America, while overseeing a very competitive varsity team in both women’s and coed open disciplines. The MIT team were National Champions in 2018 and are perennially ranked in the top 15 schools in the country. However, their program is just as much about outreach, as they teach more than 2500 students how to sail annually and maintain a diverse fleet of more than 100 sailboats ranging from 30 tech dinghies to a 51’ NG Herreshoff racing sailboat built in 1902.
Before joining MIT, Fran served as the co-director of the Courageous Sailing Center in Boston, which teaches sailing to city children.
Fran is a certified umpire for team racing and is often volunteering to officiate at US National and World Championships. Fran’s race management skills as a PRO are sought for junior, national and world level events year in and year out. There are few people who can accurately say that they manage more than 300 races annually.
In his spare time, Fran enjoys both racing boats and cars, rebuilding boats, and exploring art with his wife, Sue, who is a professional landscape painter. Fran and Sue live in Newbury, MA and have four adult children and a dedicated service dog named Lucy.
We look forward to having Fran joining the team. He is very excited about building a recreational sailing program to help our members enjoy the club’s fleet of Sonars, as well as working with the club’s coaching staff to continue the Club’s racing success and its very successful youth sailing program.
The Search Committee,
Stan Schreyer, Chair
Kathy Andreasen
Jared Chorney
Peter Frisch
Alex Israel
Clinton Hayes
Alan McKinnon
Frank McNamara