Steve Colgate

Chairman – Offshore Sailing School

Olympian, America’s Cup competitor, and ever-present participant on the racing circuit, Steve Colgate personifies the sport and lifestyle of sailing. He has dedicated many years to sailing education for people of all ages and walks of life and has a long history of competing and winning in the sailboat racing world.

Steve grew up in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, and started sailing Atlantic Class sailboats and Lightnings on Long Island Sound at the age of nine. A 1957 Yale graduate, he served two years as an Air Force officer and then sharpened his knowledge of all things maritime during a four-year stint at a boat supply store in New York City before launching Offshore in 1964.

Steve’s racing career spans seven decades and includes nearly every significant race in the world. In 1955 he crewed aboard the Spanish yacht Mare Nostrum in the 1955 Trans-Atlantic Race from Cuba to Spain, and they won. The photo at right shows Steve sharing winning accolades with champagne from the 1st place trophy. He was just 19 in that race and considers it one of the great highlights of his life. Many years later he was on record breaking racing yachts in that same race!

For all Steve Colgate has done for the sport of sailing, Steve was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in October 2015. He is among the most notable sailors in the United States inducted into this prestigious organization.

Although Steve had lucrative career choices and a family that wanted him to “get a real job,” he decided to pursue his sailing passion. In 1964 he founded Offshore Sailing School and went from two boats and two instructors to an enterprise that has introduced more than 160,000 adults and their families to sailing.

Steve holds the Royal Yachting Association’s Yachtmaster Offshore Instructor Certificate and a U.S. Coast Guard license. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the East, and Who’s Who in the World. Steve and his wife, Doris, reside in Ft. Myers, Florida, headquarters of their Offshore Sailing School and Colgate 26 enterprises.