Master Sailor and sailing coach
I guide sailors to sail smart, they sail anywhere.
Paul Exner
True confidence and self-reliance are central components of a sailor’s mindset — however, fostering these qualities takes decades of practice without a great coach.
Your life-experiences and personal talents contribute to your sailing readiness — these factors affect every decision you make.
To grow as a sailor we must make a concerted effort to try new things. It’s not the skills we learn by themselves that help us grow, but how we’re taught to apply the fundamentals of sailing that develops our improved sense of making good decisions.
Sailing is quite easy to learn — but, to develop confidence in practicing this technical art takes decades.
There exists a small set of fundamentals needed to sail any boat — all boats are fundamentally sailed the same way; but, the nuances of sailing run deep.
I’ll coach you to proficiently apply the raw fundamentals of sailing — I’ll help you advance your personal-affinity for this art no matter where on the spectrum of competency between beginner and expert you are.
Since 1975 I’ve helped thousands of sailors improve and achieve any goal they worked hard to achive; I’ve coached all types of sailors, from novice to round-the-world race winner!
By respecting your talents and work ethic, I’ll help you advance beyond what you imagined possible for yourself in the sport of sailing.
Sailing is a deep art — it’s something no sailor can fully appreciate…
Where, on the spectrum of sailing competency, are you?
“We can become Master Sailors — but, we’ll never ‘master’ sailing.” Paul Exner
Paul Exner began to sail from his local beach in Puerto Rico at 10 years old in 1975… Paul’s experience with sailboats and sailing in general now spans 48 years. PHOTO: Paul off the Kohala Coast, Hawaii Island aboard his SV Solstice he built by hand from a Cape George 31 bare hull.
Paul Exner leads sail-training expeditions in Hawaii aboard his SV Solstice — he also coaches sailors virtually, or aboard their boat, helping his students to go anywhere by sail.
It’s debatable… but, in addition to being the most senior sailing instructor today actively teaching applied-sailing (full time), I’ve developed the most innovative and effective sail-training curricula available today, and I’ve coached sailing professionally since 1986.
But, I won’t productize and franchise my program like every other sailing school today. Instead, I’ve steadily improved my approach to coaching and center my work around the individual student’s development. The student becomes the beneficiary of my efforts, and that’s what education should be about — not the oligopoly structure of the sailing industry today.
I began developing my sailing education programs, and testing various coaching-paradigms when I studied at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in the late 1980’s. What I learned was how to create my own sail-training programs based on what I thought was interesting, not what students wanted which was mostly a certificate so they could go forth and sail badly. My sessions becamepopular not because they were “sexy,” students wanted to learn from me because they began to realize there was actually a lot to learn. My instruction colleagues never had the same passion I had for teaching sailing so they didn’t bother learning from me; instead, my students became better instructors than my old colleagues.
Paul Exner sailing a Badger Tech Dinghy in the late 1980’s at the University of Wisconsin - Madison on Lake Mendota.
Rather than “package” my courses and proliferate their outline for profit, I’ve worked hard to improve myself as a coach, and know that small groups of students or one-on-one coaching is the best paradigm for helping a sailor improve and acheive their goals — basically, I do what I do because it’s the best way.
Paul Exner combines his sixth-sense for seamanship with his acumen for coaching — tapping decades of yachting experience to create actionable plans for boat owners; he shares his analytic experience about all-things oceanographic and teaches how to use “seamanship” as a managerial art in practice.
“Seamanship scenarios are learning opportunities” says Exner: “Each event we negotiate at sea is approached with fresh eyes and absorbed experientially so the learned-material is gleaned from the front-line, as we live it!” This hands-on learning approach is always reinforced by Paul’s expert-level debrief.
learn to sail the voyage you imagine.
Paul Exner coaches you to Sail Cognitively®️ — you learn to glean “seamanship awareness” by observing a multitude of stimulus and info coming at you.
Learn to analyze what’s happening around you, in doing so, your decision-making proficiency will heighten greatly — you’ll learn a repeatable method to make sound decisions that affect the safety of your crew and vessel at sea.
Paul uses his proprietary training methods based-on four decades of marine industry experience. Paul’s coaching offers a combination of hands-on seamanship practice, scientific theory, applied engineering, and human-relation techniques. The credibility of Paul Exner’s effective instructional method is endorsed by numerous marine industry professionals and supported by successful case studies.
Paul Exner developed the Modern Geographic Sailing Curriculum®️ which he uses to coach you during the expeditions you sail — his curriculum contains modules, methods, techniques and action-oriented hands-on practice that guides a sailor’s evolution.
The fact remains — Paul Exner’s clients take action toward their sailing dream if they’re willing to put-in the work.
AUTONOMOUS FULL-STACK®️ — Real-World Experience
The Real Deal — distinguished by four decades of applied SAILING — Paul Exner has the experience to lead EPIC sail-training expeditions.
Paul Exner’s acumen for coaching is honed by his non-sailing professional perspective: father/husband; cartographer for National Geographic, The Nature Conservancy — and includes his work as an environmental modeler for the U.S. Department of Defense. In addition, Paul has business management experience with analytic instruments used by chemists at Pfizer biopharmaceuticals; Frito Lay Foods; Caterpillar machinery and many other innovative manufacturing-based companies world-wide.
Get the best training from the most experienced coach — sail with Paul Exner.