Lono Humphreys

“Paul Exner is the Real Deal — with decades of hands-on sailing experience, and thousands of sea miles under the hull of his boat (SV Solstice) he built himself.

One other trainee and myself spent a very memorable week sailing in Hawaii with Paul learning near-shore and offshore techniques, weather routing, passage planning, and course plotting. We also learned sail management, sail trimming, and man overboard recovery. This was hands-on practice, sailing interisland from Big Island to Lanai, Maui, even circumnavigating Molokai — making the round-trip voyage back to Kailua-Kona, Big Island.

We also crossed the Alenuihaha Channel twice in heavy weather — at night — which was one of my favorite parts of the experience, and Paul was continuously attentive of all happenings then, and for seven days straight!

Paul's style of teaching is performed with a combination of patience, calm-and-clear communication, and he takes time to make sure we retain as much as possible by quizzing and testing us. Paul has become a close friend, I highly value my experience with him aboard Solstice, and strongly recommend that anyone interested in learning anything related to sailing to reach out to him right away!”