Richard Jepsen is the President of US Sailing. US Sailing is the National Governing Body for the sport of sailing with a mission is to provide leadership for the sport of sailing in the United States. The organization works to achieve this mission through a wide range of programs and events.
Richard Jepsen is the President of US Sailing. US Sailing is the National Governing Body for the sport of sailing with a mission is to provide leadership for the sport of sailing in the United States. The organization works to achieve this mission through a wide range of programs and events.
Olympic Team USA and more…
Guided by the strategic initiative Project Pipeline, US Sailing’s Olympic Development Program (ODP) provides world-class coaching support to promising American youth sailors in high-performance classes.
The ODP supports a number of programs including training camps, travel teams and select regatta coaching. The ODP also manages Team USA for the Youth Sailing World Championship and Youth Olympic Games. Official US Sailing Website
About Richard Jepsen
Since learning to sail as a child in dinghies in Massachusetts with his father, Rich Jepsen has worked extensively to educate and promote safety on the water by introducing and integrating standards both in classroom and on-the-water education.
Rich began working with the National Safe Boating Council (NSBC), the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) and the National Water Safety Congress (NWSC) to help Federal and State boating safety officials establish minimum boating education standards, both on the water and in the classroom, in the early 2000s. Conducting presentations at boating and water safety conferences such as the International Boating and Water Safety Summit, Rich began the long process of exposing boating safety officials responsible for crafting boating safety laws to the differences between sailing and powerboating. Further, joining the efforts of others before him, he strongly advocated for the adoption and philosophical approach to powerboating education using the knowledge and experiences gained from more than 35 years as a sailing instructor and boating safety educator.
After applying for and being accepted onto the NASBLA Education Standards Panel, Rich helped well-established powerboating contingencies in the law enforcement and state boating education communities understand that by using long recognized and successful sailing instructional methodologies, techniques and procedures, it would be much easier to integrate the nationally-recognized classroom education standards with the recently introduced on-water skills-based education standard.
Richard Jepsen has 45 years of experience in handling smaller powerboats, over 35 years in sail training as an instructor, an instructor trainer and an instructor evaluator. He has interviewed, hired and trained more than 200 sailing instructors in some 35 years at OCSC Sailing. He developed, maintained and updated the curriculum for OCSC Sailing from 1982 to his retirement in 2013. (OCSC received an award for being the outstanding sailing school in the country for the year 2006 – awarded by US Sailing).
Rich has served in numerous volunteer leadership roles at US Sailing, working on curriculum and instructor standards and maintaining cohesion in sailing education and performance standards on a national basis. He has received and delivered training in leadership communications and conflict resolution for Perry Learning Technologies, a national leader in corporate leadership training with clients that include AT&T, Accenture, GM, Boston Scientific, Google and others.
Rich collaborated with US Sailing staff on the rollout of innovative programs with the requisite safety, risk management and national scope issues that allow the organization to develop programs that all trainers, regardless of geographic affiliation, boat or client base can use.
Rich has 30 years of executive experience owning and running a sailing club with 70 employees, 50 boats and more than 1100 members. (bio courtesy of National Sailing Hall of Fame)
Experience
- 34 years as managing partner of OCSC Sailing, a commercial sailing school and club
- 4 years Vice President, Alameda Community Sailing Center
- 15 years on Commercial Sailing Committee
- 18 years as chair of Training Committee
- 15 years on NSPS Agenda Planning Working Party
- Three separate stints on the US Sailing Board of Directors
- 2 years as Vice President of US Sailing
- 2 years on Compensation Committee
- 2 years on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, 1 year as chair.
- Master of 50 Tons Inland
- ASA and US Sailing Instructor Certifications
- Awarded US Sailing’s Outreach and Inclusion Award 2004
- Awarded US Sailing’s Larr Award -2018
Achievements:
- 1998 Season Champion J24 Fleet 19
- 1996 5th place J24 District 20 Championships
- 2017, 2018 Regatta Chair and RC member Opti Heavy Weather Championships
- 1985-Present – Led over 20 international charter flotillas in Asia, Pacific, Caribbean, Med
- 2015-2019 -Tactician/Coach J111s, Express 37
- 2016 – Coach, IP37 cruise SF-Cabo