Vincent Casalaina has been covering sailboat racing on San Francisco Bay and around the world since 1985. He’s won two Emmy’s for Sports Programming. The first for his co-production of White on Water aired on KQED covering the 1985 Big Boat Series Regatta at the St. Francis Yacht Club and the second for the 1996 Citibank Regatta series at PIER 39 aired on Fox Sports Bay Area cable channel.
He’s been team videographer for three America’s Cup campaigns (USA 1982-83, AmericaOne 1998-2000 & Oracle Racing 2001-2002) and covered the US Olympic Sailing Trials twice (2000 & 2004). He produced and directed a documentary on the 90 year old one design Snipe Class (2008).
He was the shooter for coverage of the Louis Vuitton Series in San Diego (ESPN 1988) and America’s Cup Regatta featuring 45’ catamarans on San Francisco Bay (Oracle Racing 2011).
He was the head of the American Youth Sailing Force’s campaign for the 2013 Youth America’s Cup on San Francisco Bay. He produced and directed the early videos for the team before Sam Green came on board as team videographer.
All of Vincent Casalaina’s work has been premised on the concept that compelling story lines combined with exciting up close and personal footage of sailboats competing in close quarters will attract a following. Clips about Melges32, 505 and Snipe Worlds as well as 18’ skiff racing and the US Sailing West Marine Open Regatta are available on YouTube. All of his sailing clips have garnered more than 750,000 views.
http://www.youtube.com/user/VinceSail?feature=mhee
Television Background
Vincent Casalaina started working in television as a studio director in San Francisco with his ground breaking late night series Went Like it Came in 1974-75 (24 episodes, final show KTVU 1975). He followed up on that success with directing docudramas (KPIX 1977 show won Emmy + ABA Silver Gavel) and music programming for home distribution.
From 1977 to 1982 he directed Over Easy, a daily PBS entertainment /informational show with host Hugh Downs and produced at KQED. He received an Emmy nomination for his direction of the series.
He transitioned to single camera documentary and sports production and has been happy in that role since then. He was the principal producer/director of UCBerkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism for 12 years and later for the Berkeley Multimedia Research Center. He was adjunct lecturer for five classes during his tenure at Cal. He was Director of Video Operations for a start up in San Francisco in 2001-02.
Sailing/Racing Background
Vincent Casalaina started sailing in high school. He sailed in the Newport Beach California inner harbor where he had spent summers with his family in Costa Meas. His first boat was a Sabot.
When he moved to Berkeley to go to college, he crewed on many different one design boats working up from J24’s to Catalina 27’s to Islander 28’s and finally Express 37’s. He also crewed on IOR boats and offshore racers.
He found his passion in the Snipe, a two person two sail dinghy. He raced with both his son and later his daughter in his Snipe. He’s been fleet captain off and on for 30 years. In their own right, his son and daughter were two time Snipe Jr. National Champions.
He still actively races Snipes as well as crews on larger boats.
In his spare time he cruises San Francisco Bay on his DuFour 27