CAPCA Board Member at Large

Captain Hilary Ranney-Howes

USCG 25 Ton Master Inland w/ Sailing Endorsement

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I am fifth generation Californian and was born in San Jose. But I didn’t learn to sail until I went to college in San Francisco. I needed to meet my physical education requirement at San Francisco State University and found a sailing class to fill Fridays. We sailed FJs and Lasers so got very familiar with capsizing and being in the water on Lake Merced. Afterwards I started crewing for others out in the bay. Soon my career and family responsibilities left little time for sailing.

I didn’t get back to sailing until my career brought me to the Chesapeake. In 2000 I started working in Washington DC designing sets and lighting for exhibits, events, and trade shows. By 2016, I took a refresher course at the West River Yacht Club and boat my first boat a 1977 Pearson 30. Day sailing and overnights on the Chesapeake lead me into the opportunity to race in the BVI Spring Regatta on an all LGBT team in the charter fleet sponsored by The Moorings in 2017. That lead onto crew opportunities to cruise the BVI in 2019 on a Moorings 42 catamaran. 

In 2019, I bought a 1990 Catalina 30 from a marina where it had sat on the hard for 7 years. That launched me into a refit that kept me busy right up to the day in 2020 that the Covid shut down just as my boat splashed. Covid shut down the event industry hard and by 2020, I retired to sail more. Within a month of that decision I was hired as a Yacht Broker at Integrity Yacht Sales and as an ASA Sailing Instructor at Annapolis Sailing school. 

Winters here have given me the opportunities to Crew offshore in Florida, the Bahamas and down the east coast. In 2022 I joined the Spinsheet Century Club with 146 days on the water through summers of teaching, cruising and sea trials and winters heading south. I earned my 25 ton Inland Masters license with Sailing Endorsement in 2023 and have now completed ASA qualifications 201, 202, 203, 204, 214, 216, and 218.

So now besides teaching at Annapolis Sailing School I also do teaching deliveries for new sailboat owners and I have a couple of historic vessels that I am a relief captain for. At the Calvert Marine Museum I skipper the 66ft sailing yawl Footer 1 Witchcraft that was built in 1903. For DC Sail I skipper their 65’ Schooner The American Spirit.

I was able to take my Catalina 30 on a DelMarVa Circumnavigation and ended up doing what people tell me has never been done before. We had 14 days so we chose to forgo the overnight sailing up the Atlantic coast and instead ventured into the inlets on the ocean side to sleep each night. 

I’m looking forward to helping more people become sailors through teaching, more sailors become boat owners through brokering and more captains get more value out of their license by serving on the board of CAPCA. I hope to have some fun along the way.