On the Wind Sailing

Ben Soofer joined 59 North back in 2018, working with media and on the backend of this very podcast. He then started sailing as a mate, including joining August on his first offshore passage on Isbjørn. He's then gone on to start his own business, and working with many others. August caught up with him to reminisce about the past, share some old sea stories, and talk about how Ben's made a unique career out of his passion. 

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Francesca Clapcich is an Olympian, a world champion, and in 2023 became the first Italian to win The Ocean Race. She most recently skippered UpWind by MerConcept, an all-female Ocean Fifty trimaran campaign — and now, she's set her sights on the 2028 Vendée Globe with her title sponsor, 11th Hour Racing. We caught up back in July, while she was enjoying a few final weeks at home in Utah with her wife and daughter where she lives, b...

Friend of 59º North Nikki Henderson returns to the podcast to talk with me about a wide-ranging list of subjects on sailing, life and philosophy. This conversation was initially inspired by my own curiosity about Nikki's writing process. We talked about how each of us think about writing about sailing, how we go from idea to words-on-the-paper, how our experiences shape our writing and more. Then we delve into racing, recovery time...

Troy Sears is the owner and captain of the San Diego-based Schooner AMERICA, a 144-ft replica of the racing ship that came to be the namesake of the famous Cup. Troy is a huge America's Cup nerd & history buff, delving into the history of the Cup and starting the podcast off with a question about the origins of the word 'yacht.' Troy lives aboard AMERICA with his dog and captain's the boat on daily whalewatching trips 330 days per ...

John Kretschmer is back on the podcast to talk more philosophy and more sailing. If you're new to the show, or new to John's work, he's inspired me more than any other sailor. His books are legendary, and you should read all of them. But start with 'Sailing a Serious Ocean,' if you want one book that best distills his storytelling and philosophy into one volume. John and I talk about everything in this winding episode - which also ...

Chris Kobusch & Sophie O'Neill are longtime friends of 59º North. Chris was in fact one of our full-time skippers for two years on ICEBEAR & FALKEN, and Mia & I recently attended their wedding in England last September. Both professional sailors, they met on the Clipper Race, where Sophie was a last-minute sub-in as First Mate and sailed across the Pacific with Chris. Since then they've led an adventurous life together, working for...

Andy Schell and Jahn Tihansky sit down in Annapolis to discuss Jahn's long and exciting sailing career. He's been racing and beating some of the biggest names in the sport, built successful sailmaking and sailing businesses, and served as head sailing coach at the U.S. Naval Academy for many years.

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Ari Huusela is an aircraft mechanic and commercial airline pilot from Helsinki, Finland. He did not start sailing until the age of 24, but went on to become the first person from the Nordic countries to have finished the brutal Vendee globe round the world race. During the race he became known as the Super happy sailor thanks to his positive energy and optimism. He joins August remotely from the Norwegian Arctic, where he is skiing...

Matt Rutherford is back again, this time to talk about perhaps his most audacious plans yet - to sail solo and nonstop around the Arctic. That's back-to-back through the Northwest Passage and NorthEAST passage (above Russia). I caught up with Matt in person to talk about his plans (and lots more, like we always do), back in October in Annapolis. Matt continues to inspire and push me as a sailor. He makes his adventures look easy, d...

James Evenson, aka Sailing Zingaro on YouTube, has sailed tens of thousands of miles on a variety of boats and had countless adventures. Several of those adventures have ended either in disaster or heroics, depending on your perspective, and it got me wondering - what is true seam'nship? James and I sat down face to face in Annapolis and had a ranging and thoughtful conversation on his life before sailing, what he learned in the Na...

Pär Nyman is a Swedish sailor who recently bought the Rustler 36 Lazy Otter and signed up for the 2026 Golden Globe race. He sailed from Sweden to Bergen, Norway, to sea trial his boat, gain experience, and to meet up with fellow Golden Globe competitor Daniel Alfredsson from Bergen. August met him there to talk about his upcoming big dream voyage.

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The rumors are true - 59º North has bought the Schooner Woodwind business in Annapolis! Andy, Mia, founder Jen Kaye & new GM Ryan Ellison share some behind-the-scenes at the top of today's show. Come help celebrate with us at Annapolis Sailboat Show, and meet today's podcast guest Mara, who will be at the show and hanging around with 59º North in tent O-8!

Mara Løvenskiold is a Norwegian athlete-turned-sailor, getting ready to star...

Sidse Johannsen is a Danish solo sailor with major plans. When Andy spoke to her in June, she was in final preparations to sail her C&C 40 from Denmark to Greenland, where she'd worked as a teacher some years ago and always longed to return to. She talks about the trials and stresses of buying and outfitting a new boat for northern sailing, what life was like teaching in Greenland and how she hopes to inspire other women sailors li...

Cole Brauer made history in 2024 as the first American woman to race solo, non-stop around the world. She crossed the line wearing a hat that read Wild Feminist — a bold and powerful statement from a sailor who'd once been told she was too short for the Southern Ocean. Clearly, she proved them wrong — and along the way, captured the hearts and minds of over 450,000 fans by sharing raw, vulnerable glimpses into her life alone at sea...

Daniel Alfredsson is a commercial diver living in Bergen, Norway. He is preparing himself and his boat to sail around the world solo, unassisted, non-stop with an old boat and retro technology as a participant in Don Macintryres 2026 Golden Globe Race. I had the pleasure of meeting Daniel and to record this conversation aboard the boat that will take him, hopefully, all around the world.

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Dan & Kika of Sailing Uma return to the podcast to talk to Andy this time, and boy do they go deep! What started as a chance to catch up on the latest refit progress on Uma, turned into a winding tale of botched visas, border agents, airport jail cells, deportations, almost buying a new boat - in Canada! - and finally the ups and downs of rebuilding Uma, their home. Dan & Kika have never told this story before on any platform, so g...

August Sandberg has returned from paternal leave and vacation, and together with Andy Schell they catch up and talk about anchoring in the archipelago of Sweden and Norway – something which is done quite differently amongst sailors in this part of the world. Back in summertime a video Andy posted on Instagram went viral when he showed how he had removed the bow anchor from SPICA completely. This sparked many discussions in the comm...

Founders of SeaPeople, Logan and Caroline Rowell take us through the motivation behind creating an all-encompassing app for cruiser connectivity. It's basically a "Welcome to 2025" to the next generation of cruisers. Much of offshore communications are quite frankly, decades behind tech. SeaPeople is embracing techs ability to create community in the most remote corners of the earth. In this engaging conversation, we discuss the fi...

AUDIO ISSUE FIXED :) Max Campbell returns to the podcast, talking to Andy from New Zealand where he's been in refit-mode on his Swan 37 ELIXIR. Since Max was last on the show in 2019, following his solo Atlantic Circle, he's rebuilt and sailed the ELIXIR halfway around the world, taking friends and strangers across oceans as part of his "Untide" project. Max is truly living the dream, funding his cruising through clever partnership...