{"id":50075,"date":"2023-05-01T15:42:55","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T19:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=50075"},"modified":"2023-05-06T18:21:58","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T22:21:58","slug":"young-couple-create-sail-training-business-onboard-a-performance-trimaran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/people\/young-couple-create-sail-training-business-onboard-a-performance-trimaran\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Couple Creates Sail Training Business Onboard a Performance Trimaran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Darren <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n The Seltzers offer offshore training and passagemaking in the US, Caribbean and Europe on their Neel 45, Panda Rosso<\/i>.<\/span>\n Herb McCormick<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n\n

The breeze was pumping off the tidy anchorage of Anse Marcel on the French side of the Caribbean<\/a> island of Saint-Martin, where a dozen multihulls were hoisting their sails and prepping for a fast reach across the roiling Anguilla Channel. It was the second day of the \u00adinaugural rally component of the annual Caribbean Multihull Challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a singular exception, the fleet was composed of performance catamarans from builders such as Balance and Lagoon, but I couldn\u2019t take my eyes off the slick graphics and sleek lines of the lone trimaran<\/a> in the fray, a Neel 45 called Panda Rosso. <\/em>The boat was one thing, but I was actually more interested in the young couple sailing it, Darren and Amanda Seltzer. We\u2019d met the previous summer when chance, and a mutual friend, had brought us all together for a fairly wild day of sailing on a race boat off blustery Newport, Rhode Island. I\u2019d mentioned the rally to them back then, and now, lo and behold, here they were. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amanda and Darren sail a pretty cool trimaran, but their unlikely high-seas journey to get to the islands\u2014while launching a business offering prospective cruisers, as they once were, opportunities for learning and adventure\u2014was even cooler. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They met in Orlando, Florida, each pushing pencils at corporate gigs; both came from active, outdoorsy backgrounds, none of which involved sailing. Accomplished scuba divers, they were \u00adactually streaming YouTube diving videos (\u201cDon\u2019t cringe!\u201d Darren said) when they came across the Sailing SV Delos<\/em> channel and a light went off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait, what? You could dive from your own sailboat? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe instantly went down this YouTube rabbit hole of sailing videos,\u201d Darren said, with Amanda adding: \u201cAddicted. That\u2019s what we were.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They swapped their jobs and possessions for a 39-foot Amel Sharki they named Panda <\/em>(Amanda\u2019s nickname), with the idea of a cruising-diving safari through the South Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the pandemic hit and the isles they\u2019d dreamed of exploring shut down, they pivoted to what was open and available. \u201cGreenland,\u201d Darren said. \u201cIt was like sailing through the Yosemite or Yellowstone but with ice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, it was on to the United Kingdom and a long winter spent on the River Hamble, where they came up with the idea of making their new avocation their vocation with their own YouTube videos<\/a>, and by offering training trips and passages on their own boat<\/a>. Sure, there were plenty of other folks with the same idea, but on a multihull?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were looking for something different, something that would stand out,\u201d Darren said, explaining their choice for a new trimaran, this one called Panda Rosso<\/em>. \u201cIt had to perform well. Where are folks buying a multihull going to get experience sailing one? That\u2019s the opportunity we saw.\u201d And the one they seized upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their second trans-Atlantic passage, a 16-day blast back to the islands, was decidedly quicker than their first one on the Sharki. When I caught up with them again in Saint-Martin, they had a couple of clients aboard, and a two-year itinerary and business plan that would take them back up the US East Coast with a return to the Caribbean. For 2024, they\u2019re planning an ambitious Atlantic circle with stops in the Azores, Scotland and the Canaries before another trip across the pond to the tropics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the time we got into sailing to now making it our business, we\u2019ve had the same approach,\u201d Darren said. \u201cWe\u2019re all in, with 100 percent effort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s where they were, at least figuratively speaking, when I saw them disappear over the horizon, bound for Anguilla. With the spinnaker set and the spray flying off a trio of hulls, Panda Rosso<\/em> was in control and tracking like a freight train. Precisely like the couple sailing her.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herb McCormick is a <\/em>CW editor-at-large. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amanda and Darren Seltzer sail a pretty cool Neel 45, but their unlikely high-seas journey to get to the islands was even cooler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":50076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Herb McCormick","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"165","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Young couple create sail training business on a Performance Trimaran. Offshore high-performance training on Neel 45 trimaran Panda Rosso.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","custom_permalink":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[165],"tags":[197,1956,242],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}