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About Us
The Pacific Seafaring Foundation is dedicated to promoting the arts of seafaring, sailing, and preservation of classic yachts through hands-on educational programs and experiential learning opportunities with our sailing vessels and in collaboration with other sailing organizations. After decades of sailing and involvement in a range of non-profit efforts to boost the sport for all, we think we may have discovered a way of doing just that by providing the hundreds of sail training organizations with a broader set of experiences for their programs that they are not equipped to do themselves.
The Pacific Seafaring Foundation is supported by a growing corps of enthusiast volunteers and supporters dedicated to our goal. In the past few months we have managed to merge with a 501C3 non-profit, welcome the donation of use of a beautiful yacht, Ocean Queen V, and the donation of the Yankee, a legendary San Francisco Bay schooner needing some restoration. We took Ocean Queen to the Master Mariners Boat Show and were awarded the Stone Cup. Then we entered her in the Rolex Big Boat Regatta with a large crew of sailors and supporters, introducing all to the PSF concept and programs. Now we must prepare for booking and a full set of programs for the spring….and trying to fund it all. We have made it this far with the support of some generous grants from fellow believers in the cause but can no longer lean only on their generosity.
Meet Our Founders
Mr. Hart is the Executive Director of the Pacific Seafaring Foundation. He has also held senior roles at California State University Maritime Academy, the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association and as CEO and a director of Call of the Sea, a Sausalito based, non-profit, marine environmental education organization, operating the 82′ Schooner Seaward on the Pacific West Coast and Mexico. and the only hybrid powered tall ship in the world, the 132′ Brigantine Matthew Turner. In the technology industry, he served as the Chairman, President, and CEO of MediaAlive, Inc. and CEO of Micronics Computers, Inc. Mr. Hart was named to the Micro Times 50, a roster of the “fifty most influential people in the computer industry.”
His community involvement has included: President and member of the Board of Directors of the HealthStore Foundation, Chairman of the San Jose Symphony, CEO of the Ballet San Jose, President, and co-founder of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) of Silicon Valley. He is a Staff Commodore of the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. In the United States Air Force, he served as a Squadron Commander.
A sailor since age 10, Mr. McNeill serves as President of the Pacific Seafaring
Foundation. He also is a Governor of the California Mayflower Society, Past President of the International Council of Yacht Clubs and Staff Commodore of St. Francis Yacht Club.
John’s most recent career was as Founder and President of Resource Associates, Inc, an international marketing and consulting firm in consumer durables. Prior management posts included such as General Foods Corp, White Plains, NY and Squibb Corp,. His sailing life has included sailing everything from an El Toro to an Americas Cup yacht, but has focused in the last two decades on the Gaff Schooner Yankee as skipper and caretaker.
John came to the Foundation as a result of that deep love for Yankee, which was donated to the Foundation by her owners since 1926, the Ford family of Marin County.
Born in Canada in 1937, Jon emigrated to the U.S. in 1964 and became a U.S. citizen. In 1968 he was employed by Levi Strauss & Co. with focus on raw material quality control. In 1986 he and a partner initiated an operation finding, importing, and converting to U.S. specs AMG Mercedes-Benz automobiles, unavailable at the time in the U.S. In 1993 he moved on to develop a database management car finding business on the Internet (in its infancy at the time) which he exploited with significant success. Retired in 2002, he now sails a 30’ sloop, Adagio. After a long association with the Ford family, former owners and donors of schooner Yankee, he was asked to join the Foundation as Treasurer. jonprice5800@gmail.com
