PRSA Executive Committee

Tom Ballantine -- Tom's Dad taught him to sail in a Dyer Dow dinghy as a child, but he couldn't understand why he kept dumping until he'd messed about in a more easily righted Sunfish. Next, he took lessons at the Woods Hole Yacht Club, graduating to Cape Cod Knockabouts. As a teenager, he ran Mirror Dinghy races at the club as an assistant steward. Working single-handed, out of a 13-foot whaler, he sent the fleet around various lobster pots and government marks. He knows better now. Although Tom would always jump on a sailboat when he could during college and law school, it wasn't until studying for the bar in 1999 that he started down the path toward racing his own boat. That summer he taught Jocelyn to sail in the same easily righted Sunfish, which led to a Hampton One Design when they moved to D.C. in 2000. Tom and Jocelyn honeymooned aboard a Corsair 27 trimaran in 2001. Having now married his crew, Tom looks forward to many years of fun together aboard the Hampton. Along the way, Tom has done a bit of cruising and was crew aboard Venture in the 2003 Marion to Bermuda race. Now that daughter Lillian has arrived, he hopes she will become a master boatbuilder and sailmaker.

Bill Kleysteuber -- Boy gets in boat.  Boy like boat. Old boy buys boat. They live happily ever after.

Yates Dowell - Yates and his wife Judy started teaching themselves to sail about twenty years ago. Soon after that Bob Laughlin asked him to crew on his Albacore and he loved it. Later on he crewed on a Hobie cat also. Then, Yates went out of town for a week on business and while he was away Judy and daughter Lisa bought a used Hobie as a surprise. So the family had a boat to race and they've been racing ever since.

Eric T. Johnson -- Eric learned to sail on a small lake in southern Indiana while in college.  After moving to less-landlocked New Jersey in the late 1980s, he primarily raced keelboats on Long Island Sound, but bought a well-used Laser to keep in touch with his small-boat roots.  After moving to Washington in 1993, he started frostbiting with the PRSA Laser fleet, and began to devote more time to warm-weather Laser racing as well. At the same time, he managed to maintain his big-boat connections – he raced frequently on a J-30 in Annapolis, and competed several times in the Newport-to-Bermuda, Annapolis-to-Newport, and Marblehead-to-Halifax races on a Baltic 42.   He currently splits his racing time between his Laser and a Jet-14, although he still makes time for the occasional offshore race.  Eric finances his sailing activities by working as a regulatory affairs manager for a biotechnology company in Columbia, MD.

Hap O'Brien started sailing Albacores as crew for his brother-in-law "Hoop" about three years ago. He purchased a used Albacore in the fall of 2001.  Succeeding in destroying his boat in the his first 2002 spring series, Hap has been learning the finer points of boat repair from Barney Harris and Doug Foord. He had so much fun repairing his first boat, he picked up a second Albacore in the Fall of 2002 and has been busy reconditioning that one. Hap has been crewing on Albacores regularly and hopes to do more skippering in
his boat in 2004.

Dave Teale has been on sailboats since before he can remember. His dad, a skilled one-design racer, was a key influence. Dave bought a Laser after college, but let it sit mostly idle for a number of years before connecting with PRSA. In the winter of 2001/02 he came to the marina to check-out the Laser frostbite sailing. It was a cold day in the 30's and raining. He ran the races and was treated to warm hospitality and socializing afterwards. Dave continues to sail the Laser year round and has enjoyed crewing on Lightnings as well. His wife has been sailing a few times but prefers to go horseback riding.

Nabeel Alsalam - Nabeel first learned to sail in high school when he built a wooden sailfish out of a kit.  He had great fun sailing and capsizing it on the James River and planning like mad as the winds kicked up before a storm.  But he didn’t start racing sailboats until the early 1980s when a colleague at the University of Rochester recruited him to do forward crew on a Thistle.  He has been hooked on one-design sailboat racing ever since.     In 1997, he decided he had enough of crewing on other peoples’ boats.  After checking out the fleets at PRSA, he settled on the Lightning because the fleet is strong and the 3-person spinnaker boat reminded him of his Thistle days.  From day 1, he has been very active in that fleet and just finished a three-year stint as Fleet captain.  He is also one of the crazies who go sailing all winter long on Lasers and if you are crazy too, he’ll find you a boat to borrow.  In his day job, he is an economist at the Congressional Budget Office, but who cares?  He’s married with two kids, but he has failed to get any of them hooked on the sport.  He is still trying.

Christopher Bolton - Chris has been with PRSA since '84 or '85, sailing Hobie 16s and then a Hobie 20. He also sails with the winter Laser fleet. He has served as the Hobie fleet rep,and PRSA Vice Commodore, Rear Commodore, and Commodore. Chris' family has a summer place on Mobjack Bay (very close to the Ware River Yacht Club, well known to the Albacore Fleet), and he grew up loving the water. " I never had the good background of Opti or college sailing, which may be one reason I like the speed of a cat and not the slow tactical boats", says Chris in his bio.