Elevate Your Confidence by Sailing with Paul Exner in Hawaii.
Hawaii offers a wide range of sailing conditions every week of the year. When you sail Hawaii with Paul Exner you learn applied-SAILING using a management system for sailors that considers all aspects of seamanship — from vessel operation to leadership decision-making — gaining methods that help you derive complete solutions for naturally occurring seamanship scenarios.
Captain Sailing Confidence
TRAINING DATES: Sept. 27 - Oct. 4, 2025
You’ll learn to align everything you know, sense, and think about captain-level awareness, judgement, and action.
Experience firsthand how to sail the dynamic conditions that Hawaii is known for:
Quickly advance your skill by learning how to plan, derive, and sail sophisticated routes based on new knowledge to interpret complex weather patterns.
Understand the dominant influence that volcanic mountains have on regional Trade Winds.
Experience what it’s like to sail in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where weather-fronts and tropical conditions uniquely converge, giving you a tremendous opportunity to immerse yourself in multiple weather phenomena during a week of sail training.
Understand why high-elevation volcanoes capped with snow create extreme weather at the sea surface — then, learn how to sail safely on the fringe of strong mountain-winds and sometimes become immersed in heavy weather where you’ll need to reef and employ other offshore safety tactics.
Make landfall at remote anchorages surrounded by coral reefs and lava rock where the sand patch for anchoring is only large enough for one boat — also, sail and anchor at night.
Experience deep ocean water where 2-miles of depth abruptly rises to meet beautiful Hawaiian island coastlines.
Operate every control of a well equipped ocean going sailboat and investigate the various nuances behind the use of each.
Elevate all fundamental skills you posses to an advanced level and improve your understanding behind subtle hands-on techniques.
Learn an approach for captain-level leadership that heightens your own practice of sailing while helping you master Crew Development and Management.
Captain Level Confidence
TRAINING DATES: September 27 - October 4, 2025
DEPART & RETURN: Kailua-Kona, Big Island (KOA)
Seamanship Management System by Paul Exner — Autonomous Full-Stack Approach to Sailing®️
Paul Exner believes Master Sailors are good at everything (Full-Stack) — they possess methods to put everything together while operating a sailboat at sea. This notion literally helps you go anywhere by sail.
Awareness, cognition, application… Master Sailors become aware of their situation at sea, then cognizant of the situation’s impact to the vessel and crew — next, they draw upon the entirety of their experience and analyze various courses of action — finally, the Master Sailor takes appropriate actions guided by their fundamental understanding of sailing, sailboat piloting, crew leadership — all of which made proficient using a proven seamanship methodology.
Action — is rarely simple and never requires one step. Instead, Master Sailors judge multiple options and take action to connect a sequence of steps that consider inter-related factors.
The disciplines of Autonomous Full-Stack®️ — Master Sailors: navigate; pilot; helm; operate their vessel; keep a log; anchor; trim sails; implement technology-based instrumentation, use mechanical and electric systems; rig a mast and sails; apply marlinspike seamanship; repair sails and anything broken aboard their boat; follow legal regulations; provision and prepare meals; manage heavy weather; motor-sail; lead crew and manage their vessel; haul-out & store their vessel — Master Sailors also have knowledge of yacht design & construction methods.
Sail Cognitively®️
Obtain SAILING awareness — observe a multitude of stimulus and information coming at you — analyze what’s happening around you to proficiently make safe and sound decisions affecting your crew and vessel at sea.
Take your sailing ability to the cognitive level — you’re ready!
Sail Autonomously®️
Advance yourself and use a master-level approach to SAILING called: Autonomous Full-Stack®️. Learn to confidently plan and make passages; learn to prepare yourself and your vessel to sail with realistic expectations, relevant skills, proven methods, and literally go anywhere by sail.
Sail Hawaii — Captain-Level Sailing Confidence
September 27 - October 4, 2025
CLICK HERE — talk w/ Paul about this opportunity
DEPART & RETURN: Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (KOA)