David Carlson

The longtime head instructor at the Boston Sailing Center, Carlson—a sailor since age 6—knows the Charles and the harbor inside and out, and has novices jibing and tacking like old hands after just two weekends of instruction. Free advice: “One of the biggest mistakes people make is to overtrim the sails—the boat tends to heel over or stall out. It’s more efficient to keep the boat flat, and let the foils on the rudder do their work.”