The creator of Rick White's Sailing Seminars is one of the pioneers of catamaran racing in the U.S. He purchased his first sailboat, a Shark catamaran, in the early 1960's when fleets were first developing on the East Coast and the Great Lakes. He was looking for a sport that would be exhilarating and competitive, but less damaging to his body than motocross and football had been. He's been hooked on multihulls and sailing ever since.
Since 1965, White has won over 195 championships, including Worlds, Nationals, North Americans, Mideasterns, Midwesterns, Southeasterns, distance races and numerous State championships sailing such boats as Sharks, Tornados, G-Force, Hobies, Wave, MacGregor 36, F-31s, F-27s, F-25Cs and F-24's, JY15 s, Lasers and Sunfish.
He and wife Mary Wells (Women's World Champion in Hobies) have raced Lasers, Sunfish, Thistles, Interlakes, Optimist Dinghies, PHRF boats, JY-15's, and MacGregor 36 cats -- anything they have the opportunity to race. Mary is is now the publisher/editor of Catamaran Sailor Magazine.
Former multihull editor for Sailboat Week, White has written four books on multihull racing. A must for any sailor is "Sailing Drills - how to sail better, faster, smarter and safer." and the most recent, Catamaran Racing: For the 90's, was released in the spring of 1992. White has written many feature articles for such magazines as Sail, Sailing World, Multihulls Magazine, Soundings, Yachting, and many others. He also has a series of teaching videos based on the seminars and books.
In 1989, White started Rick White's Sailing Seminars and has graduated over 3000 students. Of those graduates, there are now at least 7 Olympic Medalists, 10 Olympic team sailors, 18 National Champs, 50 Divisional Champs, and innumerable club champions. Most of those winners entered the school as intermediate sailors, at best.
For the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona, White helped with the Tornado training camp at Key Biscayne, Florida put on by two-time Olympic medalist, Randy Smyth. Of the participants at that camp, five teams won representation for their countries, and Smyth and Notary won the Silver Medal.
The media now refers to White as the "Guru of Catamarans."
Now living in the Florida Keys and in Put-in-Bay, Ohio, White still races competitively, but is spending most of his time putting on seminars to help others get faster and promote the sport of sailing.