Since learning to sail as a child in dinghies in Massachusetts with his father, Rich Jepsen has worked extensively to educate and promote safety on the water by introducing and integrating standards both in classroom and on-the-water education.
Rich began working with the National Safe Boating Council (NSBC), the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) and the National Water Safety Congress (NWSC) to help Federal and State boating safety officials establish minimum boating education standards, both on the water and in the classroom, in the early 2000s. Conducting presentations at boating and water safety conferences such as the International Boating and Water Safety Summit, Rich began the long process of exposing boating safety officials responsible for crafting boating safety laws to the differences between sailing and powerboating. Further, joining the efforts of others before him, he strongly advocated for the adoption and philosophical approach to powerboating education using the knowledge and experiences gained from more than 35 years as a sailing instructor and boating safety educator.
After applying for and being accepted onto the NASBLA Education Standards Panel, Rich helped well-established powerboating contingencies in the law enforcement and state boating education communities understand that by using long recognized and successful sailing instructional methodologies, techniques and procedures, it would be much easier to integrate the nationally-recognized classroom education standards with the recently introduced on-water skills-based education standard.
Richard Jepsen has 45 years of experience in handling smaller powerboats, over 35 years in sail training as an instructor, an instructor trainer and an instructor evaluator. He has interviewed, hired and trained more than 200 sailing instructors in some 35 years at OCSC Sailing. He developed, maintained and updated the curriculum for OCSC Sailing from 1982 to his retirement in 2013. (OCSC received an award for being the outstanding sailing school in the country for the year 2006 – awarded by US Sailing).
Rich has served in numerous volunteer leadership roles at US Sailing, working on curriculum and instructor standards and maintaining cohesion in sailing education and performance standards on a national basis. He has received and delivered training in leadership communications and conflict resolution for Perry Learning Technologies, a national leader in corporate leadership training with clients that include AT&T, Accenture, GM, Boston Scientific, Google and others.
Rich collaborated with US Sailing staff on the rollout of innovative programs with the requisite safety, risk management and national scope issues that allow the organization to develop programs that all trainers, regardless of geographic affiliation, boat or client base can use.
Rich has 30 years of executive experience owning and running a sailing club with 70 employees, 50 boats and more than 1100 members.

Accomplishments and Honors

• President, US Sailing
• 1998-2000, 2002-2005, 2016-Present Member, US Sailing Board of Directors
• 2012-Present Member, Advisory Committee for US Sailing sponsored On-The-Water Standards Development team, funded through a Coast Guard grant
• 1994-Present Member and past Chair of the US Sailing Commercial Sailing Committee, volunteer oversight for Keelboat and Distance Cruising Training Products
• 1998-2015 US Sailing Chair of Training Committee, volunteer oversight for all US Sailing training products
• 2007 Recipient of US Sailing Community Outreach and Service Award
• 2010-2012 US Sailing Education Division Chair
• 2006 Winner of the Captain Joe Prosser Award for excellence in the delivery and improvement of sail training
• 1985-2013 Owner and CEO of OCSC Sailing
• 1980-1988 Licensed and certified OTW and classroom sailing instructor for OCSC Sailing, a commercial sailing school and club in Berkeley, California
• 1985 Certified as an American Sailing Association Instructor Evaluator-Advanced Coastal Cruising
• 1978 Became a USCG licensed captain, OUPV
• 1977-1978 Sailing Instructor for Annapolis Sailing School