Jan Chance O’Malley, a three-time US Sailing Yachtswoman of the Year, two-time Adams Cup winner, and the first ever winner of the IYRU Women’s World Sailing Championship, has been a leader in sailing, both on and off the water, for several decades.

Jan, the daughter of 1952 Olympic gold medalist Britton Chance, started sailing in 13’ wooden duck boats on Barnegat Bay in Mantoloking, New Jersey. Her first Barnegat Bay Yacht Racing (BBYRA) championship, in Sneakboxes at age 14, allowed her to move up to skippering an M Scow, a class she also promptly won. Following her early successes on the bay, she raced E Scows locally and nationally both as skipper and as crew, including with National Sailing Hall of Famers Runnie Colie and Sam Merrick, and with her husband, Ed O’Malley. In the 1970s Jan competed locally and nationally in 470s and Tasars with Ed and later with her sister-in-law, Pat O’Malley.

Jan’s formidable campaign in women’s sailing, with Pat as crew, was conducted in a wide variety of boats including 420s, 470s, Tasars, Rhodes 19s, Cal 20s, and Ensigns. Motherhood did not slow Jan down; she placed second in the 1971 Adams Cup while pregnant with her daughter, Christine, and nursed her then five-month-old son, Edwin, on the water in between races at the 1975 USYRU Women’s Doublehanded Championship, in which she finished third.

n 1986, always one to take on a new boat and a new challenge, Jan switched to racing Laser IIs locally and nationally. She sailed these demanding, high-performance doublehanded dinghies throughout her 40s, often against elite sailors twenty-plus years younger.

After winning the North American Laser II class championship in 1997 in heavy air conditions, Jan retired by transitioning into multi-hulls. She has owned a Corsair F-28R for the past 19 years and has cruised (always at top speed) with her family up and down the East Coast and in the North Channel, Ontario.

Jan’s lifelong commitment to sailing extends well beyond the racecourse. She has served as a US Sailing senior judge for over 25 years, including judging the Olympic Trials in 1992, 1996, and 2004, and judging the Sears/Bemis/Smythe Championships six times in the past decade.  She also served on multiple sailing-related committees (see bulleted list below), all while raising her kids and pursuing a successful career in software engineering. 

A staunch advocate for youth sailing and racing, Jan ran the Mantoloking Yacht Club sailing program for many years and has served as a long-term member of the MYC sailing committee and on the club’s Board of Governors. She is the co-founder, president and trustee of the Jersey Shore Youth Sailing Team and helped to establish and run the Carl Van Duyne Memorial Youth Racing Clinic for 15 years, providing the opportunity for youth sailors to benefit from the best of elite coaching and racing. In addition to being named Yachtswoman of the Year in 1969, 1970, and 1977, Jan received the USYRU One-Design Achievement award in 1988 and was inducted into the Barnegat Bay Sailing Hall of Fame in 2004.

Accomplishments and Honors

Service

Judging