Take a Look at Our Crew

Raised in Santa Barbara, Kenny has been sailing since he was three years old.  His first experience on the water was with his father, crewing on a Geary 18. Later he raced his own 8′ Sea Shell dinghy (similar to a Sabot) and then made the jump to racing Lasers. At that time he was one of the top 10 picks on the West Coast to train for a week in Lasers at the Squaw Valley Olympic Training Center.

He is a 3rd generation Santa Barbara Yacht Club member. His grandfather, Ray Kieding, was the founder of the Santa Barbara Sea Shell fleet, and Kenny spent numerous summers coaching members of the Santa Barbara Youth Foundation.

Kenny is President and Owner of The Chandlery Yacht Sales. He actively coaches clients in all aspects of sailboat ownership, including cruising, racing, yacht maintenance and upkeep. He is frequently hired to optimize racing boats to achieve their maximum performance within any given class.

In his free time, he enjoys tinkering with his Bertram 31, racing various high-performance sailboats with friends, and being with his family and his beloved lab, Tilly the Harbor Dog. Kenny can be contacted at kkieding@chandlery.com.

John grew up in Cleveland, Ohio sailing on the Great Lakes. An early memory was hearing the ferry boat horns on the island where his family and he summered, then riding his bike down to the docks to help the old-timers catch the dock lines. His love for the water has never waned.

After completing degrees in geography and environmental science from UC Santa Barbara, John bought a small sailboat and spent two years sailing down the Pacific coast of central and South America. Since then he has captained and crewed on both power and sail vessels ranging from his 8’ sabot to 143-meter research ships. His love of travel by boat and as a delivery captain has brought him too far off ports in Polynesia, Africa, and the entire west coast of North America. John enjoys spending time with his family, playing music with friends, playing in the ocean and…sailing!

John can be contacted at jgill@chandlery.com.

Bob has been a lifelong sailor. He began with racing eight-foot prams at age nine and then on to various one-design and offshore yachts in competition in different countries as well as the U.S. He started working on yachts as a young teenager and went on to become a professional skipper at age 18 and during college at UCSB. In 1977, Bob purchased Santa Barbara’s major ship’s chandlery and went on to found several other retail businesses on the Santa Barbara waterfront. Also, Bob has been involved in many community activities through the years, including:

• President of the Santa Barbara Youth Foundation,
• President of the Santa Barbara Youth Foundation, Chairman of the Junior Rowing Program for the 1984 Olympics.
• Chairman of the Junior Rowing Program for the 1984 Olympics.Trustee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
• Trustee of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.President of the Santa Barbara Semana Nautica Summer Sports Festival.
• President of the Santa Barbara Semana Nautica Summer Sports Festival.Primary founder of the Santa Barbara’s popular Maritime Museum.
• Author of Several Books on Santa Barbara Nautical History
• Columnist for Santa Barbara News Press
• Primary founder of the Santa Barbara’s popular Maritime Museum.

Bob is now retired but still very active with hiking, woodworking, and spending time with family and friends.

Bill first started sailing with his father on their “snowbird” at 10 years old. Although his Dad didn’t know how to sail, they both watched other sailors until they got the hang of it.

Bill moved to Santa Barbara in late 1971 and discovered a renewed love of sailing. He crewed on the charter vessel the “Swift of Ipswich” and later became 1st mate under Captain Herb Underwood. After graduating from SBCC in 1973 he was accepted at UCSB and was asked by Emerson Smith to assist in teaching the sailing classes. Bill taught sailing for multiple quarters. Some of Bill’s sailing/racing experience includes:

• Trans-Pac ’75 LA to Honolulu
• Trans-Pac ’75 Honolulu to Okinawa
• Trans- Pac ’77
• Trans-Pac ’79
• Trans-Pac ’81
• Royal Hawaiian Cup “Round the State Race”
• Pan-Am Clipper Cup ’80, ’82
• MDR to Puerto Vallarta ’77, ’79
• Manzanillo Race
• Mex ORC

Bill has also delivered multiple boats, both power and sail, to Hawaii, Mexico and various places on the west coast.

An entrepreneurial spirit overcame him in ’83 and he decided to open a sailing school and charter company in Long Beach teaching beginning, intermediate, advanced, cruising and navigation classes as well as racing technique and theory culminating in racing as crew in the Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race.

Many of Bill’s students have gone on to purchase racing and cruising boats. Some have sailed all over the world. As you can tell, Bill brings vast knowledge to our clients, enabling them to achieve their wildest dreams.

Bill can be reached at billybench101@gmail.com.