Ben Soofer // Making a career in sailing
On the Wind Sailing
Andy Schell
4.8 • 593 Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Soofer joined 59 North back in 2018, working with media and on the backend of this very podcast. He then started sailing as a mate, including joining August on his first offshore passage on Isbjørn. He's then gone on to start his own business, and working with many others. August caught up with him to reminisce about the past, share some old sea stories, and talk about how Ben's made a unique career out of his passion.
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This season of ON THE WIND is supported by our friends at Offshore Passage Opportunities and Rutgerson Marin. Support the show by supporting our sponsors!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The captain was 29. |
| 0:01.8 | Fantastic. |
| 0:02.8 | Insane. |
| 0:03.6 | So there's a bunch of kids with like, you know, with 36 scuba tanks, a dive compressor and an environmental science curriculum, just like sailing halfway around the world. |
| 0:14.2 | And that was my introduction into offshore passage making. |
| 0:17.6 | So it was my first offshore, first couple offshore passages to scuba diving and |
| 0:24.2 | to outdoor education and the idea that like you could work in this alternate realm of not |
| 0:30.5 | being in an office, right? On the win is presented this season by two old friends of the podcast. |
| 0:36.9 | First up is Rutgersen Marine, |
| 0:39.2 | a Swedish sailing hardware company, and OPO Offshore Passage Opportunities run by our good |
| 0:45.2 | friend Hank Schmidt. OPO is a fantastic resource if you want to build offshore experience. |
| 0:50.6 | You join Hank's mailing list and get access to delivery opportunities all over |
| 0:55.4 | the world, often sailing for free as crew. We'd obviously love to have you sailing with us at |
| 1:01.7 | 59 North, but if you don't have the time or budget for that, OPO is a great alternative. |
| 1:08.0 | And if you're a boat owner looking for crew, you can sign up for free. Check it out |
| 1:12.7 | at saleopo.com. Rockerson Marine makes some of the best sailing hardware out there, and we have |
| 1:19.6 | been using them for a long time. ESPN is full of Rutgerson stuff, and it's just such great |
| 1:25.7 | quality. We recently replaced the mainsail on ESPN |
| 1:29.3 | and the batten receptacles from the old mainsail. After 80,000 nautical miles looked so great |
| 1:37.2 | that I took them all off and kept them as spares. We also have blocks and pads and low friction |
| 1:43.8 | rings and all sorts of great stuff from them. |
| 1:47.0 | You can find them at Rutgerson.se or at your local channelery. |
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