Meet the Professional Crew!

Captain Christopher Flansburg

Appleton, ME
Captain Flansburg holds a USCG 500 ton Oceans Master's license, and has been sailing with OCF for over a decade. This will be his third spring in a row as captain of the Discovery program, his favorite OCF trip. He has sailed professionally all over the globe, and before his sailing career jumped out of planes in the Army. In the few months he is not at sea, Captain Flansburg can be found in his Maine cottage baking bread and out in his forge manipulating metal into gorgeous and functional pieces of art.

Mr. Bill Burke, Chief Mate 
New Hampshire
Mr. Burke attended both Notre Dame University and M.I.T. and holds a USCG 1600 ton Master's and Unlimited Chief Mate license, and has been a math and science teacher for over 10 years. He's an on-call firefighter and EMT, and likes hiking, climbing, and whitewater paddling. This will be his second trip as chief mate on the spring Discovery semester with Ocean Classroom.

Ms. Whitney Ciancetta, 2nd Mate
York, Maine
An Ocean Classroom alumna, Whitney holds a 100 ton Master's license and earned her BA in History from Union College. Whitney has been sailing professionally for OCF for the past two years, and is ecstatic to be sailing on the spring Discovery trip.

Mr. Dave Kelly, 3rd Mate
Marshfield, MA
Dave has been working for OCF for the past three years as a deckhand, engineer, and mate. After sailing on last year's Discovery trip, he's sailed with the Pride of Baltimore and Virginia before spending a few weeks at home during the holidays. He's driven whale watching boats in Plymouth, MA, and attended Mass Maritime Academy as a cadet before setting sail as a professional sailor. His major goal for this trip is induction into the Nathaniel Bowditch Society.

Lizzie Loomis, cook
Jerseyville, Illinois
Lizzie graduated from Principia College with a theater degree, and was inspired to work at sea after reading Tania Aebi's Maiden Voyage. She loves when dolphins play in the bow wave, the colors green and blue, and has elicited numerous marriage proposals over her biscuits and gravy. She also makes stupendous 7-layer bars and crusty bread. She learned to cook at summer camp and loves visiting the island of Nevis. Her favorite meal too cook: sticky buns.

Tom Klodenski, deckhand / engineer
Tom hails from Newburyport, MA and attended Northeastern University. He's a former recording engineer for the Boston Symphony, and plays some wicked bluegrass on guitar, upright bass, piano, drums, spoons, harmonica, bones, guiro, saw, donkey jawbone, kazoo, slide trombone, and dulcimer. He's been working with OCF since last spring, and is hoping to pick up the banjo.

Angela McIntyre, deckhand / medical officer
Born and raised in Ohio, Angela earned a degree from Antioch College in video & film production and is Wilderness First Aid trained. She's been working on boats for three years as cook, educator, and now deckhand. She plays the flute and is learning the ukulele and concertina. She's most excited to live with new shipmates and share adventures with them over the next four months. She is especially excited to learn, teach, and travel, and feels extremely lucky to be on such a sweet trip. Angela has previously worked as a vegetable farmer, can drive enormous tractors, and loves when potato plants blossom.

Anna Nellis Bacon Smith, deckhand
Washington, ME
Nell, also an OCF alumna, has been sailing professionally on and off with OCF since her days as a student. When not aboard, she is a student at Prescott College in Arizona. Nell has grown up on Gamage as her father, longtime OCF captain JB Smith, is the vessel's longest serving master. Nell is an accomplished equestrian, talented musician, patient teacher, and intuitive sailor.

John Petrillo, head educator & history teacher
Toms River, NJ
John has been sailing as an educator with OCF for over 8 years in their high school and college semester programs. He's earned a BS in Social History from Carnegie Mellon University and a MA in American Civilization from Brown University, and holds a 100 ton Near Coastal license. He collects various editions of Melville's Moby Dick, vintage surfboard fins, and camera lenses.

Eve Southworth, literature teacher
Framingham, MA
Eve has been working for OCF as an educator for three years, and most recently lead the OCF high school trip last fall. She earned her degree in Social History from Connecticut College and studied in the Williams Mystic Maritime Studies Program at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. She enjoys yoga and drawing, and has previously worked on the topsail schooner Amistad and aboard private yachts.

Jenn Allen, science teacher
In Spring of 2005, Jenn came to Ocean Classroom Foundation as a college semester student with SEAmester.  She has since completed her degree in Marine Biology from SUNY Stonybrook and has worked for Ocean Classroom as a deckhand for a total of nearly two years since then.  Now living in Santa Cruz, CA, she loves to surf, paint, and drink good coffee.

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