About Us

Sail Northwest is a family owned and operated company. Originally, JudyMickel-Griffin and Bill Griffin owned and used Spotlight Gal as their summer home while they spent their winters in the Florida Keys on their 42' trawler. Judy and Bill are both coast guard licensed captains (Judy is also an American Sailing Association Certified Sailing Instructor) and have spent many summers as charter captains sailing throughout the San Juan Islands and Canada.

Jim and Kathlyn Mickel bought Hopscotch in the British Virgin Islands and dedicated a year to the restoration of this fine charter vessel. They sailed her in the Caribbean, then up to Florida where they shipped her to the Northwest. Bill and Judy took her over and she is now in our charter fleet.

Having spent considerable time in and around the charter business, our desire is to provide consistency and quality to the charter business. Our goal is for our charter guests experience to be amazing, like going to a fine hotel with the ambiance of the gorgeous San Juans, but at a reasonable price.

Their dedication to the needs and desires of their customers has created a company that sets a new standard in the world of boat chartering. As a diesel mechanic Bill's goal is to keep our boats in top cruising condition.In fact we receive many comments from our guests that they are very pleased with the great mechanical condition of our boats.