About Me
Hi 👋
My name is Matthew, founder of Pelican Sailing.
A picture of me before considering sailing professionally 👉
To know where Pelican Sailing is from, you need to understand my sailing background. Read about my first sailing steps right here. 👇
It all started many years ago at a summer camp with my aunt Kayla. We were lucky enough to spend 2 weeks on optimists. It was at that moment that my love for sailing started.
Fast forward a couple of years, I eventually moved on to learning how to manage a second sail on a Mistral 420. I followed up by learning on a Laser I and a Byte. Started getting into preparing for dinghy racing and getting my technique up to where it should be.
By 2008, I had my Canadian Yachting Association White Sail III. It has since been renamed Sail Canada and CANSail 2. Two years later, I obtained the American Sailing Association Basic Keelboat certification at International Sailing School in Colchester, VT.
As I started working in sales, I decided to focus on university and put my sailing slightly aside. I later became a project manager in a digital marketing agency in my hometown of Montreal.
When work became scarcer because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I seized the opportunity and bought my first  trailer sailor, a Mistral 16 Cabin. It was exactly what I needed to get me out on the water again.
After a couple of nice days on the water with friends, I decided to push my knowledge further and followed the RYA Day Skipper with Topmast in Kingston, ON.
Through this class, I knew that sailing needed to take a larger part in my life. With a year left to university, I signed up for the Yachtmaster programme at UKSA.
While researching schools, job opportunities and many things around sailing, I realized that there aren’t many resources for beginners without extensive research in forums and decided to share my journey. If it can help even one person, I will be happy to have created Pelican Sailing.
Today, I am a professional skipper and IYT Recreational Instructor with Formation Nautique Québec. When this all started, I never thought I could live off of my passion 100%. Today, I do and my desire to share knowledge is even stronger. I can now say that if you want to enquire about obtaining a sailing licence, have someone move your boat or just a skipper to take you out on charter, email me down below! 
