Earl R. Hinz, a career aeronautical engineer and inveterate Pacific ocean sailor (over 40,000 miles logged), retired in 1975 to devote his time to sailing (his first cruise was a round trip to New Zealand) and writing about boats and boating. He became Technical Editor of Sea magazine following his return, pioneering instrumentation and techniques for evaluating the performance of power and sailboats. He personally conducted sea trials on 104 recreational boats. In 1979 he won the prestigious Boating Writer's International Award for a test program he conducted on boating equipment. In 1980 he started a monthly column on Pacific crusing for Sea; this column later became a bimonthly feature of Cruising World and ran for eleven years. His extensive freelance writing included regular columns in Multihulls and Latitude and Attitudes magazines with additional contributions to Pacific, Ocean Navigator, Passagemaker and Seaworthy. He authored seven books on boating.

In 2001 he was awarded the Cruising World magazine medal "For Outstanding Contributions to Voyaging and Seamanship." Richard R. Rhodes is a graphic designer and technical artist retired from the University of Hawaii's Institute of Geophysics. An avid sailor himself, he was responsible for drawing the lines of the museum ship Falls of Clyde and for the design and specifications of the Hawaiian Koa racing canoe.