About Us

Captains Daria & Alex Blackwell

Captains Daria and Alex Blackwell, are experienced cruisers and avid sailors. Alex has been messing around in boats since the beginning of his memory, which sometimes goes back to his early childhood. Daria has also been sailing since childhood and has never looked back.

Passionate weekend and vacation sailors for the past many years, they logged about 1,800-2,000 miles cruising per season. Currently based in Long Island Sound, they are sailing a Bowman 57 cutter rigged ketch named Aleria. Their past experience includes extensive cruising on Chesapeake Bay, the waters off Ireland, the North Sea, Baltic Sea, as well as the Bahamas, and the Caribbean.

Daria and Alex have had articles published in Cruising World, Latitudes & Attitudes, Offshore, Windcheck, US Sailing website, and more. They have done seminars at Sail America, and have an extensive website which provides boaters with information about things they should know and about places to go: www.CoastalBoating.net.

They are members of American Yacht Club, Mayo Sailing Club and the Seven Seas Cruising Association. Their volunteer work for Westchester Children’s Hospital prompted them to start the “Make a Memory Cruise” in 2005. In 2006 they organized sail and power yachts from multiple Long Island Sound clubs to ‘Make a Memory’ for critically ill children, their parents and caregivers under the auspices of Sail4Kids (www.sail4kids.org).

In 2007 Sail4Kids hosted over 300 guests (Children and their families) and nearly the same number of volunteers with over 40 participating yachts. For their efforts with Sail4Kids, Daria and Alex were recognized by US Sailing as ‘Sailors of the Week’, were honored by American Yacht Club with the prestigious Starkweather Trophy for “outstanding service”, and by the International Society for the Perpetuation of Cruelty to Racing Yachtsmen with the Order of the Moosehead Donald B. King Trophy for “running an event that clearly dwarfs anything any race committee could ever create and bringing hope and joy to our most precious assets, our children”.

Besides sailing-related work, they have both written for other professional media and have both worked as professional copywriters and marketers.

Daria Blackwell provides expert consultation based on her 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as President of Bozell Global Healthcare, a major medical advertising and communications firm in the True North Communications network. Her expertise includes strategic positioning of products and corporate entities and successful integration of communications strategies to multiple audiences including healthcare professionals, patients, and payers. (For additional background, click here.)

As a partner in Starnet Alex Blackwell brings a wide array of production expertise to the table. This includes everything from high-level interactive and web design consultation and production rooted in 10 years of digital program development to a full service design and production studio, web hosting, mail services, and printing facilities to satisfy any need in the industry. His expertise includes successful integration of eCommerce into the media mix and strategic deployment of one-to-one marketing. (For additional information on Starnet, click here.)

	About Us Captains Daria & Alex Blackwell Captains Daria and Alex Blackwell, are experienced cruisers and avid sailors. Alex has been messing around in boats since the beginning of his memory, which sometimes goes back to his early childhood. Daria has also been sailing since childhood and has never looked back. Passionate weekend and vacation sailors for the past many years, they logged about 1,800-2,000 miles cruising per season. Currently based in Long Island Sound, they are sailing a Bowman 57 cutter rigged ketch named Aleria. Their past experience includes extensive cruising on Chesapeake Bay, the waters off Ireland, the North Sea, Baltic Sea, as well as the Bahamas, and the Caribbean. Daria and Alex have had articles published in Cruising World, Latitudes & Attitudes, Offshore, Windcheck, US Sailing website, and more. They have done seminars at Sail America, and have an extensive website which provides boaters with information about things they should know and about places to go: www.CoastalBoating.net. They are members of American Yacht Club, Mayo Sailing Club and the Seven Seas Cruising Association. Their volunteer work for Westchester Children’s Hospital prompted them to start the “Make a Memory Cruise” in 2005. In 2006 they organized sail and power yachts from multiple Long Island Sound clubs to ‘Make a Memory’ for critically ill children, their parents and caregivers under the auspices of Sail4Kids (www.sail4kids.org). In 2007 Sail4Kids hosted over 300 guests (Children and their families) and nearly the same number of volunteers with over 40 participating yachts. For their efforts with Sail4Kids, Daria and Alex were recognized by US Sailing as ‘Sailors of the Week’, were honored by American Yacht Club with the prestigious Starkweather Trophy for “outstanding service”, and by the International Society for the Perpetuation of Cruelty to Racing Yachtsmen with the Order of the Moosehead Donald B. King Trophy for “running an event that clearly dwarfs anything any race committee could ever create and bringing hope and joy to our most precious assets, our children”. Besides sailing-related work, they have both written for other professional media and have both worked as professional copywriters and marketers. Daria Blackwell provides expert consultation based on her 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, most recently as President of Bozell Global Healthcare, a major medical advertising and communications firm in the True North Communications network. Her expertise includes strategic positioning of products and corporate entities and successful integration of communications strategies to multiple audiences including healthcare professionals, patients, and payers. (For additional background, click here.) As a partner in Starnet Alex Blackwell brings a wide array of production expertise to the table. This includes everything from high-level interactive and web design consultation and production rooted in 10 years of digital program development to a full service design and production studio, web hosting, mail services, and printing facilities to satisfy any need in the industry. His expertise includes successful integration of eCommerce into the media mix and strategic deployment of one-to-one marketing. (For additional information on Starnet, click here.)