Meet The Team

Maya Hoffman, 24, grew up sailing in Monterey, CA. She is pursuing professional offshore racing, focusing on navigation and weather routing. Maya competed in the 2022 Newport Bermuda race as an onboard coach for Team Bitter End, the youngest all-female crew to complete the race. Her goals are to race in events like the Transpac and Transat, working her way towards the Ocean Race, and start her own organization for sailing with an environmental mission. She is getting her Master’s degree in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Maya is also a 2022-23 mentee in the international organization the Magenta Project’s mentoring program and Skipper for Sailors for the Sea Powered by Oceana.

KYRIE is owned by long time Annapolis sailor Beth Berry, who has been messing around with boats nearly all her life.  This is her second Tartan – she owned SOLSTICE, a Tartan 37 for twenty years.  Beth has a 100-Ton USCG Masters License and is a  US Sailing Basic Keelboat Instructor.  She has sailed all over the East Coast from Maine to Belize to Bermuda, and everywhere in between.  Beth was introduced to racing a dozen years ago, and especially loves the challenge and magic of ocean racing.  She is a member of Eastport Yacht Club, where she chaired the Annapolis Bermuda Race for a number of years and currently is a member of the Bermuda Ocean Race Board of Directors.  In addition, she is member of Storm Trysail Club and Sailing Club of the Chesapeake.  Beth also races with the J/30 fleet on Bump… as both crew and alternate Skipper. 

 Professionally, Beth is a nearly thirty year veteran of Marriott International, holding numerous leadership roles throughout her career.  Currently, she is a Training Delivery Manager and travels extensively providing instruction and supporting the staff at new hotel openings.  She also is the Marketing Director for Brendan Sailing, a non-profit that provides sailing programs for youth with Learning Differences.  Beth just moved to a new home off Round Bay on the Severn River in adjacent Crownsville with her mini goldendoodle and pet chickens.  This is her fifth Annapolis Newport race. 

Chelsea Carlson Freas, 32, is a degreed meteorologist and lifelong sailor who has ‘tied the knot’ between the science of weather and the strategy of sailboat racing. She’s the meteorologist for the US Sailing Team, and has a variety of racing experience from one design dinghies to navigating keelboats offshore. She’s the founder of SeaTactics, providing weather coaching and forecasting to sailors who want to gain a competitive edge. Chelsea is a 2022-23 mentor in the international organization the Magenta Project mentoring program, and is specifically Maya Hoffman’s mentor this year!

Emma Janson, 24, grew up dinghy racing on Long Island Sound and raced competitively with The University of Vermont Sailing Team, competing in two ICSA Women’s National Finals. She has been a youth sailing coach for 8 years working with a variety of both yacht club and community sailing organizations and spent a summer as a captain in the BVI. Her love of sailing has translated into a love of the oceans, and she is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island. She hopes to have a career that combines her love of sailing and her passion for ocean conservation and science. Emma is also a 2022-23 mentee in the international organization the Magenta Projects mentoring program and Skipper for Sailors for the Sea Powered by Oceana.

Leah Sweet is an American/Swiss national who grew up sailing in the Azores, Portugal.

She has been working full-time on and around yachts for 11 years, with a few 60ft commands under her belt and time as an officer on larger superyachts. With a thirst for more actual sailing she shifted her focus to race boats and used her varied skills working with Maxi72s, TP52s, VO65s, and racing smaller keelboats. Logging over 50,000nm so far, she has also discovered an appreciation for DH sailing, winning the Bermuda 1-2 with Peter Becker in 2021 and quietly building up a DH campaign with friend Erica Lush since. Leah is "leading the change" by heading up The Magenta Project's Mentoring Programme this year after being paired with Annie Lush as a Mentee in 2019. Her career goals are to be respected as a sailor and boat captain for her skills and experience, and to race around the world fully-crewed.

Lily Flack, 20, from Stonington, CT grew up sailing in Long Island Sound and learned to sail at the Wadawanuck Yacht Club. This summer will be her 5th summer of coaching sailing, and her first year as the Head 420 Coach at New England Science and Sailing. A junior at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Flack is a member of the Varsity Sailing Team as a skipper for the women’s team. An environmental studies major and biology minor, she is passionate about the environment and hopes to continue into the field of sustainability after graduating. Recently, she competed in the 52nd Newport to Bermuda Race aboard Spitfire with the MudRatz Racing Team. She looks forward to building new relationships as a part of the Annapolis to Newport campaign and being a part of an all-female (badass) crew! 

Callie Dawson, 17, from Providence, Rhode Island originally learned to sail dinghies in Miami’s Biscayne Bay. After moving to Rhode Island, she began racing 420s and J22s out of Bristol Yacht Club. In the summer of 2021, she began offshore sailing out of both Bristol and Newport, R.I. on Bénéteau Figaro 2’s. Her first offshore race was the 2021 Vineyard Race where she served as Boat Captain of a youth team. Most recently, she completed the 2022 Newport-Bermuda race alongside A2N Leading the Change skipper, Maya Hoffman, as Mid-bow for Team Bitter End, the youngest all-female team to ever complete the race. Since serving as her team’s environmental steward during the Newport-Bermuda Race, Callie has developed a passion for working at the intersection of environmentalism and sailing. As a senior at the Lincoln School in Providence, Callie is currently competing with her school’s 420 racing team, which she co-captains. In the future, Callie hopes to compete in races such as the Transpac and Transat, and A2N is a step along the way! 

Ellie Menezes, 16, from Groton Long Point, CT learned to race at New England Science and Sailing in the Opti and c420. Currently, she volunteers her time at NESS, and specifically enjoys working with the adaptive sailing program. She is a junior at Fitch High School and co-founded the Fitch Sailing Team. In June of 2022, Ellie sailed aboard Spitfire on team MudRatz in the Newport to Bermuda Race. She is the current captain of Equal Opportunity, a MudRatz Melges 24. Ellie also trains and races with the c420 team, One United. Ellie hopes to compete in the Ocean Race in the future. 

Lindsay Gimple is an offshore sailor and youth sailing coach based in Connecticut, USA. She joined The Magenta Project as a mentee in 2019 before serving as a junior board member and now as the Mentee Representative for the Americas. Gimple holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, where she raced for Cornell’s Varsity Sailing Team and appeared in two ICSA Women’s National Championships. She worked as an submarine components engineer before returning to school to study for a Master of Sports Leadership at Northeastern University. Currently, Gimple is pursuing a career in campaign management, with recent placements on Hungarian IMOCA Szabi Ocean Racing’s Route du Rhum prep team and SailGP’s Dubai Event hydraulics tech team. Youth opportunity and offshore development is close to her heart, as her first offshore season was as the watch captain for the MudRatz’s Swan 48, Dreamcatcher, for their Class 5 win in the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race. In 2019, she was the program lead and co-skipper of Dreamcatcher for the Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race, taking 2nd in class. More recently, she has competed in the Rolex Fastnet, the Round Ireland Race, and the Caribbean 600. Gimple gives back by teaching, mentoring, and speaking on her experiences whenever she can!

Aubrey Polliard is a graphic designer and ghostwriter. She is a voracious traveler, having traveled all over South and Central America. As a soccer player, Aubrey is excited to contribute to an all-women's sailing campaign to further female DEI in sports. Aubrey aspires to continue working on projects that inspire and empower women all over the world.