Thomas Kinney, better known as TK, began to take sailboat racing seriously while an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. "It beat going to class," he quips. Upon graduating, TK began a 470 Olympic campaign that led to working at a small one-design sail loft. Nine months later, TK left the loft to become the head sailing coach at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
After eight years of coaching and claiming five Collegiate National titles in both collegiate and Olympic classes (470 and Flying Dutchman), TK returned to sail making in 1989, when he established a sail loft in South Norwalk, CT. TK's focus for his nearly 30 years of sail making has been on big boat racing programs and the Sonar one-design class. "We joined Quantum Sails in 2002 when it became clear that Quantum was quickly becoming the leader in sail technology and design," he said.
TK has competed and won his class in numerous Bermuda, Montego Bay, Vineyard, and Round Block Island races with multiple Long Island Sound-based big boat programs, and he has won several world and North American championships with various Sonar programs.