Officers & Staff
Commodore: Mia Thompson
Mia Thompson has been sailing the waters of the Great Harbor since she was 5, starting in her family’s wooden Opti – Christmas Eve. Her love for our Fleet blossomed in rowing class and she moved quickly to racing Mercuries, Solings and J-24s. Mia raced competitively in college, and now sails and races her IOD #19 Freyja from The Fleet whenever the opportunity allows.
Mia moved to Northeast Harbor year-round over 30 years ago and is proud to call her family’s summer retreat home. She is an owner and Real Estate broker at The Knowles Company in Northeast, and active in a variety of community, non-profit, organizations as well as Oceana. Both her sons, Parker and Fischer, learned to sail at the Fleet. Parker is currently a project architect at Baird Architects in Northeast Harbor and New York, and Fischer is finishing his college career in Colorado studying Environmental Biology.
Celebrating The Fleet’s 100th Anniversary in 2023 is top of mind for Mia and the Flag Officers. All share a deep and passionate history of sailing the waters of Mount Desert Island as well as teaching multiple generations of Fleet sailors – and all are hard at work to make the Centennial a very special celebration for the over 400 members of The Fleet.
Fleet Manager: Nick Johnstone
Nick is in his first year as fleet manager and is looking forward to running races and overseeing the operations of the Fleet. During the offseason, he is the head coach of The Citadel, Military College of South Carolina’s sailing team, a role he has held since 2020. He helped revitalize The Citadel’s sailing team, which was initially founded in 1937 with significant national success over the years. Still, the program slowly lost prominence over the past several decades and was completely inactive for the last 4 years leading up to Nick's taking over the program in 2020. Nick swiftly helped turn the program into one of the top teams in their conference and is excited to continue that trend. Development of sailors ranging from no prior experience to helping more advanced racers reach the highest levels of college sailing has been a focal point for Nick during his time coaching The Citadel. Outside of coaching, Nick currently serves as a board member & partner for J/Boats.
Nick grew up in Newport, RI racing Optis, 420s, 29ers, and Vanguard 15s as a junior sailor and went on to sail for Tabor Academy where his team won a National Championship in team racing and multiple New England Championships across different disciplines. After Tabor, Nick sailed for the College of Charleston and was a part of several teams that won numerous national & conference championships during his time there. Nick still resides in Charleston, SC during the offseason and looks forward to being in Northeast Harbor during the summers.
Nick is currently active in the Sunfish Class, dinghy team racing circuit, and sails on a variety of PHRF classes locally in Charleston.
Fleet Operations Manager: Kelsea Squires
Kelsea is a fourth generation native of Mount Desert Island. She has fond memories of growing up in Northeast Harbor. Her love of sailing began at an early age, sailing on her family’s “A” boat, and continued to expand after years of sailing in the Great Harbor through Oceanus Institute’s summer sailing camp.
She has worked locally as a Registered Nurse for 23 years. After years of working in a hospital setting, she changed nursing paths to better align with her family life. In her current role, as a per diem school nurse, she advocates and cares for the community she deeply appreciates. Kelsea resides in Somesville with her husband, Glenn and their two daughters. Glenn is the Director of the MDI Community Sailing Center, which has given Kelsea great insight into managing all things sailing and afforded her many hours boating on the Great Harbor. Kelsea has enjoyed crewing and skippering on both IODs and L16s over the years and is also a Board member of the Great Harbor Maritime Museum.
Sailing School Director: Nick Steenberg
As a year-round resident of Penobscot, Nicholas grew up sailing on the coast of Maine at Kollegewidgwok Yacht Club in Blue Hill. He began in optimists when he was seven years old, continuing on to racing 420s at KYC, and in high school at George Stevens Academy. Nick’s career in sailing began at KYC, where he worked over six summers as the Race Coach, Adult Sailing Instructor, and Head Instructor. In the off-season, Nick attended college in Europe, majoring in Engineering at the University of Southern Denmark. After finishing his studies, Nick was employed in sales at Tesla Motors in Manhasset, NY. Nick went on to serve as the first year-round Sailing Director at Manhasset Bay Yacht Club in Port Washington, NY; growing their Junior program, instructing keelboat and powerboat courses, coaching the high school team, and facilitating regattas year round. Nicholas is a Level 3 certified US Sailing Instructor and US Power boating Instructor, with experience sailing and instructing on vessels of all types and sizes, including his own 33ft Pearson “Vandre”.
Nicholas is excited to serve as Director at Northeast Harbor Sailing School, and to apply his passion for sailing education in fostering a lifelong love of the sport with all Fleet members.
