Meet the Team at 27 South Ocean Training
Stacey Jackson
Senior Instructor
Melanie Peasey
Principal
James Whelan
Instructor
Stacey Jackson - Senior Instructor
​
Stacey cofounded 27 south as an extension of a distinguished and successful professional sailmaking, yachting and racing career in everything from TP52’s, to supermaxis and international match racing.
Having competed in two Volvo Ocean Races with Team SCA and Vestas 11th Hour Racing, and in most of the worlds major ocean races, including the Fastnet Race and 16 Sydney Hobarts. Stacey’s passion for ocean racing and her experience offshore brings extensive first hand knowledge of sea safety and its real life application.
Hailing originally from Mooloolaba, Stacey is now based in Brisbane where she spends her down time away from professional sailing mostly on or in the water, including foiling a moth and wing foil on Moreton Bay.
Melanie Peasey - Principal​
​
Melanie cofounded 27 South with Stacey when they saw a need for sailors in their local area to have access to the Safety and Sea Survival course.
Melanie started sailing in Sabots on the Brisbane River, racing many dinghy classes and ending up sailing 420’s in her teens. Coming home after working on the Isle of Wight as a sailing instructor she graduated to sailing ‘big boats’ competing in most of the East Coast of Australia’s offshore races. She divides her time between offshore or racing dinghys most weekends
Melanie has never been far from boats in general, spending most of her life working in and around the industry; ships chandleries, sailing schools and a maritime college.
She is looking forward to working with instructors Stacey and James to provide a SSS course that is conducted by offshore sailors for offshore sailors.
James Whelan - Instructor
​
James's offshore sailing journey began at the age of 13 when he and his family left Australia on their 45-foot Beneteau without a specific destination. As a result, James not only has some interesting stories to tell but has a very practical, calm and calculated approach to solving both performance and safety related problems on board.
Since then, James has worked in the marine industry for over 12 years, on some of the most competitive Superyachts around the world such as Mari cha III and the J-Class “Shamrock IV”​.
He has circumnavigated the globe twice, toured extensively in the Pacific, completed multiple trans-Atlantic crossings and raced in 7 Sydney to Hobart's. As a result, James’ passion for sailing runs parallel with safety.
In recent years, James has made the decision to spend more time closer to home and now Captain's a Sydney based sailing yacht which he runs with his partner.