Capt. Ann Kinner is a live-aboard boater, experienced on sail and power boats, simple and high-tech. Based in San Diego, she is familiar with harbors from Ensenada to Santa Barbara and has traveled the Baja California coasts as well as parts of British Columbia and Central America. In addition to instructing boaters in the operations and systems of sail and power vessels, she worked with TowBoat/US as the primary watch-stander and rescue boat driver in San Diego, and knows first-hand the numerous ways inexperienced boaters can find themselves in awkward situations.

Capt. Kinner grew up in Newport, Rhode Island, sailing first on Narragansett Bay. A lifetime love of the ocean, combined with a fascination with the mysteries of weather, and the practical magic of navigation, led her to make boating a full-time focus. Her nearly 15 years with the Coast Guard Auxiliary and more than three decades of teaching all things boating give her a broad perspective on the needs, curiosities, and varied interests of the recreational and professional boating communities.

Currently Capt. Kinner owns and manages Seabreeze Books and Charts in San Diego, California. Seabreeze provides navigation tools and publications to all sectors of the maritime community, as well as charts provided by hydrographic services from Canada, Mexico, France, the British Admiralty, and also NOAA and NGA.

NOAA review services are critical to the maritime industry. This was evident when in July of 2014, Admiral Glang and Navigation Manager Gerald Wheaton along with US Coast Guard representatives met at Seabreeze to review the proposal to install a "virtual aid" to replace the sunken San Diego sea buoy (No. 10 / 1485, Light List Vol. VI). As a result of this discussion and input from other stakeholders, the virtual aid plan was halted. This effort led to her appointment to the San Diego Harbor Safety Committee, of which she became Chair in July of 2016. From 2019 to 2023, Capt. Kinner served as a member of NOAA’s Hydrographic Services Review Panel, which offers guidance to several NOAA offices involved in charting the coasts and oceans and providing navigation safety information to the maritime community.

Frequently called upon to speak to various boating associations, Capt. Kinner has also assisted with navigational guidance for the CUBAR powerboat rally from San Diego to La Paz, Baja California, since 2009, and has also been a speaker and instructor for the Women’s Sailing Convention held in Newport Beach annually.