in the news

Brenda Wintrobe of The Baltimore Banner, 11/14/2025

Baltimore social media influencer and small-business owner Bobby LaPin — known to his followers as the “Sail Local Guy” — will challenge one of Maryland’s most powerful politicians, Senate President Bill Ferguson, in the Democratic primary in June. READ MORE

Danielle Brown of Maryland Matters, 11/11/2025

“Every major step towards justice in this country – freedom, opportunity, equality – was carried forward by men and women who served,” said Bobby LaPin, an Army veteran, local business owner and social media figure. “Now once again, it’s veterans who must stand and defend this nation, not from enemies abroad, but from racism and fascism and corporate corruptions that is growing here at home... READ MORE

Mike Unger of Baltimore Magazine, 9/17/2025

Despite growing up in Baltimore, Bobby LaPin’s love of boating was born in one of the driest places on Earth.

The Army veteran, now known locally as Captain Bobby, was working in Iraq as a contractor in 2015 when he was struck by a crazy idea at the most inopportune of times. READ MORE

Cyera Williams of WMAR 8/14/2025

When it comes to starting a business, passion is often the driving force. For one Baltimore veteran, that passion began with a magazine, a promise, and a whole lot of determination. WATCH VIDEO

Kenneth Lam of The Guam Daily Post 6/29/2025

Like the needle on a compass, politics is polarized. But there should be a difference between finding your way in rough seas and surviving our nation’s stormy politics. Bobby LaPin, the owner of a Baltimore-based charter boat company, discovered just how stormy the latter has become. READ MORE

Brenden Nordstrom of The Baltimore Sun 6/19/2025

The owner of sailboat charter Boat Baltimore faced threats and negative reviews after social media post criticizing the military parade held in D.C. READ MORE

Hugo Kugiya of The Baltimore Banner 4/27/2024

The day before the harbor closed to the world, Bobby LaPin took customers across the Patapsco River in an aluminum skiff. READ MORE

Hugo Kugiya of The Baltimore Banner 9/24/2024

For sailors, the Francis Scott Key Bridge has always been a waypoint, marking the beginning — or the end — of journeys. It is the symbolic entrance to, and exit from, Baltimore, its waterborne threshold. READ MORE

Laura Wamsley of NPR 4/30/2024

When the container ship Dali struck the base of the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday morning, it set off a rapid chain of events. The bridge crumpled into the Patapsco River, its twisted metal draped over the ship and its thousands of containers. LISTEN

Christopher Cann of USA Today 3/26/2025

When Bobby LaPin was a young boy, his grandfather took him on his rickety boat to fish for bass and trout in the Patapsco River. Their route took them under the Francis Scott Key Bridge, where LaPin listened to the rumble of vehicles above and the crash of waves against its massive support columns. READ MORE

Jamie Costello of WMAR TV 9/1/2023

We all want a life where we witness spectacular sunsets and starry skies, surrounded by nice people in the city that raised us. All you have to do is take the wheel, like Sail Local. WATCH VIDEO

The Baltimore Sun 10/1/2021

With a few legislative victories already in hand, Laurie Weishorn will sit down before the entire Baltimore delegation in Annapolis on Friday morning and ask them to go one step further and stop CSX Corp. from building a cargo transfer facility in her back yard. READ MORE