Nautical history: Drafted into the US Navy in 1972 and served as a Surface Warfare Officer for 31 years, including tours on LCC, DDG, CGN, 3 CVNs, and Command of an FFG. Retired as a Captain (06). Started sailing in 1973 in dinghies at the Norfolk Naval Sailing Center (NNSC) and graduated into cruising sailboats by 1975. Owned and family cruised a Cape Dory 30 cutter (Skymark) from 1981 to 1991 and voyaged off-shore from Newport to Bermuda with Son (7) and Dad (67) in the Summer of 1987. Became certified as an Offshore Sailing Instructor for the US Navy Sailing Association.
After retiring from the Navy in 2003 I was a volunteer Sailing Instructor at NNSC for five years, teaching basic keelboat through coastal cruising classes (ASA 101 to 104) while maintaining five of the cruising boats for NNSC. Wrote “Cruising Notes for the Southern Chesapeake Bay” from the notes I made for the students. Over the years have delivered several sailboats from New England to the Chesapeake Bay.
Joined T34CA in 2005 or so to get maintenance information on hull number 270, which was a NNSC rental boat at the time. Purchased T34C # 270 from the US Navy Sailing Foundation and renamed her SKYMARK after our first Skymark. Started racing Skymark in local beer-can races and graduated to distance racing. Later became the Regional Captain for the lower VA-MD-DC region and eventually was placed over the whole region. Moved up to the Vice Commodore position in time to oversee the Tartan 34 Classic 50th year celebration in Annapolis in the Fall of 2017.