How did you get started sailing and racing? I grew up in Florida and spent lots of time on the water; I even owned several power boats, but not sailboats. Funny enough, sailing looked boring until I went sailing. We were in Sweden when we had the opportunity to sail around the Stockholm Archepeligoes. Needless to say, it was a blast. After moving to Boston for work, my wife, Marsha, suggested I look into Community Sailing on the Charles River. I joined, learned to sail dinghies there, and was immediately hooked. I then took several ASA courses. While doing so, the instructor of one of the courses said if you want to learn quickly, start to race and suggested I show up at the docks on a Wed. night as they are always looking for crew. Well, I did just that. I got on a boat the first time I showed up and ended up racing with them my entire time in Boston. While there, I also started frostbite racing J24s and went to Offshore Racing School's performance Race Week a couple of years in a row. After those initial experiences, I have been fortunate enough to have raced in various classes ranging from Lasers, C15s, Thistles, Etchells, Scows, and big boats.
How did you first become involved with MYC? It's a funny story: I was living in California and contemplating moving and working in Madison. During that process, I looked up the names of the local sailing clubs and ended up on the phone with Dave Gorwitz. During the conversation, and because of my frostbite experience, I asked him if there was any frostbite racing in Madison. There was a long pause, and he said, Dale, the lakes freeze here in the winter. Oh, it was clear that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Anyway, he said the E-Scow Fleet is one of the most competitive fleets on the lakes and connected me with Andy and Barbie, who were looking for the crew at the time and were gracious enough to have me sail with them for a couple of years. In doing so, I progressively got more involved in supporting club activities, and the rest is history, as they say.
What are some of your goals as Commodore? The board has had several meetings and has outlined the following goals for 2025.
Increase membership (20%) and fleet participation
Complete and share calendar by Feb
Reinvigorate committees
Increase the number of socials and club volunteer participation.
Deliver the directory before the Spring Banquet
Continue to invest in RC training/development
Implement new, reliable technology to improve fair racing
Personal info you'd like to share (family, hobbies)
My only son and his wife, Dani, had twin boys, Ayden and Brody, making us grandparents for the first time. We are smitten and love every minute we are with them.
Besides sailing, my wife and I are involved with Bridge to Rwanda, an organization that is focused on finding the country's brightest students, preparing them to get into top universities, supporting them through to graduation, and then returning the scholars to the country to help shape its future.
