Officers
Commodore: Dan Mooney
Vice Commodore: John Porter
Rear Commodore: George Bivoino
Secretary: Robin Porter
Treasurer: Pete Grimlund
Members At Large
Gayle Austin
Judith Canfield – Membership
Ann Koehler-Christensen
Mark Conover – Communications Chair
Phil Simon
Starke Scott
Youth Sailing Association (YSA)
President: Clay Canfield
Secretary: Clyde Jenkins
Treasurer: Starke Scott
Members of the South Whidbey Yacht Club Board of Directors are elected annually in the fall. The board meets the second Wednesday of every month. Club members may attend board meetings or reach out to any board member if they wish to offer thoughts and ideas, or want to have an item brought before the board.
Dan Mooney – Commodore
Dan grew up boating on the Susquehanna River and northern parts of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. After pestering his parents nonstop, he got his own boat at age 11 and has loved boating and being around the water ever since. Dan and his wife Julia enjoy just about any kind of boating including power, sail and paddling. They currently own a 16 ft Boston Whaler and several kayaks.
Dan and Julia have owned a family getaway cabin on Whidbey for many years and after retiring from Boeing decided to make Whidbey Island their home. They joined the South Whidbey Yacht Club in 2018, finding it to be a great way to make new friends and hang out with other boaters. They are active in the kayaking group and are part of the SWIFT San Juan 24 syndicate.
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As Commodore, Dan leads the SWYC, supporting the Board of Directors members and club members in the many and varied activities and events of South Whidbey Yacht Club.
John Porter – Vice Commodore
John’s first career was flying for the Air Force. He then spent many years flying for a major airline until his recent retirement. All along, John and his spouse, Robin, maintained an interest in sailing. John and Robin have had many sailing adventures, including sailing in the Caribbean.
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As the Vice Commodore, John assists the Commodore in keeping the organization in ship-shape condition.
George Bivoino - Rear Commodore
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As the Rear Commodore, George is responsible for planning our monthly meeting programs, engaging speakers and managing the meeting logistics. Got ideas for a program? See George.
Robin Porter – SWYC Secretary
Following a career as a criminal investigator in the Air Force, and then working within the journalism profession, Robin retired with husband John (our new vice commodore) to Whidbey Island. She and John have deep sailing experience, including island hopping in the Caribbean.
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As board Secretary, Robin records and posts to the SWYC website all minutes from the Board of Directors monthly meetings.
Pete Grimlund – SWYC / YSA Treasurer
Pete was born and raised in Bellingham, WA and always close to the water. He was often invited along on friends’ and family’s boats where he developed a love for boating, especially power boats. After meeting Barb at school in Colorado, getting married and soon thereafter moving to Minnesota, Pete continued his water ways in canoes and a 16’ center console Proline, exploring many of Minnesota’s 10,000+ lakes with his daughters and fellow fishermen friends.
After a career in healthcare technologies and entrepreneurial endeavors, Pete and Barb returned to the PNW in 2013 and retired to Whidbey Island in 2018 along with their new retirement toy, a 32’ Boston Whaler moored up in Anacortes. Getting to know others in their new community who shared a common interest in recreational boating and related water activities prompted Pete to join the SWYC in 2019 and later to volunteer to become a member of the board and soon the Vice Commodore and then Commodore in late 2021, serving two terms.
Pete and Barb enjoy exploring the waters around Whidbey and the San Juan’s while cruising, fishing and crabbing.
SWYC Board Responsibilities: In his role as Treasurer, Pete records and tracks all financial transactions for both SWYC and the Youth Sailing Association (YSA).
Gayle Austin – SWYC Board Member at Large
I grew up in the desert southwest, but got a taste of the ocean every summer on Catalina, where my grandparents lived. But I love the mountains also, just let me be outside! I’ve lived on Whidbey since 1982. My first kayak adventures were in the couple of years before, in a home-built Folbot. Life got busy with children and employment as a DSHS social worker for Island and San Juan Counties. I loved going to work in the San Juans, ferrying and sometimes flying, checking out the currents below. Eventually, I became a paddler again, borrowing a boat, buying my trusty Seaward in 1993, and building a 14’ Pygmy in 2017-19. Friends and I organized WISK when the county was planning trails and we wanted to have access to the water as part of the conversation. The group grew, incorporating safety and camping. Many wonderful September trips followed, inside and outside Vancouver Island, up the Canadian coast and in Baja. Since those years, some of our dearest friends have moved, stopped paddling, or passed away. My partner Bob Kuehn and I continued to enjoy paddling trips and we are now so happy to become part of SWYC, with new friends and new adventures. I am enjoying waters closer to home and hope to have short paddles with camping, as well as more fun with Windward Women.
My current organization involvements include Artists of South Whidbey—I’m still learning in acrylics, and Sound Water Stewards. I monitored the Possession Point kelp beds for a couple of years. My past board experience was with the SW Children’s Center and Bayview Hall.
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As a Member At Large, Gayle attends board meetings, offers recommendations and assists with planning club events and strategies.
Judith Canfield – SWYC Board Member at Large/Membership Chair
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As a Member At Large, Judith attends board meetings, offers recommendations and assists with planning club events and strategies. As Membership Chair, Judith discusses club membership with interested parties, introduces their membership application to the Board for approval decisions, and follows up with new member welcome packets and engaging communications to ensure new members feel welcome and have questions answered. Reach out to Judith if you know someone who is interested in joining the SWYC.
Mark Conover – SWYC Board Member at Large/Communications Chair
Mark discovered the South Whidbey Yacht Club when signing up for his first sailing lesson in May 2021. Learning to sail was always on his short list of activities to tackle. Having moved to Whidbey in 2020, and being surrounded by all things nautical, the goal of getting on the water became a pressing matter.
Thanks to the capable (and patient) instructors in the Adult Sailing Program, Mark and his partner Myra were soon gaining a level of comfort on the water. They were inspired to purchase a San Francisco Pelican sailing dingy in order to pursue their new hobby.
A native of Texas, Mark arrived on Whidbey by way of Seattle and Bellingham, as his software engineering career veered toward the Northwest.
SWYC Board Responsibilities:
As the Communications Chair (aka ‘Bilgerat’) Mark edits and distributes the SWYC monthly newsletter, meeting notifications and reminders, club surveys, co-manages the club Facebook site and manages the SWYC website. Reach out to Mark if you have any thoughts or ideas in the way we communicate with club members.
Ann Koehler-Christensen – SWYC Board Member at Large
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As a Member At Large, Ann attends board meetings, offers recommendations and assists with planning club events and strategies.
Phil Simon – SWYC Board Member at Large
Phil joined SWYC in November 2008. His mother was born and raised in Clinton and his father on the waterfront in Langley. His earliest memories are playing on the beach in front of his grandfather’s house and developing his love of the water and the NW environment. His early lessons in seamanship and physics were honed along that waterfront. He and his little brother would walk out to Sandy Point at low tide only to find the only to get back to the house was to climb on a log and paddle it home at high tide. Early lessons on boat handling, tides and currents. In the 50’s and early 60’s with his family he cruised the Sound and Canada, as far north as Campbell River, Vancouver Island, in the family power boat, a Seattle built 38’ 1923 Shane (Monk design). Although a lifelong power boater he has a little experience in sailing. In the late 60’s he rented a 19’ Gladiator sailboat from his father’s bare boat charter business on Lake Union. Took it through the locks, up the outside of Whidbey, across the straights to Friday Harbor and back through Deception Pass.
He has had a decades-long career as a corrosion control engineering consultant (semi-retired). This includes corrosion control system design, installation and corrosion leak prediction. His projects included protection for ship hulls, nuclear power plant cooling systems, steel reinforced concrete bridge decks, dock support pilings, buried and above ground petroleum tank bottoms (gas stations and refineries), natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines, and crude, product and water transmission pipelines. Despite the fact that he has designed systems for and traveled to projects on virtually every continent (except Antarctica), he has never found a place he’d rather live than Whidbey Island. Phil is served the club as a flag-ranked officer more than once.
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As a Member at Large, Phil attends board meetings.
Bruce Morris – Immediate Past Commodore/ Advisory Non-Board Position
Bruce has been a member of SWYC since 2009. He started boating as a teenager in kayaks and canoes. After a career in the Navy, he met Barbara and they married on Whidbey Island. Their first boating experience was rafting the John Day River in Oregon which became an annual trip for many years. They have extensive cruising experience in Puget Sound, the San Juan’s, and Canada onboard their Camano 31.
Bruce and Barbara co-chaired the Crabfest for many years, and have been extensively involved in catching crab for the Crabfest. They have also both enjoyed the annual fishing trip to Vancouver Island.
SWYC Board Responsibilities: As the Immediate Past Commodore (2023 – 2024), Bruce sits in on board meetings as an advisor rather than as a voting member. He provides perspective, relevant knowledge and insight to board discussions.
SWYC Youth Sailing Association (YSA) Board of Directors
Clay Canfield – YSA President
YSA Responsibilities: Clay oversees both the youth and adult sailing classes and helps to administer the Pelican racing program. If you have questions about any of these activities, reach out to Bob.
Pete Grimlund – YSA Treasurer
Pete serves as Treasurer for both South Whidbey Yacht Club and the Youth Sailing Association. Pete’s history and responsibilities are described above as part of the SWYC board.