When did you first become involved with the Megayacht industry, and how did your career progress from then?
I started a boat maintenance business in Newport Beach Ca. in 1974 called Blue Pacific Yacht Maintenance. I had two girl teams washing boats in a weekly maintenance program in their bikinis.  As you can figure, this got me a lot of customers. Customers from time to time would ask if I could deliver their boat to Catalina Island, San Francisco, Cabo or Seattle. After doing this for a while I went to Swede Jensen boat license class in Newport. Once I obtained my license, I ran a boat called Charisma for local tour in Southern California.

One of my customers asked if I wanted to be his Captain on a new build at Hatteras. This was my first build as full time captain. I ran this boat for a couple of years, before it was sold. The person that bought the boat asked me to stay on as his Captain, which I did. He then wanted to build another vessel at Christensen Shipyard in Vancouver WA, which was the 95 foot Sun Glow. The build took two years.

At Christensen yard I dated a girl, Debbie White, who was working at the yard. Things worked out and I ended up taking her along as a steward/deckhand. At the time she was still in the US Navy Reserve. We cruised for a couple of years and decided to get married. The owner sold the boat after failing health problems in the family. I delivered the vessel to a new owner in Florida. Shortly after selling the boat I met Stanley Hiller, who asked if I wanted to be his Captain/Project manager at Christensen Shipyard building the BAH HUMBUG IV, a 120 foot yacht.

When did you move onshore?
I took the job and moved back to Vancouver with my wife. The process took about two years to complete. Knowing most of Christensens personally, this was a great two year project. After cruising on Bah Humbug for 11 years, we sold her. In the course of this time, we had a son, Hayden, who cruised with us for 3 years before we sold the boat. We were like family with the owners so they loved having our little guy aboard. Hayden learned to walk on the boat in Alaska; it seemed to take him a little longer I guess because the vessel always had some movement.

When we sold the Bah Humbug my wife and I decided to look for a land based job, as our son would be entering school. I did not want to be away on trips and come home once in a while.

I ended up taking a job at Platypus Marine in Port Angeles, WA which is one of the most beautiful areas in the US. I have been here for 3 years now. My job is Marketing and estimates.  I just love my job, as I am still involved in the industry and still go to the boat shows and crew parties.

Was it easy to leave sailing behind?
Building three boats over the years and having a yacht maintenance company make it a very easy transition. I was always on the other side of the fence. With this experience, it gives me an advantage working with Captains and crews that come in for refit work. I have been in their shoes and try to make it a pleasant experience for both the vessel and shipyard.

What do you miss?
I miss cruising on those long passages; rough or flat calm it was always very interesting. I’ve been through quite a lot of crews over the years and a Who’s Who of guests. The thing I don't miss about being a Captain is missing holidays, family parties, weddings etc. Now being based on land I can actually plan on going somewhere. I also don't miss the part about living in a tight area for long periods at a time with a variety of personalities (which all blended in after a few months)

What is the megayacht scene like in the Pacific Northwest?
The North West in the next 5 years is expecting a lot of mega yacht traffic. I helped form the Pacific North West Yachting Association, along with Cindy Segal and Brook Stabbert and about 12 others.  We will be working on promoting the North West as a mega yacht destination, along with working on Piloting issues, and working with the state to promote schooling for crew training and training for North West boat builders and refit yards. We are making tremendous progress. We just had a meeting with San Diego Super Yacht Association regarding working together on our ideas for mega yacht traffic to the West Coast. Within the next 5 years we anticipate many megayachts in the area. If you check out Yachtspotter you can see by the traffic to the North West this summer there were quite a lot of megayachts new to the area.

Stabbert in Seattle have built mega yacht ships and a few other marinas in area are gearing up for the influx of mega yachts.

What was your favorite destination?
Mexico for fishing and the Bahamas and Alaska; the owner never liked being tied to docks so we were anchored out most of the time, which gave us the opportunity to see a lot of remote areas. Some of the crew didn't like being anchored all the time as it was hard to get off the boat.

What was your fondest memory as a Captain?
Walking up Kill Devil Hill, N.C. with Stanley Hiller  (one of the inventors of the helicopter)