Personnel

Team Members:
Don Cowie, Bruce McPherson, Bill Endean, Roger Warner, Heidi Garman, Aaron Smith.

Don Cowie

Cowie has had a long and successful career in sailing, including three Olympic games and several America’s Cup campaigns.

He and Rod Davis took the Star class silver medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. They were a close fifth in the same event at the 1996 Olympics and in Sydney in 2000; Cowie, Davis and Alan Smith were controversially deprived of a semi-final spot in the Soling competition.

Aucklander Cowie, born in 1962, was part of the winning Japanese Kenwood Cup team, sailing Tiger, in the early 1990s. In 1993 he helped Russell Coutts’ team win the world One Ton Cup, and was part of the German team that won the Admiral’s Cup that year.

His America’s Cup involvement began at Fremantle in 1986-87, when he was a sail maker in Michael Fay’s first challenge. He was a trimmer in 1988 on the Big Boat challenge, and was with New Zealand in 1992. Cowie coached the Prada team for the 2000 Cup and in 2003 was with the One World team.

Cowie is married to Jane. They have two children.

He was the New Zealand yachting section team manager at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Don has connections, which run deep throughout the yachting world community. He could and would help immensely.

I know him as a personal friend and trust him fully.

Bruce McPherson

Stories always abound in any competitive class made up of happy boaters, and conversations between enthusiasts invariably get around to the antics of Bruce McPherson.

McPherson was a modern day swashbuckler, who drove his boat hard and in the process showed that there is a fine line between fearlessness and madness. Vestalia was always the boat that popped a big spinnaker when wiser sailors would leave their ‘chutes’ in the bag. One such occasion, was a Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Around the Island Race, sailed in a northeasterly gale. It was an extraordinary sight to see the 22-foot Vestalia planning like a high-speed runabout past 60 foot first division keelers cautiously making their way.

He received his boat builders certificate after five years of coursework in N.Z. and 10,000 hours of apprenticeship.

He has both sail and powerboat experience having sailed Maxi yachts (80 –90 feet) for individuals as their personal coordinator all over the world.

He was the marine coordinator for the movie Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks and designed the bilge system for the fake capsule. He served as marine coordinator for the movie Under Siege with Steven Seagal and Tommy Lee Jones. He served again as marine coordinator for the movie Indecent Proposal with Robert Redford, Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson.

Enthusiasm is a key component to Yacht Club activities. It ignites success. I have personally witnessed beginners delight in his instruction and fall in love with personally taking control of their own boating.

McPherson is N.Z. born and resides in Seattle with a wife Jennifer and two children.

He works Yacht Brokerage throughout the world and guides Yacht Club activities and events. He has recently created successful summer programs for new boaters both power and sail along the Seattle waterfront including sponsorships from Bank of America, Fisheries Supply and others. He could and would help immensely.

I know him as a personal friend and trust him fully.

Bill Endean

Commodore Endean of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (RNZYS), served throughout the entire history of winning and losing the America’s Cup.

Roger Warner

Commodore Warner has served with the Seattle Yacht Club (SYC), having been a racer and a cruiser in the Pacific Northwest and Canada. He has served as the accountant for SYC, later as secretary of SYC, later as Vice Commodore and now Commodore. Established in September 1892, the original clubhouse was located on Elliot Bay and was moved to its present location on Portage Bay in 1920. Since that time, membership has grown to approximately 3000.

Today, permanent moorage is provided to members at the Portage Bay main facility and two piers at Elliott Bay, where the club also has a facility shore side for members' enjoyment.

The club also has nine outstations with shore-side facilities and moorage for the members to enjoy while cruising in the United States and Canada.

The elected leadership of the club is composed of the commodore, vice commodore and rear commodore, as well as a nine-member board of trustees, a secretary and a treasurer. Seattle Yacht Club is heavily based on member involvement through its committee structure. The committees number approximately 65 and range in size from a few to the more than 100 members serving on our Opening Day committee.

The Commodore presides over an active racing club that features a very competitive junior program, world champion predicted log racers in power boating, leading one-design, big boat/ocean sailboat racers, and world champions in sailing.

A general manager and a team of nearly 100 employees lead the operations of the Seattle Yacht Club. The executive chef, the food and beverage director and the catering director manage the restaurant and bar operations in the main dining room and the Ward Room, as well as the informal setting of the Marine Room.

Heidi Garman

Currently owns and operates Extreme Marine Detailing yacht services which offers complete care for yachts up to 130 feet including exterior, interior, diving and service maintenance contracts. She flies to yachts in Canada for care giving and has her main business in Seattle. Some of her clients include Craig McCaw’s Cellular One

Most recent product development includes ‘Mold Off ‘ a marine specific use product for maintaining boats and the marina docks. See www.moldoff.org.

Ms. Garman has all the abilities to educate and train an entire staff of yacht care personnel. She is available to train personnel both here and abroad. She is single and capable.

I have been a client of Extreme Marine for nearly five years and have entrusted them as the exclusive detailer for my personal yachts. People often mistake her boats for being ‘like new’ when often they are eight years old. Her business makes possible professional yacht care and appearance for the owner who wants the boat in private ownership without full time crew, which are usually too many man-hours for just one boat.

Ms. Garman could and would help immensely.

Aaron Smith

Currently owns Yachtsmith, which is a full service personal yacht maintenance service. Aaron travels to vessels all over the world recently working for clients in Hong Kong.

Aaron has extensive yacht service capabilities on all systems found onboard.

Yachtsmith currently services all our personal vessels.

Aaron is capable of training both here and abroad.