Executive Board

After a spending a year in Vietnam in the Army as a Non-Commissioned Officer, Jerry was discharged in 1968 and started a career in ocean transportation in Los Angeles in 1969. He held various positions ending as President and CEO of a small multinational corporation headquartered in San Francisco. He holds a 100 ton USCG Master license. In 1980, Jerry was asked to go sailing which started numerous boating adventures! After years of racing extensively, he purchased his first power boat. He’s cruised the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Jerry moved to Sausalito in 1986 and joined the Sausalito Yacht Club in 1990. Although most of his colleagues were members of the St. Francis Yacht Club, he wanted a local club which he didn’t need to use for business. At the time he belonged to several “business” clubs in the city. Jerry first served on the Board in 1996 as Bar and Gallery Director.

Kay has resided in Sausalito for more than 30 years. She recently retired from a career in the pharmaceutical industry working for Pfizer and Bayer. In her role as Director, Medical Relations, she traveled extensively interacting with top-tier specialists in Infectious Diseases in the US & Europe. After spending three years living in Germany, she is fluent in German and now working on learning Italian. Kay recently purchased a 21’ Duffy called “La Dolce Vita” and is very excited to spend more time on the water. She has been an active member since joining the club in 2011 volunteering on Entertainment and in the Ship’s Store. She served as communications chair and Secretary.

Chuck, an almost San Francisco “native” growing up in Noe Valley, minus his first five years in Perth Australia, has been an active member of the SYC since 1992. He has had a long-standing love of the water, sailing, in particular, starting with the Sunfish. His racing bug was developed on the Ranger 23 and IOR boats, but for the last 15 years, he has been campaigning his J105. He enjoys the concept of bringing nature and team work together. Married to Stephanie since 1979, they have two children. He made a career as a building contractor primarily in San Francisco while Stephanie was a banker. Now that both of them have successfully escaped work life, they enjoy the Bay, bareboat charter opportunities, and time spent on Kauai.

Tom Kowalski is a Buffalo, New York Native. With four decades of practice in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, his work has been peer-reviewed published in numerous International Journals on Hand Surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Microsurgery. Outside of his professional efforts, he has sailed and owned many boats on San Francisco Bay along with the Caribbean. Currently, he resides Part Time on a 44 Defever in Sausalito and on land in Mill Valley, California Condo. He is an avid rower / Sculler on San Francisco Bay. Tom is responsible for the SYC Wednesday Night Speaker series.

Mary is a San Francisco native who learned to love sailing while growing up in Melbourne, Australia, where she learned to sail on small boats. Back in the US, Mary continued to sail and started racing on Thistles, always as crew and never as skipper! When she started sailing regularly on the Bay it was clear that formal training seemed like a good idea, which eventually lead to her co-owning an Islander Freeport. Mary has been involved with the SYC Race Committee for many years and served as its chair in 2018. She continues to occasionally crew for races, both in San Francisco and when back in Melbourne, and tries to get out on her own (non-racing) boat as much as possible.

Karen has resided in Sausalito since 2010 after having moved to the Bay Area from Florida to open and manage the Western Division of her marine insurance company. She has been an active member of the SYC since joining and enjoys volunteering as the Ship’s Store Captain and Buyer. Karen’s love of sailing in the Bahamas and Florida led her to take the plunge in the Bay waters co-owning a 36’ Islander Freeport. Traveling extensively, Karen visits the Yacht Clubs around the country exchanging burgees and extending SYC’s Friendliest Club on the Bay welcome to all.

John has been a CPA since 1972 having started his career with Price Waterhouse & Co. He moved to Sausalito in 1972 and raced a Ranger 26 for many years. He has been a member of the SYC for almost 40 years. With experience in public and private accounting, he started his CPA practice in 1981 in San Francisco. In 2015 he relocated his office to Sausalito. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of CPAs. John and his wife Diana reside in Sausalito.