Coconut Grove Sailing Club

 

Vice Commodore - Doug Hanks

 

Rear Commodore - Sean Connett

 

Treasurer - Tony Battaglia

 

Secretary - Bob Olmedo

 

Board of Directors - Brian Donnahue, Don Kessler, Paul Van Puffelen & Christian Vargas ( 4 candidates for 3 seats)

 

These and nominations made by any ten voting members of the CGSC will me voted on at the Annual Meeting June 3, 2011 @ 6:30PM. 

 

Nominations made by any ten voting members of the CGSC must be posted on the bulletin board no later than 5/24/11.  The Nominatiing Committee posted the results on May 3, 2011.

 

 

 

 

Former CEO of a local aviation co.  Education Industrial/MechanicalEngineering. Currently do consulting work, mostly international, planning and designing manufacturing plants. Also do some merger and acquisition work.

 

Joined CGSC about five years ago, but my younger daughter learned to sail at CGSC 20 years ago. Long association with club.

 

Own the 1983 Cal 35 "Heartset".  Never kept a boat at the club.

 

Raced casually since college, 420's, 470's, built and raced iceboats (DN class). Have raced Heartset locally and in the El Morro Castle race in Havana in 2001 (2nd place). Won class in Miami Key Largo last year.  Have cruised extensively in Keys Bahamas, and some in Cuba. Bareboated in the Grenadines in the early 70's.

 

On the board of Goodwill Industries of South Florida since 1992, Chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee. On the Coconut Grove Waterfront Plan Implementation Committee. 

 

 

---

 

I am 48, from Northern Minnesota and grew up on the northern shore of Lake Superior. I have lived in Miami since 1987 when I came here to work for the legendary Criteria Recording Studios. I am a Sound and Lighting systems engineer and have been a design/build contractor since 1994.

 

My involvement with CGSC began in summer 2006 when my oldest son Alex started sailing in summer camp and continued on the OPTI team. From the beginning my focus has been on youth sailing and contributing to the team. Being part of CGSC has meant a lot to me and my family and I seek to be engaged and active in giving back to the club. My family upgraded to full membership last year after the restructuring.

 

I have served as an interim board member since November of last year. My board involvement has included the organization of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival’s first CGSC Open House. It was a tremendous success this year in giving the club exposure to a large variety of people who didn’t know anything about us. I look forward to building on the Art Festival event in the years to come. Also in the works are initiating an annual CGSC Youth Regatta, additional youth and family sailing events, and expanding the learn-to-sail, optimist and laser fleets and programs.

 

My interest continues to be youth sailing, as I have an up and coming OPTI sailor and an avid laser racer in the family, but I have also dabbled in race committee, volunteering my power boat and navigation skills, and have taken the keelboat clinic. My personal plans at the club include expanding on and getting certifications for both of these activities.

 

Finally, I am a state licensed specialty electrical contractor. Having worked as a team member on many building projects in Florida and the Caribbean gives me some insight into the workings of the construction challenges the club faces in the coming years with the building, dock and mooring field.

 

 

 

 

My name is Brian Donahue, I have been a Coconut Grove resident since 2005 when I moved to Miami.  I was introduced to the Sailing Club by my good friends, the Pruetts, and since joining, have really tried to become as involved as possible.  It is important to me while being a part of something like the CGSC, that I do everything I can to make it the best possible organization that it can be.  Since becoming a member, I’ve helped to spearhead the club’s marketing efforts, in order to generate more members, boat owners and affiliates, as well as being directly involved in organizing the Club’s entertainment calendar, to draw a larger social following.  The Club’s perception should be something that reflects a sense of community, social interest and of course, the great sport of Sailing.  I would like the chance to help better promote these attributes by joining the board of directors, so I can join in all efforts, while bringing a new affluence of knowledge to the Club’s management. 

 

 

 

I spent from age 18 until age 52 as a professional pilot. I flew 22,000 hours over that time, which is quite a few. I flew for actors and rock stars (Elvis Presley and friends), crop dusted for many seasons in the Mississippi delta, I was Chief Pilot for seven years for The Aviation Management Consortium based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. They operated globally twenty-seven corporate jet aircraft from Lear Jets to the Boeing 707 and 737. I flew and managed famous heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey’s Lear Jet, while acting as Director of Operations for his cargo airline called Challenge Air Cargo which was absorbed by UPS.  Later I was a captain for two years flying 737’s for Air South. Woven through all this - I flew the Lockheed Hercules C-130 quite a bit for mostly humanitarian reasons in many undeveloped countries around the world.

 

I retired from flying in 2001 and turned my attention to professional photography, digitally generated art, and helping out my very talented wife with her interior design business. I have excellent computer skills and I am quite accomplished with computer graphics software and commercial printing. I also taught part time for a couple of years at the Pan Am Flight Training Academy at MIA in the Boeing 737 simulator to make the transition to my new life on the ground a little easier.

 

My wife and I have lived in Coconut Grove since 1988. We are very active in the community. I am a past board member of the Rotary Club of Coconut Grove, which meets every Thursday afternoon at the Sailing Club. We were Social Members of the Sailing Club since the beginning of the program and converted to regular membership when offered the opportunity. I became US Sailing certified for keel boats at CGSC and take full advantage of the member usage program with the club Ensigns. I also crew regularly on our member David Snyder’s Hunter 376. We finished third in our class in the 2011 Miami Key Largo Race.