VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT:  ALEX HELFAND

Boat Name and Type:  Compass Rose, Nautich Open 40 

Home Port:  Annapolis MD

Years volunteering for the Salty Dawgs:  Since September 2020

I became a member of Salty Dawgs in 2020 as a result of my search for information on Bluewater sailing.  This was in preparation for taking delivery of a new catamaran in 2021.

I made the offer to help in September 2020, starting by helping to transfer member data from our old website to the new member clicks website.  What convinced me to get more involved was listening to others speak at the tribute, held in December 2020, for Linda Knowles, cofounder of the salty dawgs.  Soon after that, Hank George asked me to work on organizing / identifying speakers for webinars in 2021 which led to my joining the SDSA board in 2022

I have had a passion for sharing knowledge about sailing since I was in my late teens.  While in college, I started teaching sailing to adults / families buying sailboats ( many were first time sailboat owners ), then I ran a summer sailing school / rental program at my college.  I started big boat racing on the Hudson River and then moved to racing and cruising on LI Sound. That led me to running the jr sailing program at our yacht club for over 10 years and becoming a Board member and Co-Chair for the Junior Sailing Association of Long Island Sound.  Teaching / organizing training events was a big part of these activities which made it easy to step into the role of SDSA Education Coordinator.

In addition to SDSA volunteering, my wife, Ellen, and I have been cruising in New England / Maine / Nova Scotia the last three years and have spent two winters in the Caribbean.  We like to travel in search for good food and wines, not always on our boat, and plan to do more of that in the next year or two. I am also involved with the Storm Trysail organization in Annapolis, supporting their junior safety at sea program.

The education committee role is a small group of volunteers who identifies speakers and topics relevant to the SDSA membership and organizes them into a series of webinars held throughout the year.

We are fortunate to have some great sponsors who can address many topics and we also have experienced SDSA members whom we can call upon to participate in some of our webinars.

If you want to contribute ideas and help expand the depth of our webinars, consider volunteering.