CYC Home
March 2010
Meet CYC's office staffers, both of whom are well entrenched in the local sailing and sailboat racing communities.
The new manager is Joel Thornton, who joined the staff last year as assistant manager and succeeded former manager Brian Miller, who retired, on Feb. 1. A retired Boeing computer engineer, Thornton has been a member of the club since 1995 and is a former board member.
Photo by Bruce Sherman
Vicki Ross is CYC's assistant manager and Joel Thornton is manager.
Thornton grew up sailing dinghies in Kansas, mainly on Cheney Lake in Wichita, and has raced in a number of classes in Seattle, including J/24s. He and his wife Mary cruised the Pacific for two years on their Passport 41 sloop, returning in 2008, and now live in a condo less than a mile from the CYC Shilshole clubhouse.
"When Brian and I arrived in the office, a lot of processes and procedures were in disarray," Thornton recalled. "Catching up was a big challenge, but we worked hard and got things under control."
What does he like about his job?
"Something new happens all the time, and you can't beat the setting," Thornton said.
Vicki Ross became assistant manager on February 24, 2010. She is a native of Nova Scotia, Canada, where she worked as an account manager and credit manager for Royal Bank and then as an office manager for KBSH, a small investment firm. She has been sailing all her life and was a member of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.
"My brother lived here and he bought a J/105 from (Sail Northwest owner) Bob Ross and we would all come out sailing - it was like a family reunion for four years," she said. "And then one year, Bob asked me out." They were married in the spring of 2007.
"I love it here," Vicki Ross said.