Board of Directors

Debbie Weeks

Commodore/Director

Member Since 2024, Current Term Ends 2027

I learned to sail on a Sunfish nearly 50 years ago and since have had extensive sailing experience on various craft in and around San Francisco Bay, the Florida Keys, Australia and here in Hawai’i. I was recently Captain of S/V Golden Rule for a month along the coast of New England and in New York Harbor with a crew of 1-3, a tight schedule and lots of deferred diesel engine and boat maintenance to coordinate. I have single-handed a 28.5′ Pearson Triton from SF Bay to Hilo twice; in 2003 with no motor and no roller-furler and in 2017, when my forestay broke early in the trip. I am also quite proficient in woodworking and fiberglass build and repair. I made a custom dinghy for my 2017 trip and have done the repair and maintenance on all of my various boats over the years, including bottom jobs, blister repair, thru-hull and port replacement, re-rigging, electrical repair and antennae installation, plumbing, topside paint, deck paint and non skid.

As an educator (I am an Instructor of Chemistry at Hawai’i Community College) I believe that learning new skills is very empowering, especially for youth. As a former Manager of technical personnel in various industries, I am an advocate for safe and positive environments. My vision for Na Hoa Holomoku Sailing Club is to continue to provide safe, fun sailing instruction and experiences to our community, to work cooperatively and collaboratively with other related clubs and entities, and to continue to maintain our fleet and support vehicles so we have resources available for safe use. Putting some Standard Operating Procedures in place for assuring people know how to run and supervise the beach safely and having additional training tools for members would be great – some of this is already in the works by knowledgeable, creative, active members – good job!

I was the Director of Disaster Services for the Red Cross in Hawai’i County for over two years in 2016-2018. I managed over 200 Red Cross hundred volunteers. Red Cross volunteers get fairly regimented training to operate disaster shelters, respond to home fires, give disaster preparedness demonstrations and even install smoke alarms. We deployed dozens of trained volunteers to the various wildfires and hurricanes on the Mainland, responded to many home fires and conducted a record number of disaster trainings island-wide during my tenure. I was also frequently invited to speak about disaster preparedness island-wide. In Australia, I served on the Board of the Gladstone Yacht Club’s Sailing School 2009 and 2010 where I wrote standard operating procedures for the safe use of the dinghies.