This is final installment in our series about people you're likely to reach on the phone when you call SBO.
Phil is a guy who, when he puts his mind to something, can do anything. He is the perfect combination of left brain and right brain thinking. Just when you think he's the biggest nerd, he stuns you with his creativity and humor. He is perhaps the funniest guy I know and certainly the best business partner I could ever ask for.
Phil didn't grow up sailing or really even around boats, but was bit hard by the sailing bug in 1990 while on a cruise ship in the BVI. All those sailboats looked like a lot more fun than that giant, ponderous ship.
About a year later, with sailing lessons and a little time-share experience aboard an Islander 32, Phil wanted to experience a larger boat in warmer water. He talked the Moorings into letting him charter in the BVI (with a valid credit card it didn't take much persuasion). The charter went well, with hardly any property damage and no loss of life.
Phil returned from the BVI with twofootitis and an even greater desire to be part of the sailing community. So he bought his first sailboat, a Hunter 35.5 which he named Being There. He sailed it around Puget Sound for a few years until he encountered a Hunter Passage 42. "This," he thought, "is a boat I could live on." And he did, for the next four years, with his lab-mix, Sucia.
Phil had an ad agency at the time which was an early proponent of the internet. The agency had a T-1 line and a server and in 1996, frustrated with the lack of information online about his boat, Phil learned a little html and started the Hunter Owners Web, a simple forum. It was kind of an "if you build it they will come" project and the site started to gain traffic. Not long after he called me to say, "I think this could be the marine business we've always talked about," and we eventually grew HOW into today's SailboatOwners.com.
Phil thinks he has a brief sailing resume but has sailed all over the Northwest and the Carribbean. In keeping with the way he "puts his mind to anything," he decided the only way to really learn this sailing thing was to go it alone. So he embarked on a 7 week cruise, mostly single-handed, to Canada's Desolation Sound. It was a time of personal growth, reflection, and the sheer terror of docking a 42' boat in unknown places by yourself. Not for the faint of heart.
He later moved up to a Hunter 450 which he also lived on, eventually moving back ashore and dedicating himself to the growth of SBO.
These days, Phil is mostly at the helm of SailboatOwners.com. He lives on Bainbridge Island with his wife Kim, cats June and Cliff and dogs Joe and Rudy. Some of the site development is done during his daily commute on a ferry crossing Puget Sound.
Phil is a guy who, when he puts his mind to something, can do anything. He is the perfect combination of left brain and right brain thinking. Just when you think he's the biggest nerd, he stuns you with his creativity and humor. He is perhaps the funniest guy I know and certainly the best business partner I could ever ask for.
Phil didn't grow up sailing or really even around boats, but was bit hard by the sailing bug in 1990 while on a cruise ship in the BVI. All those sailboats looked like a lot more fun than that giant, ponderous ship.
About a year later, with sailing lessons and a little time-share experience aboard an Islander 32, Phil wanted to experience a larger boat in warmer water. He talked the Moorings into letting him charter in the BVI (with a valid credit card it didn't take much persuasion). The charter went well, with hardly any property damage and no loss of life.
Phil returned from the BVI with twofootitis and an even greater desire to be part of the sailing community. So he bought his first sailboat, a Hunter 35.5 which he named Being There. He sailed it around Puget Sound for a few years until he encountered a Hunter Passage 42. "This," he thought, "is a boat I could live on." And he did, for the next four years, with his lab-mix, Sucia.
Phil had an ad agency at the time which was an early proponent of the internet. The agency had a T-1 line and a server and in 1996, frustrated with the lack of information online about his boat, Phil learned a little html and started the Hunter Owners Web, a simple forum. It was kind of an "if you build it they will come" project and the site started to gain traffic. Not long after he called me to say, "I think this could be the marine business we've always talked about," and we eventually grew HOW into today's SailboatOwners.com.
Phil thinks he has a brief sailing resume but has sailed all over the Northwest and the Carribbean. In keeping with the way he "puts his mind to anything," he decided the only way to really learn this sailing thing was to go it alone. So he embarked on a 7 week cruise, mostly single-handed, to Canada's Desolation Sound. It was a time of personal growth, reflection, and the sheer terror of docking a 42' boat in unknown places by yourself. Not for the faint of heart.
He later moved up to a Hunter 450 which he also lived on, eventually moving back ashore and dedicating himself to the growth of SBO.
These days, Phil is mostly at the helm of SailboatOwners.com. He lives on Bainbridge Island with his wife Kim, cats June and Cliff and dogs Joe and Rudy. Some of the site development is done during his daily commute on a ferry crossing Puget Sound.
