Diana R. Coan remembers~

PYC’s first female Commodore 1993-1994

I was the first female commodore.  Paul Risseeuw, Bill Grover,

and Dick Buel wanted me to join the board.  Dick Buel asked

me to take over the secretary position to fill in for someone.

I said I would, but I did not want to be secretary, I wanted to

be commodore. Soon, I was vice commodore, then commodore.

I grew up in Shelter Harbor,  Rhode Island.  I was one of the first

female skippers at Weekapaug Yacht Club in the late '50s early

'60s. I sailed a Comet sailboat.  My degrees are in the sciences,

and I love hands on engineering projects.  Paul Risseeuw taught

me how to “sweat" pipes under PYC when we were working on

the pump  System and I helped build the Opti racks as well as

building an Opti  with  my 8 year old son.  All great fun times at

 Pettipaug Yacht Club!

          Commodores Wedding Photo ~ Jim and Diana Coan

Jim and I were married by Bill Winterer on the deck at PYC, October

1991. At the time, Jim was Commodore, and I was Vice Commodore.

 Attending were my sons, Kyle and Gordon Sheffield, Paul and Mary

Risseeuw, Bill and  Dee Grover, Peter and Sukey Howard, and

"Best Dog" Zephyr. 25 years later (2016), we came back to the deck.

                                             PYC Optis2, PYC Optis2

Paul Risseeuw directed the building of nine wooden optimist dinghies. 

Bill Grover (PYC Commodore 1985,86) built "Kix" PYC Optimist #1, 

Jim Coan (Commodore 1991,92) built PYC Optimist #2, and my son,

Kyle Sheffield, and I (Commodore 1993.94) built PYC Optimist #3.

Tim Robin (Commodore 1998,99) built "Red Robin" #5, and Paul built

"Your Name Here" #8. Wooden boat building was quite an experience,

especially for those of us with little or no woodworking experience,

however, Paul and the team guided us through the process, solvents

and all! 

Written by Diana Coan.

                                                                   ~

To all members. Please share PYC memory. Thank you.

commodore @pettipaug.org