Management Committee

The Whitsunday Sailing Club is your club – governed by an elected committee and run by volunteers and paid staff.

The following committee positions were voted on in November 2023 by the Ordinary Members of the Club. For 2023 – 2024, your committee members are:

Terry Archer

Terry Archer

President

 

Terry is a long term local and operates a very successful mortgage brokerage for the last 15 years and is also involved in some local property developing.

He has 15 years in the construction industry as a construction administrator and is a qualified depreciation officer.

He participates in both twilight and weekend racing, is a former winner of the Airlie Beach Race Week and has been known to complete a few Sydney to Hobarts in his time.

He is the former off beach commodore and now supports the management team at he club in the finance department.

Rupert King

Rupert King

Commodore

I have been involved with sailing since the age of 8 when I got my first boat ( a P Class ) and began sailing at the Pakuranga Sailing Club in Auckland . From there I have progressed through Flying Ants, Paper Tigers and then Trailer Sailers which I cruised and raced.
By my early 20’s I had moved onto Keel boats and this led to a number of offshore races and deliveries to destinations such as Fiji, Noumea, a “round the North Island two handed race” and then Hamilton Island.

Having done Hamilton Island Race Week and an Airlie Beach Race Week (Hogs Breath) the following year I decided that I had no real reason to live in Auckland except to finish the vessel Overdrive which I was in the process of building. Ultimately, I finished Overdrive and spent a season learning the characteristics of multihulls before selling the house and business and heading for the Whitsundays. I have never looked back.
The Whitsundays is home and I plan to represent the Offshore Sailing Fraternity in my role as Rear Commodore Offshore and promote the sport of sailing wherever possible.

Mark Beale

Mark Beale

Committee Member

Originally born a New South Welshman, Mark moved to the Whitsundays in 1998 to work on Hamilton Island. His love of sailing and being on the water stems from growing up sailing with his father and two brothers. Mark says, “we started off like most in the small dinghies, the Manly Juniors, Flying Elevens and then into the NS, the Manly Graduates and the Lasers”. We sailed on the Shoalhaven River at Nowra and battled the tides, the rocks and the sandbanks – it was great fun”

The Whitsundays are certainly a better place to sail and when Mark moved to Hamilton Island he worked in restaurants such as The Beach House, Toucan Tango and the old yacht club Tavern. Mark worked on Banjo Paterson on his days off crewing to take guests sailing to Chalkies Beach before taking the plunge into real estate in Airlie Beach.

19 years on and Mark is married with three beautiful children and runs a large real estate business in the area employing over 40 staff. “Being an avid Wednesday afternoon twilight sailor and Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island Race week entrant, I am looking forward to helping make the sailing club the best club in the area”

Clayton Matthews

Clayton Matthews

Committee Member

Clayton has been a board member for the last since 2018  and is in his second stint as Commodore.

Clayton has a lot of external business experience including owning and operating the Airlie Beach Hog’s Breath Café for 15 years, with experience in both food and beverage operation. He also worked in management at the Airlie Beach Hotel, Magnum’s Hotel in Airlie Beach and was the former operations manager at the Port of Airlie.

Clayton loves assisting with maritime training and spends a lot of his time volunteering for sailing for schools.

Heather Sutton

Heather Sutton

Heather has been sailing since she was 11 – learning to sail in Gwen 12’s on Lake Tinaroo. She spent her University years sailing and competing in Australian Lightweight Sharpies at Intervarsity’s around Australia before graduating as a Pharmacist and traveling overseas.

She spent 30 years running her own Pharmacy business on the Isle of Wight sailing off beach  dinghies out of Brading Haven Yacht Club where she held the position of Rear Commodore Sailing for 3 years and became an RYA Senior Dinghy Instructor.

Heather has sailed from England to Australia participating in the ARC and World ARC before skippering her own boat to Vanuatu  with aid after cyclone Pam.

Since arriving in Airlie in 2012, Heather has been an active member of WSC, instructing in the Off Beach Learn to Sail programs as well as skippering and crewing in the Off Shore racing program.

She has been part of the Executive Committee since September 2019 and was Commodore in 2022.  This is her second stint as Rear-Commodore Offbeach

In her spare time she loves to do Patchwork and Quilting!

Leo Rodriguez

Leo Rodriguez

Committee Member

Leo has been sailing since the age of 12 years and has been a passionate member of the sailing community here in the Whitsundays since the early 90s.

As well competitive offshore racing in recent years, Leo and family have just finished a 3-year sailing odyssey from Greece to Australia.

After a successful career in the corporate world Leo moved here to buy and operate a charter boat. The company grew from one boat into one of the larger skippered charter boat companies in the Whitsundays.

The company was sold in 2002 and Leo moved into the telecommunications and IT field where he is currently still involved with Hosting-Australia.com

Academically Leo holds Advanced Diplomas in Management and Retail Management.

Key Staff Members

Whitsunday Sailing Club has a number of key staff members, each responsible for the day to day operations of the club.

Robin Ross

Robin Ross

General Manager

As the club’s General Manager, Robin is involved across all aspects of the club.

Leonie Matthews

Leonie Matthews

Club Secretary

Leonie has been part of the furniture at Whitsunday Sailing Club for over 10 years, with most of that time taken up with keeping the club running day in, day out.  As the club secretary, her roles are far reaching, managing the club’s marina and hard stand as well as membership and the general running of the club.  She also finds time to assist with enrolments at the Whitsunday Maritime Training Centre.

Leonie has working in hospitality all of her life. After completing a diploma in hospitality, she worked in a range of clubs, including a 20 year stint at Hogs Breath.

She is the go-to person when you need information or assistance at the club.

Ross Chisholm

Ross Chisholm

Sailing Manager

Our resident sailing manager, Ross has a wealth of knowledge in sailing and sailing clubs, having been involved as a competitor, flag officer, International Race Officer and instructor at many clubs in Australia over many years.

Ross is your point of contact for all things sailing at the club, supporting both Offshore and Off Beach programs throughout the year.

In between international regattas which take him away at times, Ross is also the Principal Race Officer for Airlie Beach Race Week.

Kaye Williams

Kaye Williams

Training Co-ordinator - Whitsunday Maritime College

Kaye has been at the club for many years, initially as club Secretary before moving into her current role as the manager of the Maritime Training Centre.