Mark Welther
President & CEO
Mark brings to Call of the Sea a love of traditional sailing ships, plus 23 years of experience leading conservation and education nonprofits.
Mark began his nonprofit career at the California League of Conservation Voters, serving for nine years as Development Officer and Membership Director. He then stepped in as Founding Executive Director of the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center, where he pioneered the innovative and diverse Youth Boatbuilding & Sailing Program, partnered with the Arques School of Traditional Boatbuilding, and directed the initial restoration of Freda, the oldest private sailing yacht in San Francisco.
In 2009, Mark returned to conservation to serve as the Executive Director of the Golden Gate Audubon Society, leading the award-winning Eco-Education Program and the raptor-protecting Altamont Pass repowering project. From 2013 to 2021, Mark led the nonprofit Redwood Forest Foundation as President & CEO, managing the nation’s largest community-owned working forest. Among his achievements at RFFI were a $5 million salmon stream restoration project and registration of California’s largest carbon offset project, which addressed climate change by sequestering more than 5,000,000 metric tonnes of carbon.
Mark learned to sail at Berkeley’s OCSC, and raced on a championship J-29 team. He also restored a Tayana 37 cruising sailboat, and owned and raced an Olympic class Finn. Mark held a U.S. Sailing Small Boat Level One Instructor Certificate, and served as volunteer crew for two seasons on the Pegasus Youth Educational Project 50-foot Alden ketch Pegasus.
Please feel free to reach out to Mark at mark@callofthesea.org or (510) 459-1131.
Alan Olson
Project Director
Alan brings over 50 years of maritime experience in boat construction, engineering, restoration and sailing, to his vision of building a historic educational tall ship for San Francisco Bay. With this passion, he founded the non-profit organization Call of the Sea in 1985 to provide hands-on, educational experiences for youth and adults aboard traditional sailing vessels. In 2005, Call of the Sea merged with another local group, led by Ken Neal, with a similar mission. The newly merged organization purchased Seaward, an 82 foot schooner to operate year round sailing programs in the Bay, and educational expeditions along the California and Mexican coasts. As of 2017, over 60,000 youth and adult students have sailed on day and overnight educational programs.
Alan’s maritime career began in 1962 when he built a 40ft catamaran in Minneapolis and sailed down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Along the way, he worked in boat yards and was lead carpenter on the construction of an 85ft catamaran. In 1971, he began construction of the 70ft brigantine, Stone Witch. After its completion in 1977, Alan sailed Stone Witch over 40,000 miles, operating educational sailing programs for youth and adults, along with public charters, on San Francisco Bay, Mexico and the Pacific Islands. Stone Witch was the flagship for Greenpeace and was involved in environmental missions along the California Coast. In the 1980’s, Alan restored the 54ft wooden staysail schooner Maramel which was used in youth educational programs for Call of the Sea and made several educational expeditions with adults including seven trips to Mexico, and a 15,000-mile, 12 month Pacific Rim voyage.
Alan took a five year sabbatical from sailing at a Northern California Buddhist monastery (Odiyan). His experience there, living and working with an all volunteer crew tasked with building complex monumental art and temples, helped prepare him for building Matthew Turner.
Sylvia Stewart Stompe
Director of Community and Business Development
Sylvia has been sailing since childhood, but took to sailing full time in her late 20’s with a position as cook and deckhand aboard an Ocean 71 ketch, for a year in the Caribbean and eastern Seaboard. Since then her careers have ranged from chef, to jewelry designer and owner of a bridal salon, but her passion for sailing has remained constant. From 2014-2016 she took a two year sabbatical to cruise the eastern Pacific aboard the classic yawl she owns with her husband, visiting Mexico, French Polynesia, Hawaii and British Columbia. Upon her return to Marin County, she started working at Call of the Sea, assisting Alan Olson on the Matthew Turner project with the construction logistics, coordinating volunteers and special events. She is now handling communications, marketing & sales for both vessels. Hiking with her Labrador in the woods of West Marin, as well as racing and cruising her sailboat in the San Francisco Bay, are her favorite pastimes.
If you are interested in volunteering with us, email info@callofthesea.org.
Patrice Young
Administrative Assistant
Patrice Young joined Call of the Sea in spring 2023 as the organization’s first Administrative Assistant. Her background for that role includes twenty-plus years of working in higher education as a Program Assistant, as well as earlier office experience with Carmel galleries and arts organizations. Along with her broad office expertise, Patrice has worked in other nonprofits, including founding, running, and performing as a cellist in a music-presenting organization in the Monterey Bay area. In 2022, she completed a Certificate in Nonprofit Management at California State University East Bay, adding more formal knowledge to her experiential store.
Along with being a nonprofit, Call of the Sea has another strong draw for Patrice, having been around boats since her childhood. She had also developed a love of wooden boats, starting the millenium with a new personal relationship and the subsequent acquisition of a 37’ foot wooden sloop, Trenayle, built in Norway as a North Sea fishing boat in 1958. After arriving in the SF Bay (under her own power) Trenayle participated in the Master Mariners regatta with original owner Al Anderson. Patrice and husband Ray lived aboard and sailed around the bay, eventually landing in Richmond. A few years later, looking for a larger floating home, they traveled to Fisherman’s Terminal in Seattle where they bought Sea Wave, an 85’ wooden tug boat, built in 1923 in Vancouver, BC, that had been converted to a liveaboard. She arrived in Richmond’s Santa Fe Channel in late September 2006. With Ray’s passing that Halloween, Patrice’s association with boats became limited, as she turned her attention to reshaping her life.
Fast forward to 2023 and the appearance of the Administrative Assistant opening with Call of the Sea. Patrice’s application was accepted and it wasn’t long before her job description began to grow, and came to include Volunteer Coordinator for the sailing volunteers, now a favorite aspect of her work. Patrice enjoys the variety of her daily activities and values her role as an integral part of the Call of the Sea team.