Growing up in the western suburbs of Denver, Colorado, there wasn’t a ton of open water around. So, we’d take Annie, my dad’s 1987 19 foot Four Winns, to Glendo Reservoir in Wyoming to go camping, tubing, and waterskiing for a few weeks each summer. My dad also had a 15 foot Sol Cat that I have a few younger memories of hearing “DUCK!” Camping trips to Glendo are my favorite childhood memories, and how my love of boats and the water was born. 

 

In Welsh mythology, Dylan is a sea deity and is the god of the tides and waves. I learned that at the influential age of 14. This news cemented my love of boats and the water, and my superiority complex. At 15, my dad and I got our SCUBA certifications together, deepening my obsession with the sea. My love of the water, combined with my urge to take all my toys apart as a kid and work on my own cars as a teenager led me to commercial diving as a career. I moved to Seattle at 19 to attend the Divers Institute of Technology.

 

My first job after dive school took me to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where I spent one season diving on fishing vessels and even helped salvage one that sank in the Aleutian Islands. From there I went to the oil field in the Gulf of Mexico to do maintenance on oil rigs and pipelines. That lasted for about a year, at which point I decided I wanted to live longer. I made my way back to Seattle where I’d made such amazing friends and decided to call the Pacific Northwest home. 

 

At 23, I bought my first boat, which I found on craigslist. A 1972, 28 foot Thomley Sedan Cruiser. I’ve only ever seen one other Thomley to this day. $2,900 got me the stripped down 1972 F100 of boats. The forward cabin had a small fridge, propane oven and stove, V-berth cushions, a semi-functional head, and a little storage. The aft deck was bare plywood and two seats with cabinets under them. Under the hood was an old Chrysler 318 on its last legs. All this wrapped up with a canvas enclosure, decades old, windows so oxidized that I couldn’t scrub a view out of them if I tried. When I think of it now, the only thing attractive about the boat was my $3,000 in the bank! I restored the boat and lived on her for seven years. I started a boat tour company with her, called Candere Cruising.  

 

In 2014, I convinced my dear old dad to move up here to Seattle to go into business with me. And over the last decade, we’ve grown Candere Cruising to five boats, three power and two sail. I also earned my 100 Ton USCG Master license.

 

Keeping our fleet of boats running has made me a good mechanic and systems troubleshooter. Enough so that when the pandemic started, I started a new business offering maintenance and management services to boat owners.  

 

I had learned to sail with my friends and boat neighbors. Then I sailed more once my dad moved here and bought his Hunter 32. In 2017 I met my wife-to-be, joining an avid sailing and racing family, and have sailed the San Juans, the Gulf Islands, Barkley Sound, and we delivered a yacht to Ketchikan, Alaska in 2020.  

 

My background is a little more in powerboats, and we currently live on a classic Ocean Alexander 40, but I love to sail and am shaping my life to spend more of it exploring the PNW. 

 

I’ve spent a decade using my passion for people and boats to offer travelers and locals my favorite views of my favorite city. Now, here at Swiftsure Yachts, my goal is to channel those same passions to transition unique and capable yachts from those whose dreams they’ve fulfilled, to those whose dreams they will fulfill next!