As Seattle Fleet 61’s Growth and Promotion Chairman, Keith provided the spark for fleet growth. Fleet 61 has grown to more than 40 boats, up from 13 just one year ago. Wednesday night fleet races boasted up to 29 Thistles on the line for any one race.

To make the growth spurt happen, Keith met some challenges. Curious as to why the Fleet was losing boats, Keith took his Thistle Class membership book, yacht club roster, and fleet mailing list and contacted every Thistle owner. He asked both serious and humorous questions designed to get at some of the issues that caused some people to stop sailing. Taking each response to heart, Keith addressed concerns and offered solutions, including offering babysitting, one-day regattas, a crew pool, and "In-Boat Mentoring Program" that put experienced skippers with less experienced sailors to provide advice, guidance, and confidence.

To attract those who knew nothing about Thistles, Keith designed a poster and flyers for the Marina and In one year he had reprinted 500 of them. Additionally, Keith organized promotions like "Take the Tiller Day" giving rides to prospective Thistlers and adding more boats to the fleet. And Keith kept his boat at the marina all winter so when someone called about the Thistle, Keith not only showed them his boat, but he has taken almost fifty people Thistle sailing. Anyone contacting the fleet received a packet containing handouts on Crew Pool Members, boats for sale, dues structure, tuning guide, racing schedule, along with the Fleet 61 newsletter and the latest issue of Bagpipe.

In August 2000, the US Windsurfing National Championship on Martha’s Vineyard was cancelled. Too late to reschedule, Kent came up with a solution. In conjunction with Adventure Sports, Kent provided 50 Techno (One-Design) windsurf boards for the Islamorada Pro-Am in the Keys. He convinced the event director that they could host the first ever US Windsurfing National Techno Championships.

Additionally, Kent sponsored a regional one-design Shortboard race series in the US. Some Techno boards were provided for these events at little or no cost. The male and female winners in each region were provided air transportation to the Pro-Am.

"Kent put together one of the best planned events in windsurfing history," wrote Renee Linkens, US Windsurfing Regional Director in her nomination letter, "Kent and his volunteers provided a truly magnificent Nationals venue."

The year 2000 is the first year that US Windsurfing has achieved its mission to establish sanctioned events for National Championships in Open, One Design /Formula, Wave, and Freestyle and has crowned champions in each discipline. Windsurfing competition everywhere will forever be judged by the standard of this event.

The Turkey Day Regatta, held the weekend before Thanksgiving, has been a major one-design event in Southern California. The 2000 regatta boasted more than 300 sailors in 165 boats representing 14 one-design classes on three separate venues.

A total of 92 ABYC volunteers, under the direction of co-chairmen Vice Commodore Chuck Hardin and Director Don Reiman, oversaw all facets of the regatta. ABYC PROs Bob Anderson, Latham Bell, and Chris Ericksen led the three race committees. US SAILING Senior Judge Margaret Caddle chaired the protest committee.

Attention to detail is the sign of a well-run regatta, and Turkey Day 2000 was no exception. Colunteers greeted visiting sailors and directed traffic to minimize waiting from rigging to launching.

Smaller dinghies raced at one venue while larger keelboats raced on the other with a small PHRF class. A third venue was established for three other classes. The race committee took fickle winds and constant shifts in stride at all three sites.