Founder of the Jr. Sailing Program on Orcas

Ray and his wife Diane moved to Orcas in 1992 retiring from a long and successful business career in Pasadena, CA. They were at the time both avid boaters and sailboat racers. By that time Ray had won the Kettenburg Pacific Class national championship in 1976 and 1979 and raced his J-36 to Hawaii in the 1983 Transpac.

Once on Orcas they bought a Grand Banks they named Avanti which they loved to cruise locally and on many adventurous trips to Alaska. When the Jarecki's moved to Orcas they joined the Orcas Island Yacht Club and became very active in that organization. As the Vice Commodore of the OIYC in 1996 Ray took it upon himself to push the club to start a Junior Sailing program. It has been a very successful program with many hundreds of Island children going through the summer sailing lessons over the years. Ray managed it's operation with the help of Yacht Club volunteers for the next 11 years giving generously of his time and money.

With Ray's guidance the Yacht Club's Junior Sailing Program was merged with the Sail Orcas group 2007 in order to leverage the common goals and tax structure of the two groups.