PYSF’s Molly Vandemoer Announced as US Sailing’s Director of Olympic Sailing

This morning at 11:00 a.m. (PST), US Sailing announced a restructure in its Olympic Sailing leadership. Of note, it was announced that longtime Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation (PYSF) Executive Director Molly Vandemoer will be the new director of Olympic Sailing.

Vandemoer has been the executive director of PYSF since 2012. During this time, the program has been one of the premier youth-sailing programs in Northern California and on the entire West Coast. Prior to her role with PYSF, Vandemoer was a three-time ICSA All-American skipper while sailing in college at the University of Hawai’i. Three other current Bay Area sailing coaching giants were on the Hawai’i team with her at the time: Brent Harrill, Adam Corpuz-Lahne, and Renee Corpuz-Lahne. Vandemoer was one of the key sailors in Hawai’i’s 2001 ICSA Women’s Fleet Racing national championship.

In addition to her decorated college sailing career, Vandemoer won the 2010 Women’s Snipe World Championship with Anna Tunnicliffe. She won the 2011 Match Racing World Championship with Tunnicliffe and Deborah Cappozzi, and has a 470 North American Championship to her name. Vandemoer represented the USA in the 2012 Olympic Games in London in Women’s Match Racing. She is a regular teammate of five-time US Women’s Match Racing national champion Nicole Breault, having won the 2025 USMRC title with Breault back in August. You can hear Vandemoer speak on her sailing and coaching careers, and inclusivity in sailing, in this 2023 episode of Good Jibes.

“Molly’s leadership, competitive experience, and deep understanding of high-performance sailing make her exceptionally well suited to guide our Olympic Sailing program,” US Sailing CEO Charlie Enright says of Vandemoer, per the US Sailing press release. “Her vision and expertise will be instrumental as we continue to elevate Team USA on the global stage.”

In tandem with US Sailing’s announcement, PYSF announced Molly Vandemoer’s husband and former Stanford sailing coach John Vandemoer as their new executive director. John was coach of the US Naval Academy’s sailing team from 2006 through 2008 before taking over the same role at Stanford. Vandemoer turned the Cardinal into one of the best college programs in the country before his time with the Cardinal came to an end after he was implicated in the college admissions scandal in 2019. John spoke with Latitude about his side of the college admissions scandal during this 2024 episode of Good Jibes. He has been working as a coach and head of programming at PYSF since 2019.

“John has over [two] decades of experience leading youth sailing programs at the community, college, and international levels,” the PYSF press release says of their new executive director. “He was previously the program director at Chicago Yacht Club and head coach at US Naval Academy and Stanford University. He has coached 15 All-Americans and four sailors that became Olympians. In addition, John knows PYSF very well, having coached across all classes of boats — Qubes, Optis, Ideals, c420s, i420s, and foiling — and has served as PYSF’s head of programming since 2024 where he has been responsible for all classroom and on-the-water sailing instruction and racing.”

“John’s experience leading sailing programs and cultivating world-class sailors makes him exceptionally qualified to lead PYSF into the future,” PYSF board chair Steven Kan says in the press release. “I am thrilled for PYSF to have an executive director with his experience and vision for strengthening PYSF’s programs, facilities, and community partnerships.”

“I am honored to take on the executive director role with PYSF,” John Vandemoer says in the PYSF press release. “As a PYSF coach and head of programming, I’ve had the opportunity to be deeply involved in PYSF’s culture and vision for the future. I’m excited to continue that work in a larger leadership role.”

In addition to the excitement expressed at John’s appointment, PYSF made sure to highlight Molly Vandemoer’s lasting mark on the program, stating, “Molly has provided incredible leadership to PYSF since she joined in 2012. She has grown the program significantly and cultivated a strong community of PY sailors, parents, and supporters.”

“Molly is a true leader who has developed and executed a vision that has grown PYSF into the nationally recognized community sailing program that it is today,” Kan says of Vandemoer in the PYSF press release. “It is a testament to what she has built here at PYSF that it has served as a platform for her new leadership role with US Sailing. We are grateful for her leadership since 2012 and wish her continued success in her new role.”

Today’s news is exciting for the Bay Area sailing community, with one of the local coaching giants taking on such a prominent role in US Sailing ahead of the next Summer Olympic Games being hosted just a few hundred miles down the California coast in Los Angeles.

“I’m honored to join US Sailing as director of Olympic Sailing and excited to work alongside such dedicated athletes, coaches, and staff,” Molly Vandemoer says per the US Sailing press release. “I’m committed to building a performance culture that supports excellence, teamwork, and sustained success.”