SSC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR - PAM SCHAFFER
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Life holds special challenges for the person who is curious. There are so many options that it can be hard to decide what direction to go; but for the curious person, the world holds uncommon richness. This is the world of Pam Schaffer.​
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The oldest of four children, most of Pam’s early years were spent on a farm in the Sacramento Valley. Her father was an engineer, her mother a nurse, and her grandfather a mechanic. She liked to check things out, take things apart, and put them back together. She learned about engines from her father; valuable knowledge for her future life...​
I feel like I got a lot of gifts from my parents.
The family moved to Washington state when Pam was 13 — just in time for high school. But Pam and high school didn’t get along. She found it boring and felt like the emphasis was more about sitting single file than on learning. At age 16 she jumped through hoops for a GED to attend Western Washington University. She loved college. She started in engineering but discovered interests in human behavior and computer programming, a one-two combo for the growing field of psychometrics. She graduated with degrees in Psychology and Statistics after a transfer to UC Davis and a research project on the hikers of the Appalachian Trail, including hiking the full 2,190 miles of the trail herself. She also did a research project on the conflict in Northern Ireland, going door to door to interview people in Belfast and Dublin. She stayed at Davis for an MFA in Playwriting, while also studying Computer Science. Pam wasn’t your typical student.
What it boils down to is that I’m really curious about the world and want to explore it and understand it.
Pam started sailing while she was in college, helping friends bring a 34-foot yawl with tiller steering and leaky decks from Marina del Rey to San Francisco. It was her first time seeing whales, dolphins, and phosphorescence. She was hooked. She joined the sailing club, and after getting her Master’s, bought a Santana 22 that she kept at the Berkeley Marina. Her boats grew from there.
I enjoyed pushing the envelope.
Ironically, Pam’s first job out of college was as an engineer, working for HP. She started in hardware, but as she had done in college, moved to software, which she found more interesting and described as the Wild West of computer science. Her 6 years at HP gave her a framework for other things, but she was drawn toward smaller organizations that were more fleet footed. She worked at startups as a VP of Marketing and as a VP of Product Management and Strategy, before taking her chips to the VC world. After four years in that environment, it was time for a break.
Pam had been dreaming of a circumnavigation. It would be a landmark experience that set the direction for her future. We let Pam take the narrative from here.
By the time I left, I had already logged 10,000 miles of blue water sailing, including two passages to Hawaii – once crewed, once solo. That solo journey taught me to exist in a twilight state, catching brief sleep while staying alert. My circumnavigation vessel was a 42-foot Fountaine Pajot catamaran, set up for single-handing. I sailed numerous solo passages through the South Pacific, up Australia's coast, and through the challenging Singapore Straits.
People romanticize cruising as Mai Tais and sunsets. While those moments existed, reality meant fixing things in exotic places, covered in diesel, and sleeping with the 12 Volt Bible. Doing the circumnavigation was the hardest job I’ve ever had – but it was absolutely amazing.
Doing the circumnavigation was the hardest job I've ever had.
One of the things I loved the most was doing night watch and seeing the sky full of stars. On a calm night they reflected on the water. You get to see the world in a way that you can’t see any other way. I remember the feeling of crossing from the Galapagos to the Marquesas and realizing that I was in a little boat and was 1500 miles from land in any direction. It gives you a sense of scale and awe.
I had many beautiful encounters with nature, but the trip was also full of challenges. While in the Vava’u group, I had accidentally stripped the venting valve of one of my fuel filters and “fixed” it with a giant glob of JB Weld to stop the leak. Of course, it didn’t work.​
Pam Schaffer's catamaran, Some Day Too, in front of a towering dune of bauxite in Yellow Patch, Australia.
While navigating the narrow channel to Vava'u's main anchorage, the engine with the air leak would stop every 10 minutes. I’d restart it by jumping a screwdriver across the alternator and solenoid but I couldn’t get it started this time. Then the other engine’s Saildrive alarm went off so I had to shut it down, too. I dropped anchor just before drifting into the rocks. I managed to fix everything later, but that’s a story for another time.
The 2½-year circumnavigation changed the trajectory of my life. While I was out there I decided that I wanted to go into teaching. So when I came back, I earned a Master's in education at USC. I taught science in China for a year, then returned to Alameda to teach middle and high school Physics and Biology. My classes focused on hands-on interactive learning. Later I started training other teachers in engaging science instruction at the County Office of Education.
I combined my skills in education, technology and business management to become CEO and Executive Director of a nonprofit that made tools for teachers. This is where I learned how to run a nonprofit. I’m not sure where I first learned about the Sailing Science Center but I knew immediately that it was an organization I wanted to be involved with.
I think my mission in life is to learn and to teach.
One of the things I love about sailing is that you are constantly learning. I learned that fear is a luxury. You can be afraid after you fix it, like when a window blew out on the way to New Zealand and I patched it with linoleum and quick-set epoxy putty. I was channeling my dad’s garage wisdom: Take it apart, fix it, keep going. I think my mission in life is to learn and to teach.
Pam with other SSC team members at the 2024 Tinkers & Thinkers Faire.
L to R: Steve Malton, Lars Anderson, Tami-Jo Hodson, Pam Schaffer, Jim Hancock