Commodore: Hugh Upton
Hugh has been boating/sailing for 56 years on a variety of crafts. Hugh was 15 when his father introduced him to boating after purchasing a 32 foot Chris Craft Cabin Cruiser. The family boated in San Francisco Harbor and the Sacramento Delta for many years. In 2009, Hugh received his Bareboat Certification from the US Sailing Association and sailed in San Francisco Bay, along the California Coast, in San Diego, Catalina, the Channel Islands, French Polynesia and the Caribbean. He is currently an active member of SIBC and the Carefree Boat Club and at The Landings. Hugh is a Mechanical and Nuclear Engineer and worked at General Electric Nuclear for 39 years ending his career managing the licensing of Advanced Boiling Water Reactors for GE Nuclear. In his early years after graduating from the University of Colorado in 1972, he was commissioned in the Naval Reserves as an Ensign and served as Navigator on Nuclear Submarines during the Vietnam War. He served in the reserves for 14 years and was honorably discharged as a Lieutenant in 1984. Hugh retired in 2017, moved to Savannah, GA and currently resides at The Landings with his wife Charlene.
Vice Commodore: Bill Doggett
Bill’s boating experience spans more than 40 years including motoring and sailing on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, and occasional sails offshore there and in New England and Maine. He has previously owned small sailboats and motorboats, and was an owner/member of the Spa Creek Club in Annapolis for several years. Since moving to The Landings in 2020, with his wife Suzanne, he has been a member of both the SIBC and an active member of The Landings Sailing Club, cruising the Wilmington River from Thunderbolt to Wassau and crewing on the Rhodes 19’s (also helping to maintain and repair some of these older boats), crewing on the J24’s, and has twice crewed in the annual Low Country Hook Race from Hilton Head to Landings Harbor. They have enjoyed several of SIBC’s member cruises, and accepting the opportunity to contribute and be more active in the club, Bill is delighted to be nominated to run for Vice Commodore, under our very capable and accomplished Commodore Hugh Upton and the Board of Directors.
Secretary: Rick Bayard
Rick was introduced to boating while in college when he spent his leisure hours sailing a Dinghy on Boston’s Charles River. Rick graduated from sailing the one man dinghy to serving, first, as deck hand and then, as Steward on the rebuilt, seventeen century tall-ship Kalmar Nyckel. Nancy and Rick Bayard moved to the Landings from Wilmington, Delaware in 2007. Now, they enjoy exploring the rivers, creeks, islands and sounds around Skidaway Island by boat. Both are members of the Skidaway Island Boating Club and Carefree. Rick assists the Sailing Club maintain its fleet of Rhoads 19 and J-24 sail boats. Prior to retirement, Rick served as Director of Long Range Planning for the City of Wilmington and as Executive Director of a community development corporation. Throughout his life, he has served civic, philanthropic and church orga
Treasurer, Michael Blumenthal
Michael Blumenthal has resided at the Landings since July 2021: prior to that in Naples, Florida for seven years and prior to that in Nyack, New York for 26 years. Michael has a boatload of boating experience, of sorts. Starting out with rafting on the Delaware River (between New Jersey and Pennsylvania); white water rafting on the Arkansas River (in Colorado); a scenic, night ocean-going boat trip on Lake Titicaca; a long ride on a very slow boat up the Amazon (from Manos to Leticia); a cruise of the ice sheets in Alaska; several trips on the Staten Island Ferry and of course a trip on the Circle Line, going around the Island of Manhattan. Married to Carla for 39 years, we have two daughters: professional, successful, and living in the D.C. metro area. While living in Naples, served on our homeowners association’s Board, first as secretary, then Vice President and then President, until we moved here. Michael earned a Master of Business Administration from the City University of New York (Baruch College), a Master of Science from Michigan State and his Bachelor of Science from Purdue.
Directors at Large:
Steve Hernandez
Steve has been a boater for most of his adult life and has traded his time on the water between sailing and motoring on Long Island Sound and is now a proud member, along with his wife June, of both the SIBC and the Carefree Boat Club here on Skidaway Island. Steve and June came to the beauty of Skidaway in 2017 after living in Westchester County, NY, for many decades. Professionally, Steve worked as an educator, school administrator, and university professor for over forty years.
Carl Ridgway
Carl Ridgway moved to The Landings in 2015 and joined the SIBC almost immediately. He had the opportunity to participate in the first four Hook Races with Reverie and they were as enjoyable as they were enlightening. He is a cruiser more than a racer, so much of the finer points of tactical sailing have eluded him until now. Before moving to Savannah he had never participated in sailing regattas or open water racing and looks forward to broadening his horizons and helping others to experience the joy of sailing. His career has been spent mostly in public safety and public health. He was in the Military Police Corps for eight years, after which he worked as a Paramedic before going to Nursing School, with a brief detour into computer programming during the dot comm boom. He recently retired from Nursing after ten years at Memorial Hospital ED.
Michael Roedel
Mike is a retired wildlife biologist whose primary interest has been the monitoring of birds and management of their habitats. He worked with non-profit organizations across the country, ultimately retiring from the position of Tennessee’s state ornithologist. Michael grew up in a farming and ranching family in Nebraska, spending weekends fishing from his grandfather’s barge, water skiing, and canoeing on western Nebraska reservoirs and rivers. As an adult, sailing became a regular activity after he moved east for college. He has sought boating opportunities wherever he has lived or traveled. Michael has utilized computers since their early days as an aid in the management of landscape scale habitats. Computerized mapping, database management, and web page development are all important tools that he used for the storing and analysis of monitoring data and for volunteer training and coordination efforts. Photography, another useful tool in managing habitats, is one of Michael’s passions. Michael and his wife, Anna Warm, moved to the Landings from Santa Fe, New Mexico in July 2021.