Member since 2005, Commodore since 2009
Elected Nov. 2023 - Term Expires Nov. 2026

Joan has been cruising since mid-1995 and has 35,000 cruising miles under her keel having made transatlantic crossings and cruised in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific. She and her family have made multiple passages to the Eastern Caribbean where they presently cruise in season.

Joan currently functions as SSCA’s Cruising Host Coordinator which allows her to be heavily involved in communications with both land and water-based maritime and cruisers worldwide; she in turn collaborates with Noonsite.com to communicate pertinent information. She also serves as SSCA’s Clean Wake Project Coordinator and in that capacity, she publishes research articles on such initiatives as Sargassum, hurricane relief efforts and Pacific waste issues. Joan and her husband Greg coordinate SSCA’s presence at the US Sailboat Show each fall in Annapolis and she assists with SSB radios and tracking cruisers during the fall season as well. Joan is also a regular presenter at SSCA GAMS.

Due to her active involvement and history of the Association, she would like to see the image of SSCA promoted as a dynamic and forward-thinking organization that helps all cruisers around the world. She believes SSCA does so much that is not known because the collaboration among cruisers is like family and that’s a message that needs to be conveyed to attract younger cruisers to SSCA.

Joan holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and served 35 years as Senior Engineer Project Manager for a multi-million-dollar US government project.

Member since 1999
Elected Nov. 2022 - Term Expires Nov. 2025

Frank Smith and his wife, Judy are the owners and captains of the S/V Athena - a 60’ sailing catamaran. He has sailed since he was six years old and has literally ‘sailed the seven seas’ both as a racer and a member of the US Navy for 25 years. He is a retired Chief Information Officer and you may know him from around town as a frontline rescue Paramedic for Fairfax County, and a Fire Chief for Great Falls, Virginia. He has extensive training and experience in a variety of survival and emergency situations - especially at sea. When not working or sailing the Chesapeake Bay with Judy and search & rescue dog, Recon - he spends time planning their next trip to the Caribbean or the Med. He is a board governor of the Maryland Yacht Club.

Member since 2002
Appointed Oct. 2023 - Term Expires Nov. 2024

Monty has over 28,000 nm miles under his keel having cruised the West Coast of Canada, USA, Mexico, Central America, through the Panama Canal, Columbia, Cayman Islands, across the Caribbean and back to the USA. Currently, Monty and his wife Maureen live in South Carolina and are actively looking for their next boat after their former boat was destroyed by Ian. They hope to have a new boat on the Chesapeake bay in the near future and resume sailing in the Caribbean. Monty is a Life member of OCDLA and ACA, a member of USATF and a two-time national champion in the hammer throw. He will be representing the USA in the world championship competition in Sweden next year.

Monty holds a BA in General Studies and a Juris Doctor Degree and Graduate Degree in Dispute Resolution. He has provided volunteer legal assistance for SOAR (refugee services) including representing the finance minister for President Aristides’ cabinet, a shelter for battered spouses and children and a variety of animal interests. He has served on close to a dozen nonprofit and corporate boards and has provided legal services to and about board action for close to three decades including SSCA for the last several years. Maureen and Monty are retired and looking forward to helping SSCA in the future.

Member since 2015, Commodore since 2020
Appointed Nov. 2023

Don and his wife, Jan, boated in the Great Lakes for 15 years. Upon purchase of their current vessel in 2010, they started boating in the Pacific Northwest. Their adventures included cruises to Alaska and a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island as well as wanderings around British Columbia. In 2017, they downsized and moved onto Figment. They then headed south, transited the Panama Canal, and arrived in eastern Puerto Rico in early 2020 with plans to spend the summer in Grenada. As country borders began closing due to COVID-19, they decided to return to the US making a nonstop run to Florida where Figment is presently moored. During their ten years of cruising, they have put 17,500 miles under her keel.

Don started his career in the business world as a CPA and quickly moved into the role of CFO. He found himself drawn to problem-solving scenarios and eventually began serving clients in a consulting capacity focusing on finance, operations, and management decision-making. He became deeply involved in production agriculture during the severe financial crisis of the 1980s. Dealing with turnarounds and bankruptcies led to heavy involvement in the development of industry information and reporting guidelines. During the past 35 years, Don has served production agriculture both as a leader in various industry professional organizations and as an advisor to farming and ranching families across the US.

Don and Jan joined SSCA while on the west coast primarily because of a concern with anchoring restrictions and rights. During their journey from the PNW to the Caribbean, they benefited from SSCA Cruising Station Hosts in various ports. As cruising changed during 2020, Don felt it was important to continue supporting SSCA; contributions to the Anchoring Advocacy Fund and volunteering to serve are his ways of doing so.

Member since 2009
Elected Nov. 2022 - Term Expires Nov. 2025

When I retired a dozen years ago I never liked answering the question, “what do you do?”. Saying that I was retired sounded like I did nothing. That was far from the truth.

I came across a TED Talk on YouTube that was entitled something like this, "Five easy steps to answering the question, what do you do?". I followed along answering the five questions and writing my answers. At the conclusion my answers gave me a sentence that answered “What do you do?”.

My answer was, "I help people realize their sailing hopes and dreams." I liked that, and that was what I was spending a lot of my time doing. I was doing a lot of captain/training and I really enjoyed seeing people’s confidence and knowledge grow.

I’ve been a member of SSCA for more than a couple of decades. I’ve enjoyed the camaraderie of fellow SSCA members around the globe and at several GAMS. I recall meeting Skip Gundlach in an anchorage near Little Harbor in the Bahamas. I recall bumping into Rick and Julie Peterson in Gibraltar and then Morocco. And I keep seeing Bill on Pelican Express up and down the East Coast.

If I were to ask SSCA, “what do you do?”, the answer would probably be the same as mine. By being more active in SSCA I can continue to work towards what I enjoy doing. I look forward to contributing to an organization that helps other sailors around the world.

Member since 2014, Commodore since 2019
Elected Nov. 2022 - Term Expires Nov. 2025

Neil and his wife Janet have owned boats and been sailing for over 40 years. They grew up on the west coast of England and immigrated to the US in 1989. They have three grown children and an amazing sailing dog named “Salty”.

They live on the Gulf coast, west of Pensacola and are SSCA Cruising Station Hosts for Pirates Cove, AL. They are both active members of SSCA. Neil is a member of SSCA’s mentoring committee, and recently helped host an “informal gathering” in March 2022 in the Exumas which was attended by many SSCA members. Neil would like to promote SSCA to young members interested in sailing and cruising by making the association more appealing through live events and social media.

Neil and Janet typically spend 6 months of the year cruising on their current boat, a 2019 Lagoon 40; and when home they are usually sailing it on a weekly basis to local destinations. They have cruised extensively in the Bahamas, Caribbean, Mexico, Cuba and Europe. Their longest passage was crossing the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Verde to Antigua.

At home, Neil is a member of Pensacola Yacht Club (PYC) and Point Yacht Club (Pt.YC). He has been a board member at PYC and Race Chair for the Pensacola to Havana Race. He has also been Fleet Captain at Pt.YC. Neil is a retired Engineer and has been a Board member for two specialty engineering firms during his career.

Member since 2010, Commodore since 2020
Elected Nov. 2023 - Term Expires Nov. 2026

Kingsley and his wife Sue circumnavigated the Caribbean in 1992 and 1993. In 2012, they did a transatlantic crossing to Europe where they remained in those waters until 2018. Currently, they are in Tallahassee, FL waiting to embark on future cruising exploits. He has held several leadership positions with his local yacht club, Apalachee Bay Yacht Club, and the American Cancer Society in Florida. In addition to SSCA, Kingsley is a member of the Ocean Cruising Club. Besides being SSCA president, he is chair of SSCA’s anchoring and navigation rights committee.

For most of his career, Kingsley worked in and around government agencies where he developed a multi-million-dollar budget for one state agency. He also served as executive director of a state agency serving people with disabilities and later lobbied both on the state and national levels on their behalf. Previously, Kingsley served as executive director of a statewide non-profit. He holds a Masters degree in Sociology.

During his tenure, Kingsley plans to use his budget expertise and identify ways to increase membership by offering unique and valuable services to support the cruising lifestyle while streamlining operational procedures.

Member since 2010, Commodore since 2020
Elected Nov. 2021 - Term Expires Nov. 2024

Beth has approximately 8000 miles of blue water sailing from the Atlantic US Coast to Grenada with multiple trips aboard her own vessel and aboard other vessels as crew. She resides in Maryland and has over 25 years of sailing experience on the Chesapeake Bay and the US Atlantic coastal waters. This fall Beth plans to embark on extended cruising to the Windward Islands.

For the past three years, Beth has served as the conference coordinator for the Annapolis Gam and served an additional eight years as a conference committee member prior to becoming coordinator. She has served as an SSCA Cruising Station Host for the past four years and has volunteered for many years at the SSCA booth during the US Sailboat Show held each fall in Annapolis, MD. Beth is also a member of the Salty Dawg Sailing Association.

Beth holds a master’s degree in nursing and education and is currently employed as a nurse practitioner. She is a founding member and board member of the Maryland Coalition of Advanced Practice Providers and a board member of the Nurse Practitioner Association of Maryland.

Beth chose to run for the board because, in her words, “it’s merely time to step up to the plate”. She plans to offer experience in recruiting new members to SSCA through networking and organizational exposure to other sailing groups and yacht clubs. She is well versed in board etiquette and parliamentary procedures due to her other board positions. Beth believes SSCA has a unique ability to position itself as a sailing organization for the “ordinary sailor” as she herself enjoyed feeling welcomed by other members from the day she joined wanting to understand the cruising life. She sees SSCA as a grassroots, everyday sailing organization that engages and supports educational efforts for beginning sailors to network with experienced sailors with a common bond of safety, responsibility and camaraderie.