C350IA Bridge Officers

Commodore

Steve Lanius
Fort Myers

Sapphire Dream II – Hull #35
Email

We’ve been sailing for 25 years after we got the bug on a sailing excursion in St. Thomas USVI on our honeymoon. Our first boat was a Hunter 240 which we kept on a large lake near Dallas, TX and later moved to the Pacific northwest where we enjoyed sailing in Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. We chartered larger sailboats numerous times in the San Juan Islands and Florida Keys. We moved to Merritt Island Florida in 2017, and to the Gulf coast area (North Fort Myers) in 2023. We acquired our 2003 Catalina 350 hull number 35 in March 2025 and have enjoyed sailing her on the Caloosahatchee River and Gulf of Mexico. As a new C350 owner, I have followed the C350IA discussion forums to learn everything I could about these wonderful boats. I would like to contribute to the ongoing operation of the C350IA to ensure others can benefit like I have.

Vice Commodore

Treasurer

TBA
TBA

TBA – Hull #xxx
Email

Information about the new Treasurer will be posted here. A meeting of the Association Bridge was held on 24th Sept 2026 and new Commodore, Vice Commodore and Treasurer duly elected.

Association Editor

George Thor
US

S/V Outlander – Hull #366
Email

Since I was a teenager in New Jersey, I was interested in sailing vessels and sailing. Using the earnings from my after school job, I took sailing lessons on Barneget Bay in a Barnegat 17 centerboard day sailer.

After I was graduated from college where I met my wife to be Mary, I soon learned that she also enjoyed sailing, and had a Sunfish sailboat.  How lucky I was, meeting my future wife who liked to sail and sailing on Long Island Sound with her. 

After we were married and my two years of service in the Army completed, we settled in Upstate NY.  In a few years we realized that we did live close to a very large lake, so we went back to our beginnings and bought a Catalina 22.  Our daughters, six and three at the time loved being on the boat as much as we did, and as our girls got older our boats got bigger.  First the Newport 27 and then the Newport 33.  With them and our three subsequent Golden Retrievers, we explored pretty much all of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence Thousand Islands.

In 2010 because I wanted to expand my horizons and have new adventures, we sold the Newport 33 and went over to the dark side.  We bought a Marine Trader 36 trawler so we could explore the North Channel.  This new adventure truly began that day I brought her up from Brandford, Connecticut, and began upgrading and refitting her for the trip.  Five years later she was ready and we made the trip, spending three and a half months on the trawler.  In 2018 we took her up the Rideau Canal to Ottawa, but Mary felt she could not go on any more long journeys. 

At this point we decided that maybe going back to sailing would be the best.  We realized that once you sailed for the pure enjoyment of it, motoring around in a motor boat is just not as much fun. The result was the 2005 Catalina 350 we purchased in July 2019.

I’ve had some great salt water sailing experiences as well.  I was a crew member delivering a Davidson 50 from Hualtuco, Mexico to Panama City.  I sailed with a friend on his Oday 28 from Westbrook, Connecticut to Martha’s Vinyard and back, and the next year helped him to bring his new Freedom 35 from Rockhall, Maryland to Westbrook.  Lastly, I traveled to Cuba as a crew member on the Oliver Hazard Perry, Rhode Island’s tall ship.  Taking the helm of this 170 foot tall ship under sail perhaps qualifies as the highlight of my sailing experiences.

Webmaster

Russ Peel
Australia

Avalon – Hull #150
Email

When I was 16 I had the following photos on the inside of my wardrobe door

• Brigitte Bardot
• Alfa 1750 Veloce
• Afghan hound
• Catalina 42

Well Bardot and I never had the chance to hit it off, I couldn’t fit in the front seat of the Alfa, the Afghan wouldn’t fit in the back of my little Renault, but 50 years later I did finally get a Catalina (C350, good as!)

I had sailed and built wooden dinghies through my teens in Australia, then spent a summer teaching sailing at a camp in Northern Wisconsin, spent the next 10 years in Canada, cruised the British Virgin (Islands!) and Great Lakes then moved back to Australia and have since cruised New Zealand, Tahiti, Vavau, Whitsunday Islands and Croatia – all charters.

Acquired a 28′ trailer sailer in 1988 and in 2008 on retiring we purchased Avalon, a 2003 C350 – hull #150 and she is in as good as or better shape today than she was then. I am Secretary of our local yacht club and sail an old Etchells in an old guys fleet as they are fantastic racing machines.

Past Commodores

• 2013 – 2026 – : Neville Edenborough, Niceville, FL
• 2011 – 2013 : Tim Ryan, Westampton , New Jersey
• 2011 : Jeff Blank, Plano, Texas