The "All Volunteer Yacht Club" has its roots over thirty years ago on Conneaut Lake Pennsylvania. That is where my wife, Pat, my first and only First Mate and I purchased our first boat . It was a twenty one foot Owens Cabin Cruiser the "Mistress". She had a planked wood hull ( that would be the boat ) and an all mahogany stained upper deck and cabin with a 350 Chevy inboard engine. I bought her from a gentleman who refurbished wood boats. We paid about $1,500, a lot of money to us at the time but still a great buy! That's when we fell in love with the water and have tried to have a boat on a lake ever since.

At the end of the dock where we had the "Mistress" were four other boats all in a line; a couple of other cruisers and a couple pontoon boats. On the weekends, most of the boat owners on our row were out and we struck up a real special friendship with those folks. One 4th of July evening, as the sun dropped in the west, we were all sitting on our respective decks side by side waiting for the fire works to start. We discussed naming our little group. I suggested the "Conneaut Lake All Volunteer Yacht Club". Strange as it may sound, our group, and our relationship took on a distinct significance.

The Conneaut Lake All Volunteer Yacht Club became more than just a group of boat owners. We were connected by the common bond, the love of the water. It was an added dimension to the boating experience that was hard to explain. I guess the simplest answer is that, something special that is shared, becomes more special. That was certainly true with our group. Even in the off season when the lake was frozen we did other things together, dances, charity events and parties.

The original "All Volunteer Yacht Club " has since faded away. Sadly, we were the first to leave after a couple of years; we had to move away because of a job transfer.

Today we live on a lake in North Carolina along with our swimming Yorkie. We own a 22 ft. Crest pontoon boat with a 75hp Honda motor and a paddle boat.

With the advent of the internet, and the communication tools available to us today, this web site offers a much larger boating community the opportunity to get together, swap stories tell jokes and possibly create something special that will have a positive impact on their boating community..

This site went live January 1, 1999. The reality of the internet is that it takes a long time and a lot of promoting to get ones site visited. Words of encouragement will be warmly received but most important, join in and tell your other boater friends to do the same. There are plenty of Web sites about boats and boating on the Internet. I want this site to be about people who own boats and who love the water!

So I give you the Web's "All Volunteer Yacht Club".

Jim Kearney

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This page is dedicated to the late Don Detrick, a fellow lover of the water. He took the picture of the Mistress, used on this page.