Marco Island, FL

Marco Island Model Yacht Club

AMYA #137

Contact: George Domenech
3551 SW Sawgrass Villa Dr.
Palm City, FL 34990-3267
239 227-9851

Classes Sailed: RC Laser
Area served: Naple, Marco Island, Collier County

Marco Island Model Yacht Club, in Marco Island, Florida, was founded in 2003 by series of Marco Island Racquet Center players. One day after playing tennis John Moulton, Tom Schwartzburg and George Domenech got into a discussion about Model Sailing and how much fun they were having sailing there Victoria’s on John’s canal. George did not know they were model sailors in Marco as a result he never had taken his Skandia model he had built while living in Boca Raton. So he decided to join them on a Saturday afternoon with his Skandia. Naturally the newer Victoria’s technology was too much for George’s old Skandia. Needless to say he could not win a race. George told the guys I will be back with a new boat.

Several weeks later he received the November issue of the AMYA (American Model Yachting Magazine) that featured the RC Laser. He decided this would be the boat that would run circles around Tom and John’s Victoria. So he joined them on a Saturday at the canal and as expected the Laser was too much for the Victoria’s.

Shortly afterwards Tom ordered one then John and soon we had 6 Laser in our group fiercely competing with each other. George figure that the perfect place to sail the Laser was at the Mackle Park pond. He ordered three inflatable buoys and the group began meeting at the Tiki Hut of Balboa street on Sundays. The only problem was that these buoys had to be thrown out in the pond with a weight and they could only put 2 out and very close to the shoreline. So he met with the Dana Souza Director of Recreation for the –City of Marco Island and requested permission to place several fixed buoys, after several weeks Dana called George and told him he could go ahead and place the buoys he had built. After installing the buoys we also got permission build a small platform dock so we could launch our boats.

So that was the beginning of the MIMYC and we decided to start a club and we incorporated as a not for profit organization. We now have 15 members and growing fast. The original founders were, Tom Schwartzburg, John Moulten, Jim Karter, Nic Nicolson, John Gerig, and Mark Crooks.

FLEET MEMBERS
George Domenech, Rocky Cale, Norman Borgo, Jim Danbom, Dave Haggart, Nic Nicolson, Bill Cook, Steve Moyer, Bob Walker, Dan Harvey, Herb Glessman, Jim Schudel, Tom Volpe, Carl Hansen, Rick Hillyer, Tom Wald, Joe Civello, Jim Karter, Curt Hathaway, Russ Colombo, Linda Colombo, Bob MacNeil, Sandy MacNeil, Mike Willms, Chappy Thiel

FLEET CAPTAIN
SE Regional Secretary, George Domenech