Page 52 - MARINAOFTHEYEAR

WE BROKE THE CURSE!
State House Representative: Cindy Pugh
No Seriously. National Marina Day has been an event that we have joked is “cursed” at Rockvam Boat Yards.

Minnesota Clean Marina: Joe Riley
Although we were honored nationally for our event in 2002 as the Winner of the Best Political Advocacy Award…
we put a pause on participating in National Marina Day after the events of 2003.

Hennepin County Sheriff’s Water Patrol – Patrol Boat
You can only imagine how the conversation went when I looked at the application for Marina of the Year and the

question, “How do you celebrate National Marina Day?” popped out from the application. I said “NO… NO…
Minnetonka Power Squadron – Vessel Safety Checks
NO… We cannot do another National Marina Day.” After the flop sweat stopped, I walked into my Dad’s office
and asked, “Are you sure you want to compete for Marina of the Year?”
Mound Fire Department –Fire Boat

Dumbfounded, he said, “yes, now get out of my office” I said.. “OK, so we’ll be having National Marina Day, on
July 29th” and I started to walk out… he called back, “Get back here, we are not doing another National Marina
We raised over $1,000 for Folds of Honor
Day”. I said, “Funny, but if you want to compete for Marina of the Year they want to know about our National

Marina Day event” He took a deep breath and said, “ok”
Handed out over 200 donuts during “Donuts with Jerry”

Flash back to National Marina Day 2002. This is the event for which we won an award. We had a beautiful day
planned. It was the morning of the event and I was moving a folding table across our front lawn.
Took 30+ photos at the “Giant Anchor” Photo Booth

Then I wasn’t.
Conducted 29 Vessel Safety Checks

Who knew there was a hole about the size of my foot in the front lawn. Unable to move, I called on the marine
radio, “could someone come to the front yard”. I was able to get to my knees but did not know if I had a broken
bone or a severe sprain. At that exact moment, and I’m not making this up, our pontoon party of 40 guests in
wheel chairs rolled by on the side walk… one guy asked if I needed a wheel chair. Inspired, I stood up, “Nope,
I’m good” I spent the next 3 hours in the emergency room, no break, very bad sprain. But… we won the award!

Alright, now to 2003, if you’re prepared…

On the “heels” of our win we decided to expand our event. This year we had a tent with specials on inner tubes
and fun water toys. We set the tent up on Friday.
The forecast was for a storm overnight, but nothing too bad. So we just prepared for the storm as normal. In 2003
we still had carpeting on our pontoon boats. In an effort to save time in the morning… we regularly remove the
pontoon boats from the water and placed them on the floor in the warehouse. When they spent the night in the
warehouse they stayed nice and dry… all we did was launch them in the morning. So we hauled out 8 pontoon
boats and set them on the floor in the warehouse by the lake.

Flash ahead.

We had a BIG STORM!
50 MPH straight line winds DESTROYED the tent. It was a twisted pile of poles, wet cardboard and flapping
canvas.
BUT IT GETS BETTER.

We lost power. All 8 of our pontoon boats were sitting on the floor in the warehouse and we couldn’t open the
overhead door. But remember, that’s not just 8 people coming out for a pontoon boat on a Saturday morning,
that’s 8x10 passengers or 80 people standing around wondering what the heck was going on.

Why didn’t we call them and let them know the boats were being held hostage by our warehouse?
What a great idea!

EXCEPT THAT OUR TREE IN THE FRONT YARD WAS STRUCK BY LIGHTENING AND THE FORCE OF
THE LIGHTENING STRIKE BLEW OUT OUR PHONE SYSTEM.

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