STORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2022

 

AGLCA ACQUIRES GREAT LOOP MAPS & BOOKS

Summerville, SC- America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association (AGLCA) announces the acquisition of the assets of Raven Cove Publishing. Raven Cove, owned by Ron & Eva Stob, is the publisher of books about the Great Loop including “Honey, Let’s Get a Boat!” written by the Stobs.  The “Honey” book is Ron & Eva’s story of their Great Loop adventure which led to the founding of AGLCA. 

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When the Stobs relinquished control of AGLCA in 2007 to KFR Services, Inc., they maintained ownership of the rights to their books and Great Loop Route Maps, which include a detailed look at the Great Loop route including the waterways cruised and the location of the locks along the way. The Stobs continued to sell those resources on their website, www.greatloop.com.

AGLCA will continue to offer the Stob’s beloved “Honey, Let’s Get a Boat!”  book and the popular Great Loop Route Maps on its website, www.greatloop.org.

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“AGLCA transitioned from the Stobs to the KFR Services umbrella 15 years ago. As the Stobs look to retire, it’s a natural next step to transition ownership of these top-notch resources about the Great Loop to AGLCA. “Honey, Let’s Get a Boat!” is the book that started it all, and we’re thrilled to continue to make it, and the detailed Great Loop maps, available to the next generation of Loopers,” said Kim Russo, Director of AGLCA and Co-President of KFR Services, Inc.

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"It has been our hope and intention to turn over our publishing company to Kim and KFR Services, for they are the rightful and proper keepers of our books and maps. As we accumulate 170 years together, Eva turning 80 and Ron turning ever so slowly to 90, we kiss our enterprise, "Goodbye," knowing the dream of cruising the Great Loop is alive and in good hands,” said the Stobs.

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America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association provides information and inspiration to those dreaming about, planning for, or actively cruising the 6,000-mile waterway route around eastern North America known as the Great Loop. For more information on America’s Great Loop, contact America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association, 500 Oakbrook Lane, Summerville, SC 29485, 1- 877-GR8- LOOP (478-5667), www.GreatLoop.org., email:  info@greatloop.org

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The Stob's Great Loop Story

Eager for a change and deaf to the admonitions of their children, Ron & Eva Stob, non-boaters living on California’s Central Coast, take a year away from their jobs, purchase a forty-foot trawler, which they name Dream O’Genie, and cruise the 6300 miles and 145 locks of the Great Loop. They catch the excitement of visiting sea ports, the fear of plowing huge bodies of water, the thrill of moving through locks, and the delight of wandering down the inland rivers. When they did their Great Loop Cruise in 1994, there was not much information available about the cruise so they had to depend on their own resourcefulness. No one cruised with the Internet, blogs, cell phones or online banking back then.

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Their eleven-month cruise begins one stormy February morning in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and nearly ends three days later in Cocoa where they begin the task of nursing their “magic carpet” back to health after serious problems were discovered. Three weeks and thousands of dollars later, they were back on the water where their adventure became a litany of humorous mishaps and heart-warming episodes.

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Following spring along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway they arrived at the foot of the Statue of Liberty by Memorial Day. They caught the current up the Hudson to Albany and the New York Canal system to Lake Champlain and the Saint Lawrence Seaway and crossed the province of Ontario by way of two heritage canals, the Rideau Canal and the Trent-Severn Waterway. Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay and the 30,000 islands of the small craft channel presented some of their biggest challenges and fondest memories as they traversed into the North Channel. Dodging summer storms along Lake Huron and Lake Michigan they arrived in Chicago by Labor Day weekend. On the Illinois, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers the progress was speedy, then the pace slowed as they savored the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to Mobile, Alabama.

After crossing the Gulf of Mexico to Florida’s Gulf Intracoastal, they cruised southern Florida on the Caloosahatchee River and the Okeechobee Waterway, closing the loop at Stuart and completing the trip by December 1st.

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"Honey, Let's Get a Boat!" is the Stob's story of their Great Loop adventure. After authoring the book, the Stob's founded America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association.