Seabreeze History
With a click of a button we can be in contact with about a hundred other owners of
Seabreezes, ask questions, take part in back and forth email discussions of ideas pertinent to
our boats, view the various attributes of our new web site and enjoy the comradery of the
Allied Seabreeze Owners Association. It's very easy to take this for granted but we owe a
tremendous debt to two leaders of our group who have made all this possible. Unfortunately
few of us have had the opportunity to personally meet either of these two gentlemen but here
are a few words about each one.
Special Recognition To Two Outstanding Members
by Roy Harvey, AEOLUS, #127
Gene Reardon owned a Seabreeze, sailed on
the south shore of Long Island and cruised to
Maine. He was a yachtsman in every sense of
the word. He honored yacht club protocol with
dress and colors and was a fine sailor. He liked
his boat to the extent that after selling the first
one, buying a larger boat, he went back looking
for a second Seabreeze. It was his idea to
contact other Seabreeze owners for the general
purpose of comradery. Gene assembled a few
owners at a meeting in 1993 and the group was
born. During the next ten years he searched out
most of the other hundred plus Seabreeze
owners and accumulated data on the boats and
owner specifics. Without his original ideas,
initiative and dedication we would have no
ASOA. Gene passed away in 2003.
Gene Reardon
Gene Reardon (left) getting presented by Art Hall (right)
with a half hull model of his boat "Manatuck" in
appreciation of his efforts at Seabreeze Rendezvous,
Tenant's Harbour, Maine, in July, 2001.
Mel Converse at the helm of his boat,
"Whim" on a cruise to Maine, 2000.
Mel Converse attended those first ASOA meetings
and suggested email as a means of
communication between members. Mel sails his
Seabreeze on Chesapeake Bay and cruised
extensively to Maine. We all have sent our emails
to the address "Mel Converse" for years but Mel
remained, to most of us, a "name only" for our
communication. Without his forethought and
expertise our group would not have grown from
the first few attendants at a meeting to the
world-wide, web connected, group we now have.
As our new ASOA web site recently came on line
Mel decided to incorporate his email into the web
site. Without Mel's care and perseverance in
handling the thousands of email messages over
the twenty-two years we would not have the
successful, unified ASOA as we know it.
Mel Converse
