About Pinnacle Yachts

Pinnacle Yachts was founded in 1998 by Patricia and Gary Feracota - a wife and husband team that are avid sailors and accomplished business people. Their objective in forming Pinnacle:

"To provide responsible people the opportunity to cruise a quality yacht for a reasonable price without the burden of maintenance, through a professionally managed fractional leasing program."

Achievement

Our fractional yacht leasing and instruction programs have been a roaring success. Our yachts have been sold-out each season for nine consecutive years.

Over the years, our team has grown to include some of the best and brightest in the marine industry. Experts in decision sciences, sailing education, yacht maintenance and financial management comprise the Pinnacle team.

We are aligned with the world’s foremost yacht and equipment manufacturers. Our fleet operates in the finest metropolitan marinas. We pioneered technology for shared yacht scheduling and maintenance. We are - and have always been - profitable and financially stable.

Pinnacle Members sail with a company having the reputation, skills and resources to make their experience highly enjoyable and entirely worry-free.

Founders

Patricia and Gary have sailed out of Chicago's Monroe Harbor for seventeen years, and have sailed the Caribbean and Greece on many occasions. They are long standing members of the Chicago Yacht Club.

Prior to forming Pinnacle, Patricia was a manager at the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, where she served the firm's most important client. She holds a BS in accounting from the University of Illinois, and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Gary served as turn-around CEO for a software company, consummating the favorable sale of the firm to a prominent investment group.

Gary was also a Partner at Deloitte Consulting, where he managed the firm’s manufacturing practice in Chicago. He was also a management consultant with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).

Gary also served on the Board of Directors of Mercury Air Group, a $800 million then publicly-traded company that provides services for fractional jets, commercial airlines and military airports globally. Gary was the Chairman of the Audit Committee, and was a member of the Strategy, Nominating, and Compensation Committees.

Gary also served on the Annual Fund Board, and on the Distinguished Alumni Committee of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Gary holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a BS in Energy Technology and Physics from Northern Illinois University. Gary has also completed executive education curriculum in corporate governance at Harvard Business School.