About Pinnacle Yachts

Pinnacle Yachts was founded by Patricia Feracota, Gary Feracota and Randall Smith -- avid sailors and accomplished business people.

The Pinnacle Objective

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

Achievement

Pinnacle’s fractional yacht leasing and instruction programs have been a roaring success. In Chicago, the city of our origin, we have been entirely sold-out each and every season since our formation in 1998.

Over the years our team has grown to include the best and brightest from various backgrounds. Experts in decision sciences, yacht maintenance, boater education and financial management have come together to comprise the Pinnacle team.

Pinnacle is aligned with the world’s foremost yacht manufacturers. Our fleet operates in the finest metropolitan marinas. We have invested heavily in proprietary technology for optimal shared-yacht scheduling and maintenance with great success. We have a superb safety record. 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.

Much of the credit for Pinnacle’s success goes to our hundreds of loyal members -- most of whom have been with us for many years. Pinnacle members have had a powerful voice in the direction the company. Our membership has driven the creation of Pinnacle’s unique scheduling approach and technology, fleet composition, and program offerings. To members old and new we send our sincere and many thanks.

Founders

Randall Smith

Randy is a United States Coast Guard Licensed Captain. He has extensive on-the-water experience having sailed Lake Michigan, the Chesapeake Bay, the Caribbean, the Ionian Sea of Greece and the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Randy has completed extensive formal studies as a student and instructor with the Annapolis School of Seamanship, the US Coast Guard Auxiliary, the US Power Squadron and the American Sailing Association.

Randy formerly served as COO of a medical products company, and as a management consultant at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). While with Andersen, Randy led the development of the firm’s consulting practice in Eastern Europe. Randy holds a BS in Engineering from Northwestern University.

Patricia Feracota

Pinnacle Yachts was initially conceived by Patricia, and she now serves as its President and principal shareholder.

Patricia and her husband Gary have sailed Chicago's lakefront for more than two decades, 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 an auditor at Deloitte & Touche where she served the firm's most important client. She holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Illinois.

Gary Feracota

Gary served as turn-around CEO for a software company, consummating the favorable sale of the firm to a private 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 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 (now the Chicago Booth School of Business).

Gary holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, a BS in Physics from Northern Illinois University, and has completed the curriculum in Corporate Governance at Harvard Business School.