What follows is a brief history of the club (click on the year for more detail).
August 2002
Scott and Lee were the founding members who started PRC by placing an advertisement in the Washington Blade newspaper. They went on to host the first raft-ups with their boat "Buoy Toy" at "Three Sisters" on the Potomac River and started the website. The club was initially called the Potomac Rainbow Power Boat Club.
Things quickly blossomed as they discovered that there were plenty of other gay boaters on the Potomac who were looking for just this sort of club. Through the short rest of the 2002 season a small group of dedicated charter members was formed.
2003
The club held our first membership meeting in January where a variety of important decisions were made, including changing the name to Potomac Rainbow Cruisers. The idea of a general membership meeting each winter later became a Holiday Tradition.
2003 started out quite soggy, with rain nearly every weekend from May through mid-June. But we did manage to get some boating in, especially toward the end of the summer. Other events held throughout the 2003 season included a Chicken Cruise to Ft. Washington, a Memorial Day Raft up, a 4th of July raft up and Cruise to Cobb Island, our First Anniversary party at Georgetown, and a week long cruise to the Chesapeake Bay. The season concluded with the arrival of Hurricane Isabel in August.
2004
The year was again opened with a 2004 general membership meeting. More changes were made to the club policies as we strove to keep the focus on boating. We had a Club outing to the DC Boat Show in the dead of winter. Click on the link for details. The show made everyone anxious to get the boating season started. We look forward to an exciting year without any hurricanes! On Apil 24, we had our Chicken cruise to Ft Washington, you can click on the link to read all about it. On May 29, we held our Memorial Day raft-up at Mattawoman Creek. It was the biggest, so far. Click for details. PRC held a Gay Pride Celebration at the Wall (Georgetown Harbor Place) on June 12.
On September 3, we held our annual Labor Day Weekend Cruise. Click on the link to read all about it.
2005
The 2005 membership meeting was held on February 6, 2005. We changed some of the rules of the club, and planned out our calendar for the year.
Anxious to get the year started sooner rather than later, we decided to schedule our first boating event of the year, our annual "Chicken Cruise" to Ft. Washington for April 2-3. This proved to be a bit of a mistake as that weekend turned out to be rainy, windy and cool.
On the weekend of May 28 we held our annual Memorial Day Weekend Cruise. This year the cruise was to Port Tobacco.
PRC held a Gay Pride Celebration at the Wall in Georgetown (Georgetown Harbor Place) on June 11.
For Independence Day, PRC had a raft-up the watch the 4th of July Fireworks, followed by a cruise to Colonial Beach and into the Bay.
August 6, 2005 we held are 1st Annual Tantallion Beach Party and Picnic at Swann Creek.
September 3, 2005 we held our Labor Day Cruise to Colonial Beach.
2006
On January 22, we kicked off the 2006 boating year with our Annual Potomac Rainbow Cruisers Planning Brunch. Click on the 2006 link for more info
On March 11, PRC had a tour of XM Radio Studio in Washington, DC.
On Apil 29, we had our 4th annual Chicken cruise to Ft Washington, you can click on the link to read all about it.
The rest of the year went well with a wide array of events, including a Cherry Blossom raft-up, a great Memorial weekend trip to Leonardtown, a week long cruise to the Bay, 4th of July in DC, Pride at the Georgetown Waterfront, our 4th Anniversary at Fairview Beach, and finally Labor Day at Colonial Beach.
2007 The 2007 season began with a much needed influx of new members, who turned out to be very active as well. But April was a cool and rainy month, keeping most of us off the water. Finally, the last weekend of April was nice, and we had our annual Chicken Cruise to Ft. Washington. It was a great success with 7 boats and 20 people showing up!
Planned events for the rest of 2007 include Memorial Day at St. Clements and Colonial Beach, Pride at Georgetown, 4th of July in DC, A week long cruise to the Rappahannock in August, and labor Day in Colonial Beach.
2008
What will '08 bring??????????????
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