The Carefree Boat Club of Lake Norman opened in May, 2010. Each local Carefree Boat Club is independently owned and operated.
Marc and Oana Graveline moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2005, from Ontario, Canada. Marc, growing up in coastal Virginia and Oana, growing up in Romania near the Black Sea, both developed a love for the water at a young age. When they relocated to the Charlotte area, they were immediately drawn by Lake Norman’s beauty and the dream of boating with their two young children. They purchased their first boat soon thereafter.
Many fun and “adventurous” times were experienced the first few years of owning and trailering their 21’Sea Ray. Although they boated as frequently as they had imagined, Marc and Oana soon realized that with factoring in all the costs of owning a boat, the cost per use was a lot more than they expected. They loved boating, but thought there must be an easier and less costly way.
Research led them to discover the Carefree Boat Club. They loved the concept and business model so much that they secured the rights to be the exclusive Carefree Boat Club for the Lake Norman and greaterCharlotte area.
Marc functions as President and CEO and Oana operates as the CFO. Their children, Christopher and Madison, who also love the water and boating can be found frequently cleaning boats and preparing for member social events.
John Gillette grew up on Tampa Bay in a sailing family. Soon he also developed a love for powerboating and water skiing. His passion eventually led him to become a professional water skier and towboat driver for Sea World, a world class barefoot water skier, author, columnist, product manager for a leading competition ski boat company and Water Ski Hall of Fame award recipient.
John joined the Carefree Boat Club of Lake Norman in March, 2011, and serves in sales,
marketing and operations.
Thomas Talbot grew up on Lake Norman and has been an avid boater and watersports enthusiast all of his life. He is a graduate of UNCC in marketing and has extensive sales experience and serves as a sales director.
Tony Demauro started the Queen City Boat Club in 2008 as the first boat club on Lake Norman. In 2011 Tony decided to change course vocationally, and an agreement was reached to merge his members and one boat into the Carefree Boat Club of Lake Norman.
Todd Clark is our lead dock master. A watersports enthusiast and recent graduate of UNCC in public relations, Todd is also involved in promoting professional wakeboard and snowboard events. He checks our members in and out and helps insure boats are in proper condition upon their arrival.
Lyle Lashmit
is a full time mechanical engineer, and assists on the dock occasional evenings and weekends. Lyle is an avid wakeboarder, having mastered some spectacular inverted tricks! Ask him for wakeboarding tips!
Al Moore is a UNCC civil engineering student, and when he’s not studying or taking in a Panther’s game on the weekends, he assists on the dock.
Tyler Lloyd is an NC State chemical engineering student, and assists us on the dock during the summer and some weekends during the school year.
