Winding River Boating Association was established in 1949.

  The WRBA was named after the Maurice River, which is a very winding river.  The WRBA ran service runabout races on the Maurice River at the Penny Hill Marina (in Dorchester) before they started running their races on Laurel Lake.  Whenever a local racer wanted to test and dial in their boat, they would go to the Penny Hill Marina to put it in and run around on the river there.

     Jack Fisher, one of the originators of WRBA, owned 10 lakefront lots at Laurel Lake.  He offered 5 of the 10 lots to WRBA for its Clubhouse.  Club members kicked in $100 each (Which wasn’t a small about those days) to purchase the lots.  The clubhouse building was constructed with donated materials, members organized work parties and special deals by local contractors.

     At the advent of hydroplanes, Fred Rechsteiner of Millville, attached sponsons to his service runabout, making it a hydroplane.  When Fred was getting out of racing, my father, Don, bought his 145ci Hydro abound 1961 (The 145 ci is what we call the S class now.  Fred had Dick Sooy build the hull, but Fred put on the decks and built the trailer.  I can remember seeing little anchors stamped on each of the deck nails on that boat.  Apparently, Fred used a punch with a anchor on it to set the nails and had them all straight and facing up.  Fred passed a few years ago, and his obituary said he was a “Master Metal Smith”.   Someone recently told me that, after retiring; he was active working with metals at The Wheaton Village in Millville, creating lamps and what-not.