Preston’s Pearl captains prepared for cruise season
MUDDY CREEK TWP — There isn’t a huge difference between steering a sail boat and piloting Preston’s Pearl on the water of Lake Arthur for David Knapp.
Preston’s Pearl is bigger and can hold more people than his sail boat, but the size of the Moraine Preservation Fund’s enclosed pontoon boat makes it susceptible to being pushed by the wind, so Knapp’s sailing experience comes in handy when helming the vessel.
“There's no keel on this or anything, so when the wind catches it you just slide sideways,” Knapp, a volunteer captain of the boat, said. “It’s 20,000 pounds, so it doesn’t stop on a dime either.”
Preston’s Pearl set off on its first passenger cruises of the season over Memorial Day weekend, but the volunteer captains and staff of Moraine Preservation Fund have been getting the boat ready and its schedule prepared for the past few weeks. Preston’s Pearl is a pontoon boat owned by Moraine Preservation Fund that offers private and public tours of Lake Arthur throughout the summer and into the fall. The boat replaced the Nautical Nature, Moraine Preservation Fund’s last tour boat, in 2021.
The scheduled public tours, which follow a 90-minute route around the lake, are starting to fill up, according to Emily Sizer, operations manager for Moraine Preservation Fund. The nonprofit has several volunteer captains and first mates who staff the boat each trip, in part thanks to new scheduling software Moraine Preservation Fund started using this year.
“It keeps it nice and simple; that's something new we started this year,” Sizer said of the online scheduling software.
The captains for Preston’s Pearl are all volunteers, but they each have to be certified by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission before getting behind the wheel of the pearl.
Knapp said on Friday, May 23, that he has been boating since before Lake Arthur was a lake. As a child, he would walk around Route 422 where Moraine State Park is currently located, and kayaked and boated the lake once it filled up in 1970.
Knapp’s background in kayaking wound up being a good qualifier for driving Preston’s Pearl.
“My qualification is I found every place that was less than 5 feet deep because that's how low my center board was,” Knapp said.
Starting up the Pearl is a process that takes a captain up to 20 minutes. At the start of the season, a captain takes the 200-pound cover off with the help of a few other staff members, make sure the battery is charged and the gas tank is full before starting the engine, and ensuring everything is operating correctly.
The end-of-tour-day process is equally lengthy, with the captain for the last tour of a day needing to plug the boat in to charge the electric systems on the vessel and ensuring everything is safely put away. Knapp demonstrated how to tie the boat down to the dock, using a cleat hitch knot to make sure it is secured.
“Today we gassed the boat, but usually it's just make sure all the windows are closed, make sure everything is put away, check the power,” Knapp said.
Knapp said getting certified by the fish and boat commission involves an examination by a state staff members, where the captain has to steer through obstacles to demonstrate their steering ability.
“We had to be examined by a fish commission officer and go out and do a driving test,” Knapp said. “They have this obstacle course set up and he'll say go around the buoys on starboard or port while you're headed for it, so you have to adjust.”
Matt Morris, another volunteer captain for the Preston’s Pearl, said the commission also tests the captains on rescue operations, in case someone falls off the boat into the water.
“They'd take us out and let you get the hang of it and everything,” Morris said. “We kept doing overboard drills with them, that's a concern.”
The rescue training captains go through with the fish and boat commission requires them to not only know how to perform rescues, but how to steer the boat in a way that makes the act of saving someone from the water optimal and efficient. Knapp said he had to swing the back of the boat one way, then make a big loop to get back to them, hopefully approaching a fallen passenger from downwind.
“It teaches you to get the boat centered to where that is and navigate to a specific spot,” Knapp said.
Despite becoming certified by the fish and boat commission, the captains and Sizer said children who go on tours are frequently curious about potential previous accidents.
“All the kids from schools, at least one says, 'Has anyone ever fallen off the boat?’” Sizer said.
Beyond the regular tours, Preston’s Pearl offers expanded options including dinner and brunch cruises, fall foliage tours and pizza parties. Private charters are also available for various events.
The regular 90-minute cruise always follows the same route around the lake; a route that is deep enough all the way so the boat doesn’t get in trouble, Knapp said. Once the boat pulls away from the dock at McDanels launch, passengers can go onto the top deck to get a better view of the scenery: “the park manager's house, Pleasant Valley Beach, the eagle's nest, Davis Hollow.”
Morris and Knapp have each been captains for the Moraine Preservation Fund since the days of the Nautical Nature, and said the upgrade to Preston’s Pearl in 2021 has made their job easier, and the passengers’ views better.
“We drove the old one,” Morris said, (Preston’s Pearl is) much bigger, a lot smoother, and with the deck on the top, that's the cherry on top.”
The Moraine Preservation Fund received a grant from Experience Butler County, formerly the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, at the organization’s Toast to Tourism on May 8. Sizer said the grant is to help fund more promotion of the boat and the tours it offers, while Amy Pack, president of Experience Butler County, also touted the economic impact of the preservation fund’s efforts.
“Our partnership with MPF is crucial,” Pack said. “The Preston’s Pearl tours support the outdoor recreation-related tourism sector, which brought over $114 million to the county in 2024.”
Morris also said he jumps on almost every chance he gets to captain the Pearl, and has been doing it regularly since he retired a few years ago. He said driving the boat is as much fun for him as it is for passengers to ride.
“Nobody doesn't enjoy themselves,” Morris said.
For more information on the Moraine Preservation Fund and Preston’s Pearl, visit the nonprofit’s website at morainepreservationfund.org.
