Lon lives on a 1983, 52 DeFever Performance Offshore Cruiser (POC) Trawler he has restored to almost perfection in Paradise Village marina near Puerto Vallarta Mexico. He grew up in Chicago and received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire.

He has sailed all the Great Lakes, delivered one of Dominoes Pizzas corporate yachts from northern Lake Huron to Fort Lauderdale Fl. When the local dominoes franchises heard that a corporate yacht was in town there were so many pizzas brought to the boat. To this day Lon says, “I had so much Dominoes, I prefer just about any other pizza.” But Domino’s Pizza liked Lon enough that they paid for his sea school and testing for his 50 ton and 100-ton masters near-coastal captains licenses.

After delivering, managing yachts, and running tugboats in the south Florida area and the Bahamas Lon “swallowed the anchor” and went back to land. He went on to success in the media world, ending up being a business journal publisher in Colorado after stints with newspapers in Florida, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Colorado.

Lon bought a multistate staffing agency, more than doubled the revenues in ten years and moved to Mexico. He is very active with the Vallarta Yacht club in Nuevo Nayarit and races on other people’s sailboats. Lon is a retired Rugby player, Referee and administrator having toured England and played in many of the United States and Bahamas. His yacht is named TRY.

“Lon is one of the main reasons I got the sailboat I always wanted to own. He helped me through some situations with a level of caring I have not experienced with any other salesperson. His professionalism and knowledge of purchasing a boat in Mexico and the ability to put an anxious buyer at ease is why I have the boat. I could not recommend Lon high enough to anybody looking to purchase a boat. He has also become a good friend and I always enjoy our conversations.”

                                                                         Gregg Doerfler August 9, 2024