ROBERTSDALE, Alabama -- Friends and co-workers Dana Hall and Ted Riccio have been called a lot of things. Serious is not one of them.

“The most difficult part is not taking anything in life too seriously,” said Hall.

Trying to interview Hall, a resident of Robertsdale, and Riccio of Gulf Shores, who work for UTC Aerospace Systems (the former Goodrich Company) in Foley, one learns very quickly that both have become pretty good at it.

Through the years the two friends have collaborated on various projects outside of work and a couple of years ago, Hall said, he had what he calls an epiphany.

“We may have been working on a boat at the time, but I think we were just drinking beer,” he said. “We decided that if we created a fictitious organization we could be anything we wanted to be and the best part is, we can’t be regulated by the government.”

Thus the Robertsdale Yacht Club was born. Dubbed the only land-locked Yacht Club in the United States, Hall and Riccio have used the fictitious club to promote various projects.

“We’ve thought about calling ourselves a non-profit organization,” Riccio said, “but we’ve been losing money since the beginning so a more accurate description would be minus-profit organization.”

Every time the two friends begin a new project it is an opportunity to create a new division, Hall said.

Sometimes divisions are created out of necessity, such as the “Kitchen Utensil Repair Division,” and the “Charcoal Cooker Repair Division,” sometimes they are created for family, such as the “Replica Locomotive Division,” created to build a replica Thomas the Tank Engine  (or the TTTE project) for Hall’s grandson.

“We couldn’t use (that other Thomas name) because it’s a registered trademark,” Hall said, “so we had to use Thomas the Tank Engine. It’s a subtle, but necessary difference.”

Sometimes the divisions are created as just pure fun.

“We recently created the ‘Research and Development Division,’” Hall said. “Our first project was to develop a product we’re calling ‘naturally forming cellulose composite material.’ Others have developed similar products they called ‘wood’ which is available at all the major retail outlets like Lowe’s and Home Depot.”

For their latest project, they created the Naval Ordinance Division, to produce six replica 17th century naval cannons by a group in Palacios, Texas.

The cannons will be used on a replica of The La Belle captained by LaSalle in 1685 on a voyage from France to Mississippi.

The two friends are working on another project, which has been dubbed the TTTET or TTTEII (or Thomas the Tank Engine II) project developing another locomotive which will be donated for auction at the next Baldwin County Sheriff’s Boys Ranch fundraiser.

They’ve also created a new division. The Pirates of Robertsdale, or POR division.

“There’s a lot of snooty yacht clubs out there who have water and don’t like it that we’re operating without an actual water body close by,” Hall said. “The POR was created to lay waste to those yacht clubs. We’ll probably use cannons and if anybody complains about the noise, we’ll just blame it on the neighbors.”

Of course the smoking cannons in Hall’s back yard will probably give them away, Riccio said.

In the meantime, the Robertsdale Yacht Club will continue to operate with lofty goals for the future.

“We’re always looking for new members,” he said, “and our hope is to one day obtain a rich benefactor so we can retire to the lifestyle we deserve.”