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White Lake Yacht
Club
History
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In Chicago, during the winter of 1902-03, three White Lakers got
together at the home of E.S. Douglas and said " Let's start a Yacht
Club at White Lake". They were Douglass, John A. Kruse and G. F.
Wadsworth.
A club house on Long Point called the Dus-Kew-Rera Club was made
available, and during the summer of 1903, dancing parties and other
social activities took place there. There were twenty-four members at
the time. As attendance increased each week it became clear that this
building would not hold all the people and it would be desirable to
build a new club house.
Possible locations for the new club included Long Point, Birch
Brook, and two sites at Sylvan, this divided the group and George
Mason came to the rescue by offering the present site. Starting in
October 1905 Fred McGuire spent countless hours organizing the
committees to raise funds and decide on the site for the Club. May
28, 1906 saw a lease finally signed with George Mason for 69 years at
a $1.00 per year. With an option to purchase for $1000.00 during the
first five years. Also the clubhouse had to be started by July 1,
1906 and completed by July 1, 1907, and cost not less than $2500.00
according to the lease.
November 1906 saw a survey of the land started, December found the
Club admitted to the Lake Michigan Yachting Association. In March
1906 the Club was incorporated. Fund rasing continued and through the
efforts of F.J. Lewis the drawings submitted to the committee by
Robert Rae would eventually be our club house. He also negotiated the
rest of the lease and the liquor clause.
May saw Love construction complete the driving of pilings for the
club house. Robert H. Osborn of Montague was the contractor and the
lumber was purchased in Whitehall at the Erickson Steefee Mill. By
August the building was finished and occupied with 100 members.
For the next ten years the Club flourished and was the meeting
place for all White Lakers for sailing and social activities.
Starting in 1912 the Yacht Club began to suffer do to golf becoming
an attractive sport and not as many people coming to White Lake. Only
through the efforts of Henry D.Sturdevant with money from his own
pocket was the Club able to stay afloat.
circa 1920
post card courtesy of Margo
Pulver
From 1915 to 1926 the Club House fell into a state of decay and
was devoid of human activity. The Club had been built on pilings out
in the lake so members could drive their boats inside to enter the
club and the winter ice had taken its toll on those pilings. Reviving
the clubhouse looked to be an insurmountable task.
In the early 1920's Clarence E. Pitkin started to think about
reviving the club so the children would have something to do. His
best idea was the Mississippi Valley Speedboat Association Gold Cup
races of 1925, which helped light a fire to revive the Club. The
regatta financed by Al Pack was not a success in itself but it did
revive interest in White Lake and the Club. The White Lake Speed Boat
Club was formed the summer of the races so they could use the Club
house during the power boat races. Many hours of volunteer labor were
used to fix up the deteriorated house.
At the end of the summer of 1925 a big costume party was planned
and it was tremendous success; it was called the "Pirates Ball." This
helped everybody's spirits concerning the Club. During the winter
many letters were written to the Golf Club Board as they had kept the
property as the White Lake Yacht and Golf Club, to ask them for the
release of the name and the property.
circa 1926
In June of 1926 plans had been laid for a Sailing School, Swimming
School and a Summer Art School for the small children. A Junior
organization was also started. Through donations by many including
Sturdevent and Lewis, $9000.00 was raised to revive the Club.
Business matters such as By-Laws and a Constitution were written. The
wood pilings holding up the clubhouse were replaced with concrete
piers during the summer of '26. The Trophy room was repaired, a
kitchen was added and new steps to the back of the clubhouse were an
addition along with electric lights. Members had always come by boat
before that time. The whole clubhouse was then rewired to make it
more safe.
The Junior Yacht Club was was officially organized on July 14,
1928. With John Guerin named as Commodore and Harry Pillinger as Vice
Commodore.
During the 30's sailboat racing was revived and gaff rigged "C"
scows were raced on White Lake. We also had a fleet of Crescents ( a
13 1/2 foot sloop.) Also raced were 28 foot "E" scows and 38 foot "A"
scows, with Marconi rigs being the preferred sail plan. The Western
Michigan Yachting Association was formed in Muskegon in 1930, with
WLYC being a charter member.
Sailing dock circa 1930, this dock was removed each
season.
Until 1933 the first floor consisted of only the Trophy room and
locker rooms. The west section where the anchor room is now was still
used as a boat house. Until 1933 the Club House was only used on
Saturday nights, but with the addition of the Anchor Room in 1933,
more use would be seen. It took the effort of many members to build
this room during those depression years.
During 1936-37 through the efforts of Yacht Club members, writing
their Congressman etc. the Corps of Engineers rebuilt the piers
through the channel into Lake Michigan.
Yacht is the Atlantic owned by Schlitz brewery in
Milwaukee. Owner was a club member, photo circa 1936.
photo courtesy of G. E.
Dake
A new dock and steel breakwater in front of the club, were built
in the spring of 1941 under the direction of G.E.Dake Sr. then
Commodore. It was installed by Love Construction of Muskegon. Dr.
Leland E. Holly I and F.J. Lewis helped raise the $10,000 needed to
pay for the construction.
Dock circa 1958
post card courtesy of Margo
Pulver
The White Lake Yacht Club News, published by Clarence Pitkin from
1927 to 1961, by Wilfred Berman until 1967, and by Courtney Pitkin
for its two final years, helped to keep everybody informed about the
Club's activities and maintained the interest in the Club. This
publication became very expensive to produce and eventually evolved
into the Mainsheet, first edited by Lloyd Colby for two years, and
then by Irene Pierson until 1980, when Anne Dake took over until
1988, Stormy Weber edited for one year, and then Karen Getz became
our editor.
post card courtesy of Margo
Pulver
During the late 50's and early 60's our racing fleets were "E"
scows, "C" scows, "Y-Flyers" (designed by Past Commodore Alvin
Youngquist) and Nippers. The National "E" scow regatta was held on
White Lake in 1960 with 58 boats attending from all over the country.
White Lake had a fleet of 21 "E's" at this time, with several
participating in that regatta.
Dock and judges stand circa 1960.
In 1963, Fred Fischl suggested we build a pool for our young
people as White Lake was becoming polluted. In 1965 with engineering
and planning by Ned Dake and fund raising by Lee Holly II we built a
pool by borrowing again from our membership with bonds. The swimming
school program now had a weed free home. Stocky Holly was the
director and she hired Jim "Red" Heeris as swim instructor. Jim
continued as head instructor for over 30 years and was a real asset
to our program.
In the late 60's Nippers gave way after much debate to Butterfly's
and the Club had a fleet for several years in the early 70's of near
50 boats with as many as 40 racing every Saturday. We have hosted
four National Butterfly regattas to date. The "E" fleet was dwindling
and the "C" fleet growing and it wasn't long before we raced only 2
fleets, the Butterfly and the "C".
1964 saw a very low water time for White Lake, you could stand on
the bow of a "C" scow and your eyes were at the level of the main
dock.
Lee Holly, Lloyd Colby and Bob Christie, along with several others
purchased the house across the street so that we could have more land
on the water and have a backup building in case anything happened to
our building. The sale of this property on top of the hill allowed us
to pay off many debts in 1988.
Earlier, Saturday Night Activities were dances, but in the 1970's
attendance was dwindling, so dinner dances were begun. They were a
popular addition to the social side of the club which included Ladies
Bridge, the Commodore's Ball and the continuation of the Pirates
Ball.
In 1970 with our docks almost 40 years old Ned Dake took on the
engineering and oversaw the construction of our present main dock,
much as his father had done in 1940. In 1980 we built the Youngquist
Sailing Dock. Allan Dake following in family tradition,supervised the
construction and organized the Juniors to do the deck part of the
construction.
With water levels coming up and the Club House slipping on its old
footings Jack Orr and Harry Pillinger leveled up the house and poured
new footings twice the size of the old ones to stabilize the
structure.
A great deal of money had been spent to replace the docks and
maintain the Club house. The membership expressed interest in
purchasing our facility from the Golf Club, from which up to this
time we had been leasing the Club for a dollar a year. Negotiations
took place for several seasons and we purchased the property and Club
House from the Golf Club in 1981 for $60,000.
Aerial photo circa 1980.
The Dock renovation was completed in 1983 with the rebuilding of
the outside "T" dock. Many volunteers put in countless hours on the
construction, thereby saving the club many dollars.
The racing fleets began to change again. In 1978 Lasers were added
to the fleets and in 1984 with the "C" scow becoming increasingly
expensive and requiring a permanent crew the "MC" scow was adopted as
our new fleet. In 1989 the "MC" fleet numbers 23 boats. We continued
to race Butterflies, mostly for our junior members.
1986 found the Club House was in trouble with very high water and
predictions of yet higher levels. The waves of White Lake regularly
washed over the main dock and steel sea wall. During 1987, Commodore
Jim Lindrup organize efforts to save the Club House from being washed
away by overseeing the building of our new concrete sea wall,
walkways and continuing the drainage system started by Harry
Pillinger from the springs behind the club.
Through a major fund drive under Commodore Gerald Gill and the
gifts of many members, we were able in 1988 to retire all debts
relating to property's purchased, docks built, and the seawall
project.
Our restrooms which were in poor shape for many years, finally
were completely removed, redesigned and reconstructed in 1989 by
Vice-Commodore Jim Duncan and Commodore Allan Dake.
During the early 90's the club experienced periods of high water
and by 1999 found the water levels had receded close to the record
low levels of 1964. The kitchen has been updated to commercial
equipment with an ansel fire system. Our septic system was rebuilt in
1999 under Vice Commodore Jon Penn.
Our Yacht Club News was revived but proved too costly to continue so we have reverted back to the Mainsheet Format at this time.
In 2002 we had our first woman Commodore in Pamela Kerr.
2003 was our 100th aniversary of the founding of the club and was celebrated by many activities during one week at the club. The Muskegon County Museum also had a year long showing of photographs and historical artifacts at the museum.
We remodeled the anchor room food prep and storage area during the winter of '03 and '04 to better serrve our members. We dredged the outer basin to 7 feet deep to accomodate the larger slips and we installated a floating dock system in the inner basin for our members with power boats on lifts.
Today in addition to the racing schedule, the Club Activities
continue to include active Swim School and Sailing School programs,
Junior Yacht Club, Ladies Bridge, Sailor's Lunch and Saturday Night
dinner dances & parties. We are a diverse Club with 300 member
families who all help to make our Club what it is - a grand place to
enjoy summers at White Lake.
Many White Lake Yacht Club members over the years have given uncountless hours of their time to make the Club what it is today. It would have been impossible to mention everyone who has contributed, but we tried to give a flavor of major happenings in the Club's history and the people who organized a particular project. This history was summarized from a "History of WLYC" c.1975 by Courtney Pitkin our Club Historian at the time.
For a more complete view of our history you should purchase the book "Looking Aft" published for our 100th aniversary in 2003 by Dan Yakes. This hardback book contains over 100 photographs and about 400 pages and is available in several stores in Whitehall and Montague, or from Dan himself.
by E. A. Dake 2004
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