OCONTO YACHT CLUB

HISTORY

By Kenneth Exworthy

Nothing fancy, nothing official, not all the information, but this is as I remember it.

I will start with a personal note, so the reader can know where I was during the time span covered. It is my intent that this history be added-to by other old-timers who can use it as a starting point for their own stories.

I started work at Holt Instrument Labs in Oconto in late March 1971. The “Hi-Lab” was a small instrument company making supremely accurate electrical measuring devices. At the time, in direct competition with companies of which I’m sure you are familiar, Hewlett-Packard and Fluke. They had won a contract to build an instrument for the US Army and I started working on that job. Immediately I realized that living in Oconto would be a lot different than the city from which I had come. My tech at work insisted I had to get a snowmobile (at least one) and the boss, Pete DeWitt, introduced me to the bay and the river and the Yacht club bar. I had, in my previous life, built a 13 foot “OK Dinghy” which I wanted to sail in the bay and was, when I left Minneapolis, active in a group that raced Snipes on the small Minnesota lakes and also a member of the White Bear Ice Boating club. I started looking for a sailboat. During the summer my family joined me in Oconto and we frequented the Yacht club—the itch grew stronger.

Work took up a lot of time, but I managed to find a 23 foot sailboat in Marinette, on a trailer and for sale. We got two snowmobiles and in October joined Gene Lawrence at the OYC monthly meeting. A nice lady there who had happened to know my family from Marinette immediately appointed me club treasurer. She was secretary at the time and married to Carter Nickoli, soon to be commodore. (The statement actually was: “Are you Kenny Wayne Exworthy? Esther’s son? From Marinette? He’ll be a good treasurer!”). And so, the deed was done. I arranged for dockage and found that I would start that night, would come to the work parties (3), was required give the financial report at the next meeting and would meet with the officers after the general meeting to decide on a full-time bar tender/club operator arrangement. Up to that time the club had hired a part-timer for the summer months and partially closed up in the winter. We also discussed having a snowmobile club. Nice when everything comes together like that, but Whoosh! Wow! that was a little fast.

The first work party involved lifting the boats. Starting on Friday, a Jackie Foster crane was placed on the bank near where the mast lift is now. Boat cradles were moved to spaces along the bank where the crane could reach them. That was, at the time, a wide spot in Jones Creek, but deep enough to take the sailboats. (See the 1992 survey map for details of the area.) There was no lagoon as we know it now. The crane operator showed up at first light and we got the sailboats moored along the bank to parade by the crane one-by-one and he, very carefully and expertly, pulled all the masts which were laid out on the bank. When all the masts were up, the boats were again paraded by the crane and he lifted them using slings and placed them on the waiting cradles, arrayed along the bank. When the job was done we all helped reload the crane back on its flatbed and took up a generous “contribution” which paid the crane operator for his work. The crew then toasted each other at the bar with strong drink, singing praises of the wonderful job that had been accomplished.

The second work party involved some rebuild of the bar area, clean up the grounds and refurbish of some of the clubhouse. The house had, as far as I could ascertain, been at one time a house, somehow involved with the Spies lumber company that had a sawmill on the property (note that the street down the front is Spies Road). The sawmill, of course filled the land with sawdust and scarfings off the timber which is why, if you dig down a ways the ground turns into a kind of loonshit. The club had decided to go with the full-time bar arrangement and hired Francis Daul and his wife Joyce to be the operators. Since the club had been, from the early days, I believe about 1947, incorporated as a non-profit organization, I found that hiring, etc. involved dealing with the corporate arm of the State of Wisconsin and about trebled my workload as treasurer. By winter the clubhouse was in full swing and became a very well attended local watering hole. I counted 42 snowmobiles outside one night when Joyce had a giant pot of chili on the burner and I’m sure that was NOT a record. She started having fish fry on Fridays and a dance on Saturdays and the place was jumpin’.

The third work part took place on a VERY cold Saturday morning in December and to understand the job, you have to understand the dockage arrangement. Boats were docked, in those days, on pole docks. They were put up every spring by jetting cedar poles a long way into the river bottom, spacing them with nailed-on boards and making a top walkway with long stringers. The jetting was done by a local guy who had a rather powerful gas-driven pump on a float.

A long pipe was rubber-banded to the pole and the assembly pushed down into the sand and gunk at the river bottom until the pole was set. It was wiggled to get it into position and the pipe was slipped up and off. In the fall, the stringers were removed and the poles left out. By December the ice movement had lifted the poles out of the bottom and Voila! Ready to be taken-in and piled. This job was cold and also involved some toasting and warming-up afterward.

During the December, I found that having a bar on the premises also involved dealing with all the local liquor and beer distributors—another 40% increase in work for the treasurer. The snowmobile club got incorporated and patches were made and sold. I rode to work every day on my snowmobile and we did other things in the evening with our snowmobiles. BUT, in going through the club financial records, I found that no one had filed the US corporation return for the previous years. How many? I don’t know. There were long and tearful-sounding pleadings with the federal IRS people who turned out to be quite nice about it. We got the club reinstated with them, paid no fines and filed all the papers, estimated for three years back. Holy Cow! But by winter’s end the club was all up and running smoothly with the new arrangement. Our boat was covered in the backyard waiting for spring and the (now three) contingent of family snowmobiles were out and about.

Spring 1972 brought MUSH. With all the traffic, the parking lot was turning into a kind of thawing permafrost-muskeg quagmire. Having a fish-fry, dance or whatever was involving pulling cars out to the road at 1 AM so we started filling with limestone crusher tailings and crushed rock from Jackie Foster’s quarry. Luckily the club operators were related and we got good service. I estimated once that there was over 3000 yards of fill put in because it just kept sinking. Also, we now had money to spend so new docks were an order of business. It was decided that we would build floating docks using treated lumber and barrel floats. Again, fortunately, a member owned the lumber yard and another had access to plastic rennet barrels from a cheese factory. The first work party was a nice day in April and we got the hang of making floating docks. The first set was brought around and placed in the front, downstream from what is now the travel lift lagoon. Then we had the party to jet in the other docks and then the party to lift-in the boats and then clean up the grounds.

Summer and more plans. The land, extending from up on Jones Creek where a family was living, all the way to the ‘Y’ at Yacht Club road became available for purchase. The OYC bought it all up (again, refer to the 1992 survey).

Of a sudden, now that we knew who owned the land, us, the road became an issue. The driveway that had been used a majority of the time went out from the clubhouse directly to Spies road. But, if a road is provably used, by the public, for a period of time, it becomes a public road. Closed it immediately and put more fill in to buttress the underpinnings of Yacht Club Road that was giving all the signs of permanently returning to the swamp. Ho! That problem solved. The driveway was still used on occasion, but we had established private ownership.

The spring of ’73 brought more dock building and all the pole docks were displaced all the way around to Jones Creek. Water was very high and around Memorial day a northeast storm backed the river up and flooded the whole place out. The club was quite active with boating, common runs were across the bay to the Sturgeon Bay facilities, Little Sturgeon for fishing and straight across to a pizza joint that had a little breakwater to nestle in. In summer the pressure of having money again became something to deal with, so plans were hatched to put in the lagoon. During that winter, a big drag-line crane was brought in which dredged out the area as we know it now. The land between the parking lot and the road was swamp, much like it is now back of our ‘strip’ on the west side of the lagoon. The dredging spoils were used as fill in that area and over where we have the storage shed. There wasn’t enough to fill the other pond, and we ran out of money to get fill from the outside. This turned out to be a problem later when someone found a duck in there and then it was all over for filling it in. Floating docks were put around the lagoon and the land out to the road was graded.

Toward the end of 1973 I moved into a mobile home the club had for years sitting near Yacht Club road. It had been used for the itinerant bartenders in the summer and was not in very good shape. A dreary time. We put baled hay all around and rebuilt the piping which had frozen and fixed the pot stove. It was cold in there, wind from the northwest would blow papers off the table and water dripping through the roof from the sun would freeze when it got inside the bedroom. Hi-Lab went bankrupt in the spring of ’74 and the world seemed to be at an end. Things picked up as the sun got warmer, the water came up again and flooded the road making it almost impossible to get in for a while.

But, enough of that. I moved to take a job in Minneapolis and by August had transferred all the accounting and books to a local “bookkeeper”. The club immediately began losing money, rates were raised to make up the difference, but by the fall of ’76 had to close the bar to the public and take out a loan to settle accounts with the suppliers who were left hanging.

During the next two years the club was busy picking up the pieces. Fund-raisers and dinners were planned to raise the money to get out of debt. Also, it became obvious that the two-day-a-year lift-out parties were not the way to go when we managed to lift 27 boats on one cold, windy Saturday. A miserable, dangerous job, finished with the help of assembled car headlights. The ‘party-after’ was a glum affair with everyone agreeing that it was time to start looking for a travel lift and financing so the work could be spread over several days. A used travel lift was subsequently found in Green Bay and transported to Oconto during the fall of 1977. Pilings and timbers for the lift well were procured, a mast lift pole installed and the lift was put into operation for the fall of 1977. Whew!

For me, boating became part of a weekend shuttle from Minneapolis. I had gotten a four day a week job with Medtronic and every Thursday night would trundle in to Oconto for three days. During the summer of ’76 I was everlastingly fortunate enough to find a new mate and our summer weekends were spent camping and boating at Oconto. My wife, Erika, is now one of the longest term members of the club.

During this decade, there were many people who contributed to the success of the Oconto Yacht Club. The members came together in the many work parties and much was accomplished to make the place the beautiful docking area it became. None were more important than Ken Altergott who was a mover and shaker of epic proportions. When it was decided that anything should be built or done, Ken was there to see to it that the job was accomplished. His influence waned in the early 80’s when the membership changed over from old-timers, some of whom had been there since the 40’s to a new group, many from the Green Bay area.

The rest of this history will be spread among the yearly sections of newsletters, piece-by-piece, highlighting the accomplishments, especially the building of the new clubhouse. The comments in the newsletters are a running account of club activities, of which there were many.

Gradually, it became obvious to Erika and me that camping over three day weekends or staying on our little 23 foot sailboat was not working out. We decided to find a boat we could stay on comfortably and began looking in the ads and started traveling to marinas to find one. We weren’t sure we could stand the close quarters and Erika was determined to learn to sail a bigger boat. We went to the CSY training school in the Bahamas the spring of 1978 and rented a “learn-to-sail” 30 footer from Caribbean Sailing Yachts where we got the necessary training under our belts. During the summer we rigged the 23 footer for staying out overnight and made several trips to Little Sturgeon and that area, anchoring out. This experience made us more determined to “get something bigger” so we renewed efforts and during the winter of ’78-’79 bought a Morgan 34 in Racine. This boat had centerboard so could navigate the river with only a three foot draft. We fitted it out in Racine and brought it up in spring to the OYC. That summer was a blur of sailing up and down the bay, triangles, out with the kids, friends from Minneapolis and yacht club activities. Erika expressed her desire to live in the area and we started looking for a job here. As fortune would have it, Ansul in Marinette had an opening starting ‘now’.

The Morgan needed some engine work and a new shaft bearing, shaft and prop upgrade. This was done over the winter along with an increasing presence at Yacht Club activities, being elected to the board for a 3 year term. For the club, work was being done on improving the electrical system for the docks and lots of upkeep on the building which was basically falling down. The summer of ’80 was a delight, the boat upgrades worked perfectly and son Mark and I had gone out in the woods to find a tiller. The Morgan had come with a tiller originally that had been replaced by an awkward, poorly fitted wheel. A ‘new’ maple branch was cut and fitted to the job. Sailed like a dinghy! Club finances were somewhat in disarray, there still being a bank loan outstanding and the travel lift bonds had not been paid off. In June, an old-time club member and ardent supporter, Doc Abbott, produced a resolution which, if passed would ensure that the directors charge according to a budget each year, the surplus to go into, first, cleaning up the old accounts and secondly, that money would begin to be set aside for a new club building (see). This was discussed at the July meeting. It was decided that since the floating docks were falling into disrepair that the resolution would determine part of that upgrade, but confusion still reigned about the rules for members and budgets and whatever on and on.

To allay the confusion, a committee was established to research the articles of incorporation, the by-laws and the rules of operation. During the winter of

‘80-’81 the dockage issue was solved by planning and building at Don Lindgren’s machine shop in Green Bay the new steel docks that we have yet today, approval of the rewritten articles, by-laws and rules, but foremost among the work of that winter was passage of Doc Abbott’s resolution.

It is seldom in the life of an organization that turning points are so clearly defined; this was one.

Erika was given the responsibility of establishing a separate building fund by Altergott and she got to work immediately. Profits from all club activities were segregated, rummage sales and dinners were organized, picnics after weekend boating were held and the building fund prospered. The regular club expenses were taken care of by budgeted accounting, the travel lift proved to be a boon since all the lift-out and storage fees now stayed with the club. Bar expenses were minimized and profit began to flow from that area. Tumult in the club was apparent on some quarters and there was significant ‘discussion’ about what shape the new club house should assume. Erika was elected secretary for 1983 and continued accumulating building funds.

In August of 1983, the shape of the new clubhouse was decided and the financing was approved by the membership. A survey required by the building code revealed that the floor of the house would have to be set about 4 feet higher than the parking lot of that time. Footings were poured and the space filled. The 3000 yards of Jackie Foster crushed limestone held and the new building was in place. By the winter it was roughed-in with some contractor help and lots of volunteered effort by the members, The $19000 financing was accomplished with a minimum of hassle because the “building fund” had contributed over $4000 to the effort.

During the winter John Reed and Don Lindgren organized weekend work parties each week to finish the inside of the clubhouse (hopefully) before the 1984 boating season. The volunteers finished the walls, the trim, the bathrooms, the kitchen and, finally, in April brought over the bar from the old clubhouse and installed it in the new. A huge amount of work went into getting the facilities changed over and up and running in the new clubhouse.

A two day work party was needed for the changeover which included a new well, water connection to the new house including a well pit where the new dock water supply could be connected and reconnection of the dock electric supply to the new house switching and metering system. The members responded heroically, even surviving a pickax poke into the new gas line by an over-zealous Don Faull. Phew, what a dangerous stink—was the new place to go up in a ball of fire? Everyone stood back and a call to the Public Service yielded a screaming trip down from Menominee by an expert to stop the leak. Dodged a bullet. The old house was gutted and torn down with a local “company” salvaging what they could of the wood and scrap stuff. The remains were burned in a fire that slightly scorched the river side of the new place. Lots of landscaping was also done, pine trees that had been growing for years on our eastern ‘land’ were transplanted to the roadside, grass was planted and the place cleaned up really spiffy.

Erika and I continued sailing and participating in OYC activities. The water came up again in 1985 and ’86 when we had the local kids canoeing in the parking lot. We went across Lake Michigan to Frankfort and South Manitou. A second crossing took us to South Manitou, Leland, Northport and Charlevoix. The fastest our boat ever went was on Lake Charlevoix with a wind off the big lake and no waves, we pinned the knotmeter! From there, up to Beaver Island and a magic night at the Irish Pub there. From Beaver Island over to Manistique and got pinned in there for a week. They are very nice folk and we had a good time with their yacht club and on their beach with our puppy and the wind and sand.

The club, in subsequent years, put in new dock supports, got a “new” travel lift which was driven up the road from Suamico by the intrepid Darrel Smith and built the storage shed. Some work and negotiations were put into getting a former “road” (extension of one lane of Yacht Club Road through our parking lot) vacated by the town. Sewers were put in and city water displaced our pump. The trailer was removed and various changes made to the gasoline supply and sewage pumpout. The last really big project was expansion of the clubhouse by the river-side addition. I’ll stop here and let someone else take over. The pictures I had of the parties and work around and in the old house are pretty sketchy, maybe someone else can come up with some more and add to the scrapbook.

Erika stopped sailing in 1997 and I did it alone for a few years, but by 2000 we put our boat up for sale and it left for Frankfort, Michigan during the summer of 2001. The Oconto Yacht Club has been a big part of our lives, love of boating determined some of the course we took and we wouldn’t trade any of it.