Bayview Yacht Club sails into its second century

From a tin shanty to the Great Lakes "Shrine to Nautical Culture," a lot of water has passed by Bayview Yacht Club on its way down the Detroit River the past 100 years.

Though not the oldest yacht club in the Detroit area — the Detroit Yacht Club was founded in 1868, for example — Bayview is considered the granddaddy of pure sailing clubs in Michigan.

Standing across from the eastern tip of Belle Isle, its dock entrance off 100 Clairpointe in Detroit, Bayview is celebrating a century of recreational and competitive sailing — and countless drinks at the clubhouse bar overlooking the Detroit River and Canada — this year.

Bayview Yacht Club also will be hosting the 91st Bell's Beer Bayview Mackinac Race, as it has done since 1925, when only 12 boats competed in the inaugural freshwater, long-distance sailboat event from Port Huron to Mackinac Island.

On Saturday, more than 100 crafts from Bayview's fleet, including "Stripes," the Great Lakes 70 yacht owned and sailed by former University of Michigan athletic director Bill Martin, will be among the fleet of more than 250 boats scheduled to leave Port Huron for the straits of Mackinac.

Bayview Commodore Hanson Bratton will sail aboard the 60-foot "Eagle I," although he was to compete on his own yacht "Taz," in the double-handed crew class, until his sailing partner suffered an injured knee.

"The Port Huron-Mackinac race is so very important to the club," said Bratton, 51, a self-employed engineer from Grosse Pointe Woods whose father was a Detroit cop. "But it's only part of what we do. We also compete in open-lake racing and one-design regattas and have a junior sailing program, too. We've come a long way since four gentlemen formed the Bayview Yacht Club in 1915."

They were sailors E. Lloyd Kurtzwarth, P.C. Williamson, Floyd Nixon and Paul Diedrich, who chipped in $14 a piece and founded the yacht club in a two-story tin shanty atop a floored-over boat well at the foot of what was known then as Motor Boat Lane, adjacent to Water Works Park.

Bayview moved to its present location, at the foot of Clairpointe, in 1929-30.

With its sweeping vistas, two harbors, commodore's room filled with photos of men with beards and ties, fine restaurant and long mahogany bar, Bayview could be a snooty establishment for a privileged few.

Instead, says Bratton, it is a private working man's yacht club for "those with a genuine interest in sailing and enjoying the company of good people."

It houses the venerable J.L. Hudson Trophy, presented to the boat with the best corrected time in Division 1 of the Port Huron-Mackinac race.

"The founding members of this club were born out of Detroit," said Bratton, who joined Bayview as a member in 1994. "They came out of tool-and-dye shops related to the early automotive industry. A lot of these guys came from nothing. They grew into the money they had. It was new money, and people remembered where they came from."

With a membership of almost 1,000 when counting junior members (kids), intermediates (young adults aged 25-35) and the senior boating group (over 35), Bayview Yacht Club is robust.

But, if you are an active sailor, or someone with an interest in the sport and seeking an opportunity to join a club, Bayview has an open door.

"We welcome anyone here who has an interest in sailing," Bratton said. "Yes, you need to be nominated and get a sponsor, but if you have an interest in the sport, own a boat or are looking to crew on a boat or assist with the race committee, for example, you are eligible to join us."

For a price, of course, said Bratton.

"You have to be able to pay your dues but, compared to other clubs around here, they are hugely inexpensive," he said

The cost of joining Bayview, according to Bratton, is a one-time initiation fee of $2,500 per member that can be paid over a year.

"The monthly dues are $145 for active members," Bratton said.

Fred Kreger can attest to that.

He joined Bayview in 1952 and raced in his first Port Huron-to-Mackinac the same year.

At 83, Kreger still spends three or four days a week at the club, racing several times a week and helping with the junior sailors.

He will compete in the Port Huron-Mackinac race this weekend on "Carinthia," a J/120. It will be his 62nd race.

"I was always interested in boats since I was a little kid," said Kreger, who has sailed all over the Great Lakes, East Coast, California, Florida and Europe. "I met a girl whose father owned a sailboat. We got married, and I'm still married, but not to her."

Along with the sailing, Kreger, who has lived all his life in Grosse Pointe Park, said meeting his friends and newcomers at Bayview is what keeps him young.

"Bayview Yacht Club is very much part of me," said Kreger, a former engineer and salesman. "I don't go to the bar as much as I used to, but I still enjoy telling and hearing tall tales over a drink or two.

"On the water — I do everything but cook. You don't want me cooking for you. But I'll fill in anywhere I'm needed. Trim, navigate, steer, just ask me."

Peter Wenzler is the 2015 Bell's Beer Bayview Mackinac Race chairman and member of Bayview Yacht Club since 1990.

He'll sail on the 65-foot "Equation" in this weekend's race.

"I can't wait to go racing," said Wenzler, 49, an investment real estate broker from Grosse Pointe Farms. "The tradition of the race, the friends you make, just being out there and looking across at the blue horizon. It doesn't get better than that."

Wenzler and Bratton have raced Martin, who just finished first in class in the Chicago-to- Mackinac race this week.

"He's a stalwart," Wenzler said of Martin. "He's a straight-up great guy, and his boats are always in the hunt. He's great to be around at Bayview."

Wenzler believes Bayview Yacht Club can match any sailboat club in America.

"It's right up there with clubs in the Gulf, Chesapeake and any of the Great Lakes," Wenzler said. "We have won the Canada's Cup four times. It ranks in the upper echelon of competitive sailing clubs in the United States and is recognized worldwide.

"But the beauty of it is," added Wenzler, "we are a humble club, but proud. Bayview Yacht Club is indicative of Detroit."

Bratton tells a story that pretty much sums up Bayview's attitude and character, a club where teamwork and sportsmanship is paramount.

It happened about five years ago, he said, when someone tried to erect reserved parking spot signs outside the Bayview clubhouse for board members.

"They purchased metals posts and set them up," Bratton said. "Within the hour, a number of members had cut the signs off the posts and tossed them in the river."

Kreger had a tale of his own, too.

"There was a fellow here who wasn't using his boat much, just had it tied up," Kreger said. "We sodded the deck with grass and used it for teeing off on. He didn't take it real well."

Contact Mike Brudenell: mbrudenell@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mikebrudenell.

RACE ON

What: 91st Bell's Beer Bayview Mackinac Race.

Where: Starts at Port Huron and finishes at Mackinac Island.

When: Boats launch between 11:30 a.m. and 1:40 p.m. Saturday. They will finish between Sunday and Tuesday.

Who: More than 250 yachts (more than 100 from the Bayview Yacht Club) are expected to compete.

Courses: Most boats will sail the shore course (204 nautical miles), and some of the faster and bigger boats will sail the Cove Island course (259 nautical miles).

More info: www.bycmack.com.