Waterlines 21 August v2

W ATERLINES
August 2021
grand traverse yacht club

Waterlines, August 2021
August 2021
Contents
2021
Commodore
Bill Babel
Vice Commodore
Mark Clark
Rear Commodore
Petra Keuhnis
Past Commodore
Rob Lovell
Directors
Sam Bender
Dietrich Floeter
Shannon Hicks
Dannielle Higgins
Verne Powell
Tom Roop
Secretary
Louis Rodriguez
Treasurer
Laura Brown
General Manager
Jordan Owen
Service Manager
Chris Horvath
13653 S West Bay Shore Drive
Traverse City, Michigan
231.946.9779
gtyc@gtyc.org
www.gtyc.org
@GrandTraverseYC
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
3 - From The Helm, Commodore
Bill Babel
4 - Dick Bassett, Celebrity Hermit
14 - The Dick Bassett Trophy
15 - Robitshek Second in Sears Cup
16 - Fishtales Wins Race To
Mackinac Section
18 - Summer 2021 Highlights
*Summer Storms
*Harbor Springs
*Buildings & Grounds
* Then & Now
24 - Hound Dog Regatta & Weekend Highlights
26 - Hound Dog Results
27 - Dick Bassett Trophy Race Results
29 - August & September
Calendars
30 - GTYCF Oyster Clambake
Editor’s Note:
It’s been more than a while since we’ve been
able to get out a Waterlines, but I wanted to
share with the membership the story of Dick
Bassett — one that I hope will not be forgotten
in the story of Grand Traverse Bay. This year’s
Annual Regatta sees the inaugural awarding not
the Dick Bassett Trophy for the Either Way
Around The Island Race. I hope it is a fitting,
albeit small, way to commemorate such a
unique life.
Cheers,
Jordan Owen
General Manager
2

Waterlines, August 2021
From the Helm
Commodore Bill Babel
Type to enter text
The Crew of GL70 Stripes raises
two fingers to celebrate “Peace,
Love, & Yachting” with the victory
in the 2021 Trans Superior with
Commodore Babel
3

Waterlines, August 2021
Dick Bassett
celebrity hermit
of grand traverse bay
PC Jordan Owen
What follows is a first pass at a profile of Dick
Basse4 —while much of the informa9on was
gathered mainly from a wide range of
primary sources, the works of Al Barnes,
Larry Wakefield, & Kathy Firestone have been
the founda9on of this ar9cle. In the months
ahead, I hope to produce an expanded &
annotated version
At the end of the 1800s, in an era when a
growing Traverse City was known as the
"Queen City of the North", perhaps the area's
greatest celebrity was a man who was most
famous for his solitude. For over twenty
years, a man named Dick BasseG resided as a
squaGer on the small island at the end of the
isthmus on the north side of what is now
named Power Island and in the process
became the region's first naLonal celebrity
For those of you new to our community, "The
Hound Dog" has been the name for the
Grand Traverse Yacht Club Annual RegaGa
since 1999 when then Commodore Dan
Spyhalski reserved the campgrounds on that
same small island -- now named "BasseG
Island" and held the weekend's parLes and
races from that locaLon. Playing on the name
"BasseG", the name "Hound Dog" was
applied to the event.
What we know of Dick BasseG comes from
the contemporary news reports of his Lme.
His story, first reported in the mid-1880s,
emerged in the popular media of the era,
daily and weekly newspapers. The content of
Engraving of Dick Bassett from the Blackfoot Idaho
News, October 31, 1891
these publicaLons at the Lme was a
combinaLon of local news, noLces, and
adverLsements fleshed out by what would
be known as "wire copy" -- stories that
caught local editor's fancy from both near
and far, be it the acLviLes of
European royalty or the daily habits of a Civil
War veteran who lived alone on an island in
the middle of Grand Traverse Bay. To match
the column inches required on their pages,
editors might remove important facts or
embellish the tale as they saw fit for their
4

Waterlines, August 2021
reader's enjoyment. Over Lme, the details of
Dick BasseG's life blurred as the sketch of his
biography spread around the world.
Fortunately, the local Traverse City
publicaLons -- the Morning Record and the
Grand Traverse Herald -- made note of the
more pedestrian happenings in the life of Mr.
BasseG.
It is likely that Dick BasseG was born in
western Iowa someLme around 1840. At that
Lme, the great grassy plains of the west of
the Mississippi were very much the fronLer.
In his youth, BasseG is reported to have
worked alongside his father as a herder and
drover managing livestock. His father also
worked as a guide for seGlers who moved
west through the mountains to Oregon and
California. While the senior BasseG was on
the trail, Dick was le[ to ride herd over the
livestock.
The defining experience of Dick BasseG's life
would be the Civil War. MulLple sources
record that BasseG joined the 5th Infantry of
Iowa as a volunteer. That unit was organized
at Burlington, Iowa along the Mississippi in
July of 1861 before heading south to fight in
many of the most criLcal baGles of the war
for the control of the western theatre and
the Mississippi Valley, including Vicksburg in
July of 1863 establishing Union control over
the river, and the BaGle of ChaGanooga in
November of 1863 which cleared the path for
Sherman's march to Atlanta and the sea. The
5th Iowa Infantry remained with Sherman
unLl being consolidated with the 5th Iowa
Cavalry in August 1864.
In the course of the war, Dick BasseG was
wounded — most likely on mulLple
occasions. Accounts report that BasseG
received as many as eight bullet wounds,
including one to the lungs. BasseG would
Dick Bassett’s fish camp in 1898, from the east side of the island looking
towards the Leelanau Peninsula
5

Waterlines, August 2021
maintain contact with his fellow veterans
over the next forty years, returning to visit
them in Iowa and hosLng them on his where
he made his island home on Grand Traverse
Bay.
LiGle is know about how BasseG spent the
years between the end of the war and 1877
unLl he arrived in Grand Traverse County. By
one account, Dick returned to the grassy
plains to worked as a cowboy and fronLer
guide like his father. The same source rather
dramaLcally implies that a failed or tragic
romance inspired his move east while
another profile claims that the moLve was to
get away from the alLtudes of the high plains
troubling his wounded lung.
In 1877, BasseG arrived on Grand Traverse
Bay, possibly at the invitaLon of a warLme
comrade. His first summer was spent
camping on the beach at the base of the bay
near the mouth of the Boardman River on
what was called "Indian Point" or the more
familiar (and derogatory) "Squaw Point". The
point of the barrier peninsula leading to the
river's mouth, extended from Traverse City's
waterfront of sawmills and lumber piles to
the mouth of the river, had long been the
tradiLonal seasonal camping grounds for the
resident OGawa peoples when they traveled
down the bay to hunt and forage in
Boardman Valley. From here, Dick BasseG
first gained an understanding of Grand
Traverse Bay and the opportuniLes it
provided.
"Island No. 10" by government cartographers
and was officially surveyed in 1852, making it
available for homesteading. Among the small
number of seGlers and travelers in the area,
the big island was called by many names --
Eagle Island or Hawk Island for the resident
birds of prey or Hog Island for its hog's back
profile and/or resident populaLon of pigs
who were let to graze on the island. By at
least 1862, the name of the island had
officially shi[ed to "Harbor Island" on
government maps. In the early 1860s, a
partnership of local real estate
speculators laid claim to the island, gained
Ltle, and encourage its iniLal seGlement.
By 1865, the island was already a stop for the
Hannah & Lay steamboats that plied the bay,
including excursion boats during the summer.
By 1872, a[er a succession of ownership
changes the island property was consolidated
under the ownership of Frederick Hall of
Ionia. That year, Hall renamed "Harbor
Island" to "Marion Island" in honor of his
daughter Marion, a name which survives to
this day on nauLcal charts.
Marion Hall Fowler — Nameake of Marion Island (now
Power Island)
A[er a winter most likely spent in a lumber
camp, Dick BasseG went about seGling the
close to two acre "island" of land separated
by a watery isthmus from what was then
named "Marion Island". The larger and more
familiar island gained its first name in 1850 as
6

Waterlines, August 2021
Early accounts of the smaller island to the
north of Marion Island anecdotally describe it
as being separated enLrely from the larger
island, with enough depth that boats could
pass between the two. In local lore, the small
island was known as "The Haunted Island" for
it being the alleged site of the death of a
naLve woman by decapitaLon due to her
"misbehavior". It is here on this nearly twoacre
site that Dick BasseG most likely seGled
in 1878 for a tenure of 22 years, building a
fish camp and culLvaLng an extensive garden
for the next 22 years.
From the late 1870s through the 1880s well
into the 1890s, Dick BasseG refined an
annual paGern beginning in the depths of
winter when he would leave the island to
work in the lumber camps, first harvesLng
white pine and later hardwoods to bank a
cash reserve for the coming year. With the
thaw, BasseG would return to the island to
begin fishing on Grand Traverse Bay, mainly
for whitefish and lake trout by nets and line.
As Spring warmed to Summer, Dick planted
his garden in the center of the island ringed
by an orchard of fruit trees, some of which
survived well into the 20th century. Over
Lme, BasseG built a number of structures on
the island including a cabin for his home, and
waterfront shed for his fishing gear and tools,
and an icehouse. The later structure was
stocked as soon as the ice on the Bay froze to
a significant thickness, usually by January,
which was at the Lme a nearly annual
occurrence. Once Dick filled his icehouse,
most likely a dugout that used the
surrounding soil to insulate his stock, BasseG
would head off to the lumber camps to begin
the cycle again.
1895 Grand Traverse County Plat recorded
with the names Marion & Bassett Island
The reputaLon of Dick BasseG as a celebrity
of sorts in the world beyond Grand Traverse
Bay most likely began in 1882 with the
publicaLon of a profile in the Grand Rapids
weekly The Michigan Tradesman of Grand
Rapids, including a sketch that was engraved
for prinLng. The profile was widely reprinted
bringing an increasing amount of aGenLon
on the "hermit", including a string of visitors
to what many called "Fisherman's Island". In
an 1885 leGer responding to a request from
the editor of The Michigan Tradesman for
BasseG to write an autobiographical sketch
as a follow-up, Dick showed his agitaLon with
the idea and claimed that it was now being
said that he was a suspect for "all the train
robberies that have been commiGed, during
the past five years, in Washington, Idaho,
Texas, and New Mexico." Complaining that he
was "made to appear as an illicit disLller of
whiskey, also as a manufacturer of

Waterlines, August 2021
Fire Insurance May of 1899 showing Dick Bassett’s
Fish Stall on Union Street
era before income or sales tax, the
peculiar predicament of not paying the taxes
on a property that had long been claimed
and seGled was an oddity of the first order.
BasseG may have also had to deal with an
inability to lay claim to the veteran's pension
that should have been available to him for his
service as a volunteer for the Union Army
during the Civil War. One account states that
BasseG was unable to ascertain the
necessary records or credited witnesses that
would have credited his claim.
counterfeit money, and many hints of worse
things...", he concluded his response with
"Give me a rest and abuse some of these
fellows who are running for congress (sic).
They like it... I don't."
In the years ahead, other stories were
published with new accounts of the lifestyle
& habits of Dick BasseG. Generally, he was
considered amiable and hospitable towards
guests, entertaining visitors who came to
inspect his island home. He was known to be
a full-Lme pipe smoker, a subscriber to
several newspapers and weeklies, and a
keeper of cats. He was well-known among
the fisherman of the bay and the residents of
Bower's Harbor and Old Mission Peninsula.
One parLcular point of public fascinaLon
with BasseG was that according to published
reports, he could not pay taxes or vote, as his
island home was not officially on government
maps. In one account, BasseG worked his
claim to ownership of the "uncharted" island
to the extent that the sinng Congressman for
the district made inquiries in Washington and
was told that according to the Federal
authoriLes there was no such place. In the
By the 1890s, Dick BasseG was entering his
fi[ies and his second decade on the island.
The arrival of the Grand Rapids & Indiana
Railroad to Traverse City in 1877, and the
subsequent addiLon of the Chicago & West
Michigan (later Pere MarqueGe) and
Manistee & Northeastern lines changed how
"Up North" connected with the rest of the
world. Now, the primary routes for goods
leaving Grand Traverse Bay were no longer by
water. While the Grand Traverse region had
once cut and milled white pine lumber for
shipment throughout the midwest, the local
lumber industry shi[ed to the remaining
hardwoods, much of which would be
consumed by local industries manufacturing
furnishings, finngs, and everyday items -- the
sort which would later be replaced by plasLcs
in the century to come. At the same Lme,
Grand Traverse Bay shipped up to 40 train
cars a day of ice from local icehouses to a
world before mechanical refrigeraLon.
Perhaps of greater influence was that the
trains in return brought people, especially in
the summer, to the newly constructed resorts
of Northern Michigan. Within the sight of
Dick BasseG, the seasonal resorts at Traverse
Point and Neahtawanta sprung up, bringing

Waterlines, August 2021
vacaLoners predominantly from Ohio and
Indiana on G.R. & I railway to Traverse City
and then Bowers Harbor. Steamship travel
also steadily increased on Grand Traverse
Bay, with local transportaLon companies
working daily schedules delivering people
and goods to an iLnerary of docks from
Harbor Springs to Traverse City. As the
century approached its end, Dick made an
uncharacterisLc decision and moved to
town.
In 1898, the Morning Record of Traverse
City published that Dick BasseG had set up
a fish stall on the 300 block of South
Union, just over the Boardman River
across the Union Street Bridge and south
of the Chicago & Western Michigan tracks.
BasseG stocked his shop with the catch from
a group of at least ten Grand Traverse Bay
fishermen from Bower’s Harbor and western
shore of the Bay
Today, the same Traverse City block is a quiet
space between the parks bordering the
Boardman and the Old Town shopping
district. In 1898, the block was one of the
central hubs of Traverse City as the C. & W.
M. passenger staLon occupied the space
along Lake Street east of Union with the
Hannah & Lay grist mill just to the north
along the river. Across the street was the
Hotel Shilson, a travelers hotel which now
houses the venerable Brady's Bar. While
today, the commercial district of Union Street
is known as "Old Town", in the 1890s, it was
the fastest-growing area of Traverse City, as
the Central Neighborhood was under
construcLon to the south and west with a
vibrant Bohemian immigrant
community dominaLng the blocks south of
the Boardman River.
J. A. Montague C. E. Murray
Early Traverse City Yachtsmen &
Founders of the We-Que-Tong Club
Around the Lme of operaLon his fish stall
on Union Street, Dick BasseG met KaLe
Hopkins, a Leelanau County widow who
worked as the "hired girl" for a family on 8th
Street. On August 27, 1899, the Morning
Record made the declaraLon that Dick
BasseG had been married in secret that
previous April. In March of that year, BasseG
set up camp in Benzie County for at least ten
days to establish residency in that county. In
doing so, he gained the ability to take out a
marriage license in Honor. BasseG knew that
if he took out a marriage license in Grand
Traverse County, it would be the talk of the
town. The couple also had concerns that if
they took a license in Leelanau County, home
to Hopkins' family, that there would be just
as much unwanted aGenLon. A[er their
marriage, BasseG and Hopkins celebrated
their honeymoon with a cycling trip -- all the
fashion at the Lme -- in the south.
The next year brought the beginning of the
last chapter of Dick BasseG on Grand
Traverse Bay. In October of 1899, BasseG was
visited on his island by the prominent local
businessmen J. Aiken Montague and Charles

Waterlines, August 2021
E. Murray, who brought with them a
disLnguished visitor from Chicago.
Montague and Murray were the most acLve
figures of the Lme on Grand Traverse Bay,
leaders among the seven founders of the
waterfront We-Que-Tong Club in 1894 and
energeLc boosters of all things Traverse City.
Joseph Aiken Montague was the second of
three brothers who grew up on Old Mission
Peninsula on land seGled from their father's
original homestead claim. His older brother
Herbert Montague was the most renowned
of the siblings as the General Manager of
Hannah-Lay's "big store" on Front Street
while his younger brother Victor Montague
started as a farmer but taught himself
10 the skills of boatbuilding and naval
architecture. J. A. Montague built his
own business as a hardware merchant,
specializing in what would now be known as
household appliances, located on Front
Street. Through the 1890s and the first
decade of the 20th century, J. Aiken
Montague commissioned a series of sailing
yachts designed and built by his brother for
racing and cruising both locally and around
Lake Michigan and into Lakes Superior and
Huron.
Charles E. Murray was a transplant to the
Grand Traverse region, having spent his youth
in Maine and then heading to the Midwest to
find his fortune. In 1892, Murray arrived as
the chief agent for the Grand Rapids &
Indiana Railroad in Traverse City. In this era,
the business of a local railroad execuLve was
not just keeping the "trains running on Lme",
but was negoLaLng local freight contracts,
speculaLng on real estate throughout the
region on behalf of the railroad, and
encouraging the growth of travel into the
region. Charles Murray was a sportsman as
well, a sailor and hunter from his youth,
interested as well in the rapidly evolving
technology of small powered yachts in the
1890s. One of Murray's greatest strengths
was that of an organizer -- earning his
nickname “Commodore" Murray for his
efforts in planning the original We-Que-Tong
Annual RegaGa in 1894. Together, Murray
and Montague were the most influenLal men
on the waters of Grand Traverse Bay of their
Lme.
The visitor from Chicago that came to Dick
BasseG's Island with Montague and Murray
was Charles H. Thorne, the secretary of the
Chicago Yacht Club. The 30-year-old Thorne
was the second son of the co-partner &
founder of Montgomery Ward & Company
and the nephew of Montgomery Ward
Charles H. Thorne in retirement some 30
years after purchasing Bassett Island for the
Chicago Yacht Club

Waterlines, August 2021
Postcard c. 1907 of the Dance Pavilion on Bassett Island operated by the Traverse City Transportation Company
himself. At the Lme, Charles H. Thorne
already was serving on the Board of Directors
of the Chicago-based department store and
mail-order business and would later rise to
the leadership of the company.
Thorne came to BasseG's island to invesLgate
the possibility of establishing a northern
staLon for the Chicago Yacht Club as a
desLnaLon for cruising and hosLng regaGas.
In the midst of the "McKinley Boom” fueling
strenuous growth throughout the country,
there was no more energeLc city in America
than Chicago. Thorne was represenLng not
only the interests of the yacht club but its
Commodore Fred Morgan, owner of
Pathfinder, the largest steam yacht on Lake
Michigan at 140 feet. Morgan had made his
fortune as the manufacturer of bicycle Lres
at the height of the cycling craze of the day
and would conLnue to profit with the arrival
of the automoLve age and the eventual
evoluLon of his business into the United
States Tire Company, later known as
Uniroyal.
It is unknown as to what Thorne and the
Chicago Yacht Club were truly looking for --
perhaps they thought that the acquisiLon of
Dick BasseG's almost two-acre island would
lead to the ability to purchase all of Marion
Island, then sLll firmly the property of the
Hall family. Indeed, Marion Hall Fowler was
at the Lme the Ltular owner of the larger
island, but as the wife of an officer in the U.S.
military, was frequently living far away from
Northern Michigan and was difficult to
contact with enLLes too the availability of
the larger island for purchase. ReporLng in
Traverse City newspapers speculated that
Thorne and CYC were leery of BasseG's ability
to produce a clear Ltle to the island. BasseG
himself declared that there was no sale in the
works and that he would be the first to let
them know if the was.

Waterlines, August 2021
Sure enough, on January 27, 1902 the
Morning Record published that BasseG Island
had been sold to Charles H. Thorne and the
Chicago Yacht Club for $2000. Apparently, the
deal had been long agreed upon, but it was
not unLl that year that BasseG had gained
patent Ltle over the property on which he
lived for at least 23 years. At that Lme
BasseG and his wife had already moved to
MarqueGe but traveled south with the news
of the sale. Shortly a[erward, it is thought
that the BasseGs moved far to the west,
seGling in Los Angeles where they joined
friends who had gone to California from the
Old Mission Peninsula. It is there that the
story of Dick BasseG fades, with no further
reports of the former "hermit" as he found a
quieter life.
12
As for BasseG Island, then definiLvely named
for its former resident, the new ownership by
the Chicago Yacht Club led to no new
improvements. In 1906, the island was
was under contract to the Traverse Bay
TransportaLon Company, the new formed
local steamship company serving the length
of the bay. The rough-hewn buildings of Dick
BasseG's fish camp were torn down and a
100' x 50' two-story dance pavilion was built,
to be served by streamers which sailed from
the docks at the base of Union Street in the
early evening to the new 250' dock at the
northeast corner of the island. Lit by electric
lights powered by dynamos onboard the
docked steamships, the dance pavilion
remained a popular aGracLon for a short
number of years, in which the first showing
of a moLon picture in the Grand Traverse
region in took place at the dance pavilion in
1907. In 1917, BasseG Island was purchased
in a transacLon that consolidated the
property with Marion Island and transferred
ownership to Henry Ford.
Sketch of Dick Bassett published in The
Michigan Tradesman of Grand Rapids in
1882
The unique story of Dick BasseG is that of a
man who made the best of what was
available to him in a place and Lme, while
that once raw environment transformed itself
literally around him. It is most likely that as a
combat veteran of the Civil War, BasseG dealt
with post-traumaLc stress syndrome. While
Dick was not "anL-social", he certainly valued
his autonomy. Due to circumstances created
by the loose nature of government recordkeeping
in the rapidly changing world of the
late 1800s, BasseG found himself "outside"
the most basic definiLons of local society --
unable to be recorded as the property owner
of an island that bore his name. Similarly, for
a lengthy period of Lme, he may not have
been able to secure of veteran's pension
without verificaLon from the loose records

le[ in the wake of the Civil War. It may have
been that in the mid-1890s, that he was
finally able to secure his veteran's pension
enabling him to begin a transiLon to a life
center more in Traverse City than the island.
There are many parts of the world where
people who lead the lives such as Dick
BasseG, living on the thin margin between
and land, at home on both yet always caught
somewhere in between. BasseG’s shy nature
and reluctance to speak about his past made
him a natural target of the curious. His fish
camp on a prominent feature of one of the
most greatest aGracLons on the bay meant
that he easy to find, and that his hospitable
nature ensured that his unique life would be
far from his own, most likely against his
wishes. The end years of Dick BasseG’s life
are unrecorded — while its thought that he
moved to Los Angeles, Dick and his wife may
have also eventually wound up in the
Northwest. What we do know is that the
name “BasseG Island” is firmly rooted in our
local geography. As we travel Grand Traverse
Bay, passing between what was once
“Fisherman’s Island” and Neahtawanta
Point”, be sure to remember the man who
was once called those two acres his home.

Waterlines, August 2021
The Dick Bassett Trophy
GTYC’s Newest
Annual Race Trophy
The newest trophy in the Grand Traverse Yacht
Club’s collec9on may also be its oldest! The
trophy has been donated as an award to the
winner by way of best corrected 9me on handicap
of an annual Around the Island Race it which
compe9tors have the choice to go either way
around the course which passes the former island
home of namesake Dick BasseD. The small island
at the end of the isthmus adjoined to BasseD
Island helped inspire the “Hound Dog RegaDa”
name when the event had its origin in 1999
The triple-handled silver plate donated to serve as
the Dick BasseD Trophy is a vintage piece that was
manufactured in the late 1800s by the Derby Silver
Plate Company of Meridian, Connec9cut in the
same 9me period that BasseD made his home on
his island in Grand Traverse Bay.
The vase is "quadruple plate" silver, meaning that
the thickness of its electroplated silver finish is
four 9mes the standard of the commercial silver
industry at that 9me in the late 1800s. The Derby
Silver Plate Company began opera9ons in 1872
and began mass distribu9on of a wide range of
products in 1877. The company made household
and grooming items -- mirrors, combs, clocks,
brushes, tableware, flatware, tea sets, children’s
cups, loving cups (trophies), candles9cks, fruit
baskets, dishes, and basically anything that was
plated with or made of silver.
The Derby brand was sold under its own mark
featuring an anchor un9l 1898 when the company
merged with the Interna9onal Silver Company, a
conglomera9on of Connec9cut silver
manufacturers, with its original manufacturing
plant con9nuing opera9on un9l 1933.

Waterlines, August 2021
2021 Chubb Championships
Robitshek Second in Sears Cup
Our own local phenom (and two 2me Babel Cup Champion) Noah Robitshek joined forces
with three other Lake Michigan sailors from Macatawa Bay YC to sail for the Sears Cop in
the 2021 Chubb Championships hosted by the Eastern Yacht Club of Marblehead,
MassachuseIs. The Sears Cup was sailed as the quadruple-handed championship in the
RS21 one-design keelboat.
With a series of 1,5,6,1,1,4,3, the MBYC/TACS superteam had a total of 23 before the
throwout, but were pipped for the gold by the Hampton Yacht Club crew who threw out
an 11 from a gross score of 27 to beat the Lake Michigan crew by one point.
Noah is off to Boston University this fall as a rising freshman Terrier — While we’ll be sure
to watch the college regaIa scores from the Charles River, be sure to tell him
congratula2ons when you get the chance!
Both photos copyright 2021, Bruce
Durkee, from the Chubb
Chamnpionships Instagram Account
15

Waterlines, August 2021
Chicago YC Race to Mackinac
FISHTALES WINS SECTION 2
Mike Fisher & Fishtales Crew on the podium on Mackinac Island
Above: PCs Schnieder, Harris, & Lovell on the
dock after a long but successful race
Right: Fishtales on a Wednesday Night
working out a misbehaving batten

Waterlines, August 2021
New to the wall space above the stairs at the club is the Lindy Bishop painting
“Rounding the Mark on Wednesday Night” — the 6’ x 3’ acrylic on canvas painting
depicting a GTYC Wednesday Night Race on West Bay was offered for display to
the club by Mike Fisher
Early Hound Dog Saturday Morning

Waterlines, Spring 2021
SUMMER
2021
Right: Canadian wildfires cast
smoky sheen over Wednesday
Nights
Left & Below: An incoming
front on Wednesday, August
11th kept our sailors safely
ashore

Waterlines, March 2020
SUMMER
2021
Right: The windward mark
for the Grand Touring class
for the Hound Dog Regatta
is prepped to maximize
discernibility
Below: On a quiet night, Ted
Lockwood slips his mooring
and comes to the club dock.

Waterlines, August 2021
SUMMER
2021
Thank you to our
Buildings & Grounds
Committee for keeping
things blooming here at
the club!
Watch
Docklines for
notice of
coming
Committee
meetings!

Waterlines, August 2021
SUMMER
2021
Left: The crew of Adam
Prettyman’s “Old
School” captures the
First Place flag in PHRF
A at LTYC’s UGotta
Regatta
Right: Scot, Liz, & Katy
Zimmerman (and Andy
Girrell bring home a third
place flag in the Melges 24
section from Harbor Springs

Waterlines, Spring 2021
SUMMER
2021
Right: Andy
Humphries’ classic
transplanted from
North East Harbor,
Maine
Below: Liberty charges from the pin end of the line on Wednesday Night
18

Waterlines, March 2020
SUMMER 1964
SUMMER 2021
Above: The view from the deck at the Darrow Marine Base in
1964 — then home of GTYC
Above:
The view from the deck at the Harbor West Yacht Club in 2021
19

Waterlines, August 2021
2021 GTYC Annual
Hound Dog Regatta
Left: Liberty heads off the
line as Knockout up the
first beat on Saturday
Right: Jeff & Mary Ann Maier sight the line on
Sunday with the new Orange & White
checkerboard start shape
Below: TWFB Relentless, Relentless, & Hobie
Dick get off the line on Saturday afternoon
21

Waterlines, August 2021
2021 GTYC Annual
Hound Dog Weekend
Left: The Crew of Knockout (with
Commodore Babel)are the first
recipients of the Dick Bassett
Trophy, for which Sam Reynolds
will be able to pinpoint as his first
resume building victory
Akin to seeing Bigfoot in the
wild, here is rare photographic
evidence of a “Reverse
Vanderbilt Start” as Commodore
Babel at the helm of the Blue,
Red, & Grey successfully dips the
downwind start with an upwind
approach to win the boat end of
the start for the inaugural Dick
Bassett Trophy Annual Either
Way Around The Island Race.
22

Waterlines, August 2021
2021 GTYC Annual
Hound Dog Regatta
Traditional Hound Dog Regatta conditions predominated on Saturday, with a
brief window for racing opening in the 2 o’clock hour, allowing both the
windward/leeward course and the Tour of the Bay to get a race completed.
The subsequent 120 wind shift brought the end of the day’s racing and the
beginning of the party.
One Design Division
Melges 24
Fri #1 Fri #2 Sat #1
1 USA 613 Flying Toaster Melges 24 Mike Dow 1
2 USA 717 Bad Idea Melges 24 Scot Zimmerman 2
3 USA 719 Pulse Melges 24 Kent Sisk 3
4 USA 034 Blue Red and Grey Melges 24 Bill Babel 4
3 USA 113 Liberation Melges 24 David Phelps 5
6 USA 250 Two Fifty Melges 24 Chris Branson 6
7 USA 129 Student Driver Melges 24 Traverse Area Community Sailing 7
8 USA 744 RUMbunctious Melges 24 Steve Pirie 8/DNS
Interlake
1 USA 1442 Take Five Interlake Bob Sagan 1 2
2 USA 1417 Patronis Interlake Bruce Moore 5 1
3 USA 1290 Willy Nilly Interlake Bob Cornwell 2 5
4 USA 1131 1131 Interlake Scot Zimmerman 5 3
5 USA 1363 1363 Interlake Jim Menzies 4 4
PHRF A Windward Leewards
1 USA 39532 Old School Farr 395 Adam Prettyman 27 1
2 USA 18 Knockout J/92 Tomlinson Lovell 111 2
3 USA 51778 Liberty Dehler 39 Scott Porter 78 3
4 USA 43729 TFWB Relentless J/29 MHIB George Petritz 123 4
5 USA 56565 Relentless Schock 40 Mark Hagan -6 5
6 USA 33 Hobie Dick Hobie 33 Chad Brown 93 6
Grand Touring
1 USA 41716 Cu Mal J/34c Clark Phelps 129 1
Grand Touring JAM
1 USA 909 Wasabi Catalina 320 John Bevington 163 1
2 USA 0000 2nd Chance Seidelmann 299 Tom Booth 199 2
3 USA 217 Outrageous Islander Bahama 30 Rich Kraemer 195 3
4 USA 317 Rights of Mann Sabre 34 Sam Bender 165 4
Grand Touring Multihull "Tour of the Bay"
1 USA 000 X-Wing Hobie 18 (Mod) Bob Sagan 99 1
2021 Grand Traverse Yacht Club Annual
Hound Dog Regatta
Final Results
23

Waterlines, August 2021
2021 GTYC Annual
Hound Dog Weekend
The inaugural Dick Bassett Trophy Race launched in a glorious 12 knot
following breeze with 13 boats choosing their own path around the island.
Commodore Babel started bravely with a “Reverse Vanderbilt” and would
hold the led on correction in the clubhouse until being clipped with the
arrival of Knockout. PC Lovell helmed the J/92 to the victory with Greg
Fisher’s Royal Blue picking up third.
Grand Traverse Yacht Club
Dick Bassett Trophy
Around The Island Either Way
Inaugural Race
*
24

Waterlines, August 2021
2021 Club Elections
Nominated Friday, August 6, 2021
For Commodore:
Mark Clark
For Vice Commodore:
Petra Kuehnis
For Rear Commodore:
Verne Powell
For Board Directorships
(Terms from 2022 through 2024)
Mike Mulcahy
Darric Newman
Election by Acclamation will Occur
at the Fall Membership Meeting, Friday, September 24, 2021
HOW TO "YACHT CLUB"
Just Like Using a Marine Head,
When using the
facilities at the club,
PLEASE NO WIPES
OF ANY KIND
20

Waterlines, August 2021
September 2021
Sunday Monday
Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
29 30 31 1 Club Open 2
3 Club Open 4
5
12
RED FOX
6
LABOR DAY
7 8
13 14 15
Nan-C-Jay Race
Club Open
Wednesday Night
Races, Fall #1
Club Open
9
16
Interlake Races
Fall #1
Interlake Races
Fall #5
10
17
Club Open
GTYCF
OYSTER
CLAMBAKE
Club Open
11
18
RED FOX
19 20 21 22 Club Open 23
Lasers Fall
Babel Cup
26 27 28
CRUISERS
Board Of Directors
Meeting
Wednesday Night
Races, Fall #2
Wednesday Night
Races, Fall #3
29
Club Open
Wednesday Night
Races, Fall #4
Interlake Races
Fall #3
Interlake Races
Fall #4
30 1
24
\
Club Open
ELECTIONS
MEETING
BALLOTS
DUE
Club Open
25
2
Around The
Island Race #4
21

Grand Traverse Yacht Club Foundation
Presents the
2021
OYSTER CLAMBAKE
Friday, September 10th
Chesapeake Oysters
Crab Cakes
Mussels in Spicy Brodetto
Steamed Clams
Shrimp Cocktail
Crab Artichoke Dip
Meaty Clam Strips
TICKET AVAILABLE ONLINE
Open to the Public
Bar Opens at 4 pm, Oysters & Crab Dip at 5,
Dinner at 6