Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club

Mon, 12/04/2017 - 3:30pm

I can never remember a winter when BHYC boats have been in the water and operable into December! Most of the docks are out but this is the final week for use of J-22s and there are still two rowboats available for members who just want to get on the water in a boat! Do it now or wait until late March or later.

Speaking of boats, a volunteer crew of BHYC men have completed moving 26 Optis into the bottom floor of the Pond House for winter storage. In future years these craft will go into the lower floor of the sailing center. Tom Blake, Eric Hakanson, Carl Morin, Nate Cagle, Tony O’Neil, Hamilton and Charles Barclay all contributed to the effort.

Meanwhile on the construction front, Wayne and crew were busy waterproofing the freshly minted foundation walls and then spreading gravel and prepping for drainage pipe on the outside of the foundations. Shortly Scott and Karl of Maine Modular will be leading a group of their carpenters who will start the stick-built portion of the building. Stick-built refers to the fact that instead of delivering modular units and placing then on the foundation, raw lumber will be cut and fit and hammered in place. The euphemism is from little boys playing with their toys and making things out of sticks. In this case , the northern end of the building will be stick built — the large vaulted room and roof to cover it.  When that work is finished, say mid-February, the modular units will arrive by truck from their  manufacturing site in South Paris, Maine and they will be mated with the stick built portion by a major crane and crew of modular specialists. These units come all finished inside and out and the joints between them are totally invisible.

Several other elements will take place concurrently including a new water line large enough to cover the sprinkler system needs, connection to our sewage system, and grading for future landscaping  etc.

Our new building will fit in to the pattern which was started many years ago when BHYC bought the Casino from the Old Oak Grove Hotel ( which stood where the condo’s now are). The Casino was a stand alone building and we purchased it as a site for the Junior program because there was just not enough room in the building (downtown, now the northernmost building of Tugboat Inn). The casino building ended where the men’s room now is and there was no other facility. Then Commodore George Whitten , then a contractor in Massachusetts, built the clubhouse on the footprint we now occupy. It had a flat roof ( an unpopular feature for Maine winters) and the area which is now our bar area was a screened in porch with open slatted wood floor and sliding glass doors into the now dining room.  We had two major fireplaces ... one at the end of the Casino ( Stone) where the men’s room now is, and the other between the dining room and the Spinnaker Room (which was then a bar) — two sided with glass doors and brick construction.

At that time we also had the Hill House and another house (about a mirror image of the Hill House) stood in the middle of our now parking lot. Shortly thereafter PC Whitten also built the tennis courts and the West Harbor facility of BHYC was complete (we thought). A few years later the “parking lot House” was given away and moved by the new owners to a spot where it now stands on the Middle Road, outbound on the right just before the fire pond. I believe that it is now owned by St Andrews.

With an increased dining function in the new property we had staff housing problems and the decision was made to buy the now Pond House. The next step was the rebuilding of the main club house whereby the fireplaces were removed (sad decision) and a new pitched roof, larger kitchen, closed in bar area and  new porches and dockage approach area. We then had a modern and functional facility which greatly pleased the entire membership ... except the old folks who had to climb the hill. Little did we know then that the McKown House would come up for sale and that the need for even more activity space would be required. Thus leading to our current construction program.

The office is busy with invoices, etc. for the coming season and our social calendar is replete with events including the Mutch party this week. January will see another gathering at the Lancaster home on Atlantic Ave. date to be announced shortly.