History | LPBYC

Past History

The Long Point Bay Yacht Club was formed as the Long Point Bay Sailing Club in 1975. The location was at Booth’s Harbour Marina on the north shore of the Inner Bay. The first Executive Meeting was March 2nd, 1975 and was composed of 10 members .

All members were owners of sailboats only. No power boats were permitted entry into the club.

The newsletter of April 1975 mentions looking into the possibility of joining the I.L.Y.A. Dues would be $10.00 per boat.

In May 1975, a Club Burgee was approved to represent the Club. The design was a representation of the Club location. The blue at the hoist of the burgee is Long Point Bay. The blue at the fly is Long Point Inner Bay. The green at the bottom is Turkey Point and finally the green at the top is Pottahawk Point.

The Club Constitution and by-laws followed . Over the years the Constitution and By-laws were amended to meet the requirements of the Club.

An important function of the Club is the Club Social Events. This is the opportunity for members to get to know one another and create friendships. The first Social event in the early years of the Club was launch day. In those days, a crane was provided by Booth’s Harbour and all boats were launched on the same day. This is still the method of launch in many clubs where a travel lift is not available. All members started preparation as early as possible so as not to be left ashore. All the members would work together to assist in launching the boats usually in late April and on completion there was a Launch Party to celebrate the start of a new season. Over the next few weeks the members would work together to get masts stepped at the gin pole. Mast stepping is not a one man job. Of course there would be another party after the boats were hauled out at seasons end. Between these two necessary events there was the Sail Past to honour our Commodore usually done in May.

The 1977 activities list includes Compass Adjusting, a cruise to Port Dover, a photo day, a barbeque, a Long Point Beach Party, a pig roast, an anchor out, a kids day/ dinghy races/corn roast, clean up at Pottahawk, a film night and of course the Closing Party. There were 40 boats in the Club in 1977.

Racing was also of much interest. In the September 1977 newsletter as many as 13 boats were in attendance in a race that month.

The Club had reciprocal privileges with a number of clubs on Lake Erie and some members took advantage of this arrangement to travel the Lake. The Club once again considered joining the I.L.Y.A.

The May 1978 newsletter mentions a possible arrangement with Booth’s Harbour Marina to rent the upper banquet room for use as our Club Room. The June 1978 newsletter confirmed that the vote to accept the arrangement to rent the banquet room had passed and the Club now had a Club Room for its use. However, the washrooms on that level were to be accessed by all patrons of the marina. We now had a home for our regalia and a place where visiting club members could be made comfortable after a long day on the lake. Dues were increased to $25.00 per boat to keep the Club solvent as a result of the $500.00 cost of rental for the Club Room and of course the Constitution had to be amended to add a new position as House Committee Chairman.

The April 1980 newsletter mentions an invitation from the Port Dover Yacht Club to participate in their Sail Past. 17 LPBSC boats signed up to attend and stay for dinner and breakfast next morning. The 1980 activities list 17 proposed events for the Club.

In 1981 at the Club expense and with co-operation with Booth’s Harbour Marina, a passageway was built to separate the first floor washrooms from the workshop and an exterior door was added at one end. This permitted these washrooms to be used by the marina patrons and the upper washrooms would now be for the Club Members only. The entire upper level of the facility was now for the use of Club Members and their guests.

At this time most boats in the basin at the Club were 30’ or less in length and of less than 5’ in draft. Larger boats with deeper drafts were docked at Port Dover Harbour Marina. This would have an affect over time on the location of the Club House.

In the April 1981 newsletter, a slip was rented in the Booth’s Harbour Development marina up the river in Port Dover for our members and for reciprocating club members. Though still not a member of the I.L.Y.A. we were getting invitations from other clubs around the lake, probably due to some of our travelling member’s efforts to promote our club during their trips.

In 1982, the Booth’s Harbour Marina decided not to use a crane for launching. All launches would be done by appointment using their travel lift. Unfortunately, there was no longer a rush to launch, nor a need for the Launch Party. There is no mention of a Launch or Haul out party in any following news letters. This was a loss to the social aspect of the Club.

n 1984, the Long Point Bay Sailing Club became a corporation. This was an important step to protect the Executive. Corporate Executives can’t be held personally liable for damages if some misfortune occurs.The annual membership fee was raised to $35.00. There were 73 boats in the Club. A vote was accepted to permit power boats to join the Club as Honourary Members. The reason for this change was that sailing members may at some time not be able to handle the physical needs of a sail boat and go to power. We wouldn’t want to lose the member if this issue arose and we had many power boaters volunteering with our functions. The Club now had 78 boats, 5 of which were power boats. An application was prepared and sent to join the I.L.Y.A.

In 1985, the Club letters LPBSC were installed on the clubhouse. The letters were 2’ tall and could be seen for miles against the white background of the clubhouse. The Club was also accepted into the I.L.Y.A. and a number of our members took advantage of visiting several of the member clubs during the summer. Of interest, LPBSC was the only club out of 9 clubs applying that was accepted. A few of our members have sailed their boats to the Bahamas this year and are staying in contact through our newsletter.

In 1986, 7 events were planned. Racing was still a popular function of the Club. The membership fee was raised to $50.00. A committee was set up to prepare recommendations for amending the Constitution to meet government requirements for an Ontario corporation.

There was no racing in 1987. Membership numbers were also way down. There were 8 events. Many members were away cruising during the summer. This may have been the main reason for the lake of interest in the racing program. The events were put on mostly by the Executive. There could be a problem in future years if the membership, especially the new members don’t step up to help organize group events.

In 1996 the bylaws were amended to permit only 80 boats into the Club

In 1999 Booth’s Harbour demanded a change in our rental arrangements which could not be accepted by the membership. As most of the Club members were in Port Dover, due to greater draft required for their boats, the Club moved to Riverside Marina (now Dovercraft Marina) in Port Dover. Our Clubhouse was on the second floor of their facility. Up to this time, there was an initiation fee to join the Club. Since Cliffside Yacht Club did not charge this fee, our Club discontinued the fee. The fee is meant to help retain the member, since it would need to be repaid if the member dropped out and wanted to rejoin the Club.

We were still mostly a sailing club and would prefer to cruise and anchor out as opposed to staying at port and partying. Cliffside had several shore events during the season.

In 2001 there was an attempt to amalgamate the 2 Clubs into one new club. This would reduce costs and competition between the Clubs. This proposal was approved by LPBSC, but not by Cliffside. As a consequence, the two Clubs carried on as before.

In 2002 LPBSC changed it name to LPBYC to better represent the Club due to several power boaters in the membership.

In 2003 the owners of Riverside Marina went bankrupt and the original owner took back the marina and wouldn’t allow us to rent the Clubhouse. There was now no place to display our regalia. All went into storage and was later disposed of.

We outgrew the shallow draft of the Booth’s Harbour area and moved our Club to the newly built Port Dover Harbour Marina in the mid-80’s. Our new cruising grounds would prove to serve us well, as the protected waters of the Outer Bay provided boating enthusiasts with plenty of boating opportunities.

The Club has changed little since then, but boating life has changed considerably. Now members come and go based on their own needs and desires. Cliffside Yacht Club is gone. Our greatest cruising asset is the I.L.Y.A membership and reciprocation. Our greatest Club asset is our people and their ability to step in to help the few functions that we continue to provide our members.