ramshackle boathouse. While the chal-
lenge loomed large, the drive of the
original members prevailed.
They filed articles of incorporation
that Cohn drew up, gathered $35,000
in loans from individuals and named
the first commodore. The owner of
the dock agreed to fix it, and the
group spruced up the boat hall. "I can
remember renting sanders and being
covered in dust," Cohn said.
Getting accepted by the largely
gentile local sailing community was
still a problem. When the club was
denied entrance into the Detroit River
Yachting Association that controlled
weekend regattas and other area com-
petitions including the prestigious
Port Huron to Mackinac race, Cohn
mounted a challenge.
"The year that I became com-
modore, we made an overture to join
and they told us we weren't big
enough as a club," he said, adding that
statements from others connected to
DRYA led Island Club members to
believe the real reason had less to do
with size and more to do with the
founders' religious beliefs.
"Once I started on that campaign, I
wasn't going to stop," Cohn said. "It
was like a full court press. By the end
of the summer, we were voted in."
During those early years, the club
relocated to its current spot on Jeffer-
son between Nine and 10 Mile roads
in St. Clair Shores, changed its name
to the Great Lakes Yacht Club and
constructed its current facility, which
includes a swimming pool and dining
facilities.
The club, built on land that was
once fill from the excavation of the
Sailing Exhibit
On Belle Isle
Want to learn how to tie a knot, get
your sea legs or run your rigging?
Thinking about beefing up your
knowledge of competitive
and recreational sailing to
boost your trivia reserve for
future cocktail party chatter?
Then climb aboard the
Dossin Great Lakes Muse-
urn's newest exhibit, "Racing
on the Wind: Sailing on the
Great Lakes," open to the
public until the turn of the
millennium.
The first part of the
Excluded by other local sailing
clubs, Jews who wanted to sail
competitively and recreational-
ly founded the Great Lakes
Yacht Club.
Chrysler Freeway, also boasts
perhaps the most beautiful
grounds of any yacht club on
this side of the river, Adelle
Sears said.
Sears and her husband,
Leon, have been members of
the club since 1980 and Leon
once served as commodore.
Recreational boaters who own
a Trojan 32F, the Sears attend
the club — the majority of
whose members remain Jewish
— nearly every weekend from April
until September.
Relieved that the struggle for accep-
tance for Jewish boaters has passed, the
Sears remain members as much for the
sport as they do for the camaraderie.
"We are out there as soon as the. ice
melts and until just after Labor Day,"
she said. "I fish with [Leon] and I bait
my own hooks. But I don't clean his
fish. We have this saying, 'He who
catches, cleans.'
exhibit takes the viewer through hun-
dreds of photos and other parapher-
nalia related to Great Lakes sailing
with special emphasis placed on the
Port Huron to Mackinac yacht race,
sponsored b-y-the..Bayview Yacht Club
since the race's inception in 1925.
The two trophies for the event —
"I love the water, primarily, but the
people bring me back. We have met
the most wonderful people at Great
Lakes," she said. "We have parties,
outings, you name it."
Others who understand the lure of
the water are Naomi and Marshall
Schwartzman, members of the Detroit
Yacht Club. The pair — partial to
power boating over sailing — began
cruising in the early 1980s and went
on trips as far as Nantucket Island and
the J. L. Hudson Trophy cup for the
first boat to reach the island and the
Aaron DeRoy Perpetual Mackinac
Trophy for the best corrected time —
are on display for a limited time.
The other portion of the display is
more interactive and geared toward
experienced sailors to first timers.
Two 19-foot Flying Scots are avail-
able for on-deck exploring, while a
number of other hands-on exhibits
teach sailing essentials such as setting
a course, analyzing wind effects on
The Great Lakes Dossin Museum's
new "Racing on the Wind" exhibit
provides a lesson for sailors young and
old, including hands-on activities to
introduce visitors to the mental and
physical challenges of sailing.
Chicago. From March to Novem-
ber they live aboard their 42-foot
cruiser, The Bottom Line.
"We have a condo in the area,"
Marshall Schwartzman said. "But
in the summer we live on the
boat. Every couple of weeks, one
of us checks to see that [the
condo] is still there."
Once the treasurer of the
DYC, Marshall Schwartzman said
he and his wife now spend most
of their time attending to the
social atmosphere of the club.
"What keeps us living there is
that it is like leaving work and
going on vacation every day. We
go to the restaurants or just hang
out on the boat," Naomi
Schwartzman said. "It is like a big
extended family there. We all
have the same interests."
But there are others who yearn
for the peace and the solitude of
the lakes and shy away from such
socialization. Cornell Janeway is
one.
An avid sailor who once was
the last to finish the Port Huron
, to Mackinac race, he sailed com-
petitively in his younger days,
bonding with crew members and
others interested in sailing.
Now that he is 75 and no longer a
member of any club, he enjoys hop-
ping in his boat for weeks at a time
with his wife, the wind and the soli-
tude he values much more.
"In my later years, I am less inter-
ested in the camaraderie than in the
peace. Today it is more an escape than
it ever has been."
❑
speed and distance, checking a bilge
pump, tying knots and running rig-
ging up a mast.
The Great Lakes Dossin Museum
is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednes-
days-Sundays and is located at
100 Strand Drive on Belle Isle in
Detroit. The exhibit fee is $2 for
adults/$1 for students over 12 and
seniors/under 12 free. On Satur-
day, July 24, the museum cele-
brates the 38th anniversary of its
opening, and offers free admission
to all as well as a free poster of the
launching of the Edmund Fitzger-
ald. For more information, call
the Dossin Museum at (313) 852-
4051.
4i441,; :€4-17
7/17
1998
85