Necessity led to the formation of the Sheboygan Yacht Club in 1931. “We had three large boats among us and no place to store them,” first Commodore Dick Baker recalled.
Large sailing vessels, in the Depression days, were available at bargain prices, and several had been purchased in partnerships by young local sailors during the early ‘30’s. Once in Sheboygan, these boats needed a home.
The group of owners and their friends first gathered on September 10, 1931, in the dental office of Hilary Anhalt, and the eight men present wasted no time in establishing the framework of SYC organization. A bylaws committee was formed at the first meeting and bylaws, adapted from those of the Columbia Yacht Club in Chicago, were approved one week later.
Within a month, the group had selected a burgee design, accepted their first “new” members, established dues at $10 a year, and elected their first officers.
The slate selected at the October 22 SYC meeting included Richard Baker, Commodore; H. P. Anhalt, Vice Commodore; and Roger Bierman, Secretary-Treasurer.
The six-man Board of Directors was composed of John Balzer, Jr., Clarence Kuether, Karl Mehlberg, Walter Lieske, Henry Scheele and William Schmidt.
The group was a cross-section of skilled craftsmen, professionals and small business owners: a carpenter, machinist, welder, insurance man, dentist, hardware store owner, monument-maker and advertising men were listed among the Charter Members.
By the fall of 1932, the new Yacht Club had secured a $1 a year lease from the Reiss Coal Company on a riverfront plot at 7th and New Jersey Avenue, gained permission from the City to establish a boat storage yard there, and had purchased the parts for their first derrick.
The twenty members pooled their fund to raise the $500 required, and the Club made the commitment to repay those loans from the derrick fees collected.
The wood-frame derrick was hand-operated and could lift 20 tons. Rules adopted in March, 1933 specified that “no loads should be lifted that will require more than four men to crank the winch.”
Haul-out service was provided to any boat-owner in town – recreational or commercial – on condition that they assist with the operation.
By 1934, parts of an old Reo truck had been permanently mounted to power the derrick, and “Doc” Anhalt’s Stanley Steamer was frequently used to move boats around the yard. The “fleet” had grown to include several large sailboats, a few power cruisers and an assortment of smaller vessels.
It wasn’t until 1934 that the members decided to incorporate. “We felt that we didn’t have enough members at first to really call ourselves a ‘yacht club’,” Baker recalled.
When they applied for a charter to the Wisconsin Secretary of State a search of the records turned up the original 1901 document, which was simply reissued to the new organization – causing endless confusion in later years about the SYC’s proper age.
Meetings during the first three years were held in members’ homes and offices or in local halls, but discussions of the possibilities of a permanent meeting place were frequent and heated.
The minutes of the November 1, 1934 meeting note: “To get on with the meeting, the Commodore (Roger Bierman) appointed a committee consisting of Anhalt, Mehlberg and Scheele to investigate leasing property, cost and design of a building.”
The committee went right to work. At a special meeting called on December 13, the membership authorized expenses of up to $400 for a building to be constructed at the derrick yard. The Club held its first meeting in the new structure on January 10, 1935.
The total cost of the building was $461.96. Furniture for the Clubhouse was donated, and Anhalt contributed the lumber for the back bar.
As usual, the labor was done by Club members. “We had more time than money in those days,” Walter Lieske recalled.
The financial stress of the lingering Depression was apparent when Club members voted, in 1935, to drop their originally-established $5 initiation fee and reduce the $10 annual dues to $5. The group then began an enthusiastic effort to recruit more members.
Membership procedures were fairly informal, and the Club had only two requirements for members: an interest in boating and a willingness to work.
I hung around with the guys for years, until 1942 when someone finally asked why I didn’t join,” Eric Hansen recalled. Many of the most active “members” during the first decade of the Club’s existence were formally entered on the membership rolls.
Another association which began informally and later became official was that of the SYC and Sea Scout Ship #50. Club members voted at their January 2, 1936 meeting to become sponsors of the Scout troop, which had been organized locally in 1932.
