Squamish Yacht Club

Jerry Steves worked for the B.C. Telephone Company and got us their old garage, from behind the telephone exchange building, on Cleveland Ave. It was dragged down to the waterfront and made into a clubhouse. This was half of the present clubhouse, the kitchen side today. This meant we didn’t have to meet in the Capilano College room on Cleveland Ave. any more. We had arranged a lease with Weldwood for the lots where the clubhouse now stands. We needed a wall built to hold the bank and got Vic Hurford to build it. We would need $17k, so four of us went to the Royal Bank and got a loan (as long as we signed separate guarantees). We got the money but as it turned out no one signed the papers! John Buckham, my neighbor and the new bank manager, nearly had a heart attack when he found this out the next year. All turned out well and the money was all paid back much to John’s relief. This couldn’t be done today.Over the winter of 1973 the members built floats in Zeb Ridell’s shop, where Sea to Sky towing now resides on Buckley Ave. In the spring we transported them to the waterfront and between Harold Redman’s tow truck and my crane truck we got them in the water. Now we had our own moorage. Great! A deal was struck with the Dept. of Oceans & Fisheries, to exchange docks. The Govt. floats used to be on the north side of the Govt. dock. This switch has given the yacht club much more moorage space; also the Dept. agreed to leave the inner float in place where it still resides today (The dinghy dock is attached to it). It took a lot of dining and boozing to convince the Govt. representative that this was a good idea.The Imperial Oil Fuel outlet was removed from the dock, which was disappointing, but Esso said it was necessary. The Esso bulk plant at the head of the Govt. dock (where the parking lot is now) also went.Eventually we got some hydropower on the floats and we had a genuine yacht club. The clubhouse was expanded and more floats installed as time went on. We also built a boat ramp on the south lot as we had removed the original to build the wall. Keith Koch took on the job and ran a large crew of boaters who put together a fine building. However, in the haste to get the building erected and joined to the existing building a feature was overlooked. You may have noticed the exhaust fan in the wall of the men’s can and wondered about it – just a casualty of speed on the job. Speed was needed as no one had a building permit at the time. The amazing Jerry Cotter, woodworker, flight controller, superior skier and all around bull shitter took on the job of building the bar, which we enjoy in the clubhouse. He called me one Saturday morning and asked for help to get it from his place to the clubhouse. My God it was heavy! We wrestled it up on the sundeck and attempted to bring it through the sliding glass doors. An amazing thing had happened, the glass doors had shrunk and the bar would not go through. Other club members arrived to help but to no avail. Of course Jerry had measured the doors one month before, I guess when the sun was shining. Anyways, we had to remove the whole damn door. Looking on the positive side – it can’t be stolen.At one time we even had a fuel dock at the south end of the clubhouse and a buried tank under one of the sheds there. A combination of empty tank and high tides brought the tank, slab, shed and all well above grade. Eventually this enterprise was abandoned. We have always had a problem with earth sloughing away from behind the retaining wall. A lot of different material has been put in the holes. One of the best was cedar bark strips that we got from Carney’s shake mill, which stood south of the boat ramp. Mary Lou Stathers had a terrifying experience once when she fell through the lawn and found herself below grade where the new deck now stands, and she wasn’t even partying, as I understand it.A lot of members have contributed their time to this club, which was set up to give cheap moorage to Squamish boaters.It looks like we’re in for change at the old yacht club. I think this is good as long as it is for the better of us all. Let’s all pull together and work for the club’s future as was done in the past!