• "Waterfront Outlook Brighten$"

• "MBBC CELEBRATES 60TH"

"Waterfront Outlook Brighten$"

by Vaughn Clark

urlington’s Community Economic Development Office has secured a 5.4 million dollar guaranteed loan for use in improving the city’s waterfront through the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 108 plan. Primary uses for the loan will be to reconstruct Lake Street and to stabilize and redevelop the Moran Power Plant. The Lake Street reconstruction would include reopening Depot Street for traffic and pedestrian access. Other proposals for the moneys include: a business expansion loan program, downtown parking facilities, upgrades for Memorial Auditorium and a rental rehabilitation program for the smaller ‘mom and pop’ landlords who would otherwise not be able to fix up their properties. Repayment of the loan will be done through Tax Increment Financing, which means that only taxes collected from new development in the project area will be used to repay the loan. In other words, only new tax revenues created because of the loan will be used to repay the loan. Other possible uses for the loan would be to help fund existing nonprofit organizations on the waterfront, such as the Lake Champlain Basin Science Center and the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center. Distribution of the money is still under consideration by CEDO. For more information contact the Burlington CEDO office at 802-865-7144.

by Ken Wolvington

he passage of sixty years can muddle memories. The one thing that is known for sure is that the Malletts Bay Boat Club was founded sixty years ago this summer. Just exactly how and why it came into being is less clear.

Some say MBBC grew from a small group of disgruntled Lake Champlain Yacht Club (LCYC) members tired of the upper-class social life of LCYC and wanted something a little less “snooty” - thus the name Malletts Bay Boat (not Yacht) Club. However, records of the Champlain Historical Society paint a slightly different picture. In the early 30s, LCYC was located on the Burlington waterfront, just about where the Burlington Boathouse now floats. (The Boathouse was designed to closely resemble the original Lake Champlain Yacht Club.) The original clubhouse was mounted on piers and these were severely damaged by winter ice, necessitating the club’s move to Shelburne Bay and temporary quarters at the Allenwood Inn. Members were obliged to moor their boats in a rather exposed harbor in the bay.

Whatever the reason, seven members departed LCYC for the protected confines of Malletts Bay. Fourteen others soon joined MBBC as charter members and over their first winter they built a 24' x 10' clubhouse. This original building was constructed on leased land and can been seen today as a white summer camp directly to the west of the current MBBC mooring area.

The Malletts Bay Boat Club’s long tradition of sailboat racing was born over that first winter as a fleet of 16' Snipes was built by the members and registered with the National Snipe Association. The club’s first Race Week was held in August of 1937.

The first parcel of land at the club’s present location directly off of Lakeshore Drive was purchased in 1938 for a whopping $3,500. The land included a decrepit two-story farmhouse which, with major repair and renovations by the members and their spouses, became a serviceable clubhouse.

Meanwhile, the club’s racing program continued to grow with a variety of special races and the first sailing of the Long Distance Race (74 miles!) in 1940. The course took the yachts through the Rutland RR swing bridge (which once stood in the entrance to the outer bay) around Valcour Island to Colchester light, around Schuyler Island to the Burlington harbor, around Juniper Island, around the breakwater at Plattsburgh and back to the Club.

World War II forced the club into a “suspended basis.” There was little activity in the 1941-1945 time period, with most of the men away at war, not to mention gas rationing and other shortages. During that span of years, the club was often referred to as the “ladies’ social.”

With the war’s end, activities at the club started up again in earnest. Many improvements were initiated, including the installation of a dock and bulldozing of the waterfront in order to provide a beach and swimming area. Power boaters dominated the club’s membership in the immediate postwar years. In the early 1950’s, the club purchased adjacent property which provided another building for use as an adult’s clubhouse, relegating the original “farmhouse” to the junior sailors.

As the club continued to grow over the years, its activities expanded as well. Junior sailing classes, races, cruises and social events filled the summer calendar. In the late 1970s, it became evident that the club had outgrown its rather primitive facilities and a new, modern clubhouse was built where once stood the white farmhouse. The neighboring summer camp that years before had been converted into an “adult clubhouse” was razed in favor of a beautiful picnic area.

The Malletts Bay Boat Club has honored its frugal roots by continuing to the present day as a member-operated club. Paid staff are limited to sailing instructors and to the stewards that ferry members to and from their boats in the mooring area. To keep dues at a minimum, members are quick to turn out on “work days” to help with such chores as the spring opening and fall closing of the club. For most members, such activities are as much “social” as “work".

On August 10, 120 present and past club members celebrated MBBC's 60th Anniversary - with a party, of course. Like most activities at the club, it was an outstanding success.