For almost a century residents of Pentwater were accustomed to seeing the white building on the water with its bright blue chairs and blue sign reading Pentwater Yacht Club. Members of the club were sad to see the building torn down last September, with board members assuring the new club would be up by the 2023 season, but not to place their bets on it opening in 2022.
Now, to the surprise of members, the building is complete and reopened Saturday, July 23.
“For a commercial building to be built that fast is pretty unbelievable,” said Dave Bluhm, the club’s construction manager. “I think people are pretty amazed that we’re going to pull this off and get it opened this year.”
The yacht club opened at the original building, called “The Dock” in 1935. As hard-working professionals and leaders in their community, the founders used this as a place to socialize, enjoy water sports and dining, create a sense of community and watch the sunset on the channel.
The yacht club was originally established as a place for boats to gather. With docks surrounding the building, boats could pull up after a day on the lake, but over time, it became more of a social club for members, Bluhm said.
“It was for sailboat races and powerboat access and then quickly it turned into more of a social club,” Bluhm said.
The building, right along with the club, was almost 100 years old. After all these years of being battered by the water from the lake and covered in heavy snow, the building came to the end of its structural life when the foundation began to settle.
“In all the past years we’ve been kind of band-aiding fixes,” Bluhm said.
The club hired an engineer to perform an engineering study three years ago to see what they could do for the building. The study found that the structure of the building was growing worse, with the foundational issues expanding rapidly and questions arising of if the roof could hold the large amount of snow Michigan receives each winter.
Leadership in the yacht club went to the board with these findings and came to the conclusion that the building would need massive repairs. Board members wanted to look at renovating the building, however they discovered it would cost more to do that than to tear it down and rebuild the whole thing. So, in September of 2021 the building came down and the construction began.
The yacht club board members expressed their desires in the early planning meetings to have the club rebuilt quickly. The club’s busiest season is from May through September. They planned to demolish the building at the end of the 2021 season and
