Around the sound, boat yards at last feel the warmth
In a scene repeated all around the arc of Long Island Sound shoreline, when Rowayton Yacht Club manager Norm Edwards takes out a ladder and his knife, about the size of a long blade of grass, that means one thing: Boating season is nearly here.
Edwards cut the first cover off one of his club”™s boats recently, the first of several steps all clubs up and down the Long Island Sound must take before their boaters can hit the swells.
- Norm Edwards takes the tarp off a yacht at Rowayton Yacht Club. Photo by Evan Fallor
Only a half-dozen of his club”™s 100 boats occupied the club”™s front parking lot recently. The others remain in storage inland, due mainly to the chilly winter that has delayed boating season about a week or two longer than Edwards would have liked. Normally, at this point, he would have been finalizing preparations to place more boats in the water. His patch of water flanking Wilson Cove and Farm Creek at the southern edge of Rowayton remains empty for now.
“We”™re hoping to be in the water sometime soon,” Edwards said. “I”™m shooting for sometime in mid-April to have them out there.”
The average boating season runs from June through mid-October, Edwards said. The water, a chilly 34 degrees this week, warms up at a slower rate than the atmosphere in the spring and early summer, but also cools at a slower rate than air temperature does in early fall. Clubs must first make any necessary repairs from damage sustained over the winter and inspect boats and prep them before they can be put back in the water.
The business of seasonal clubs, like the Rowayton Yacht Club and nearby Norwalk Yacht Club, largely depends on favorable weather conditions and increasing the membership tally of those who store their boat or boats there. The sooner the boats can go in the water, the sooner the clubs can take in new boats. But most clubs in both Fairfield and Westchester counties had to wait longer than usual this year.
Fairfield County has 23 yacht clubs and Westchester holds another nine along the Long Island Sound. Boats range from power boats to sailboats and from dinghies to ocean-going vessels. Some store their boats in on-site facilities, while others transport them elsewhere for the winter.
Lisa Rosenshein, owner of Mamaroneck Beach and Yacht Club, said she noticed club members haven”™t been paying nearly as much attention to the state of their boats in winter storage as they normally would by April, in part because of the near-freezing temperatures that have plagued the area into April.
“We”™re on an expedited time frame because we had to wait for the big thaw as probably every other club did,” Rosenshein said. “I don”™t think it”™s our best year ever. In about two to three weeks we”™ll know for sure if it”™s affected business.”
Rosenshein said the private club of about 50 boats still has slips available for boats anywhere from 20 to 60 feet. She added that this winter was just rather lengthy, not destructive like some in recent memory.
- A buoy at Rowayton Yacht Club. Photo by Evan Fallor
Jimmy Nyberg, a Norwalk fisherman, was inside the Rowayton Yacht Club on a recent Monday. He recalled the near-catastrophic damage the club sustained from hurricanes Irene and Sandy in August 2011 and October 2012. The club has photos of water completely flooding adjacent Bluff Avenue, making vehicle access to the heavily damaged interior of the club and its docks impossible.
“It looked like ”˜Apocalypse Now,”™” Nyberg said. “You couldn”™t even drive your car around.”
The Rowayton Yacht Club, like most in Fairfield and Westchester counties, has recovered. Last year, the club had new wooden flooring installed inside and areas of the dock that were mangled by Sandy and Irene have since been repaired.
Year-round clubs, like the Stamford Yacht Club and the Greenwich Water Club, have tennis courts, restaurants, catering halls or fitness centers that are open during the boating and fishing off season.
The season, like time and tide, will change, and Ed Billings, club manager and shore captain of the Black Rock Yacht Club in Bridgeport, is ready. His facility boasts a restaurant and tennis courts with more than 300 members and 75 boats.
“We were very well prepared,” Billings said, anticipating full swing. “We should be ready to go as planned.”