More on the Eighties

There were a lot of things going on at the marina in the eighties. In 1986 we built our current office. The old office dock was 24-by-48 feet with a building that was 16-by-36 feet. The new one was 48-by-80 feet with a building 36-by-68 feet, so it was more than four times larger than the old one. In case you ever wondered why we have a garage door in the back of the office... well, that was how we got our display Champion boats in and out of the store.

Our first showroom boat. Chris Geroff bought this boat.

Dave Schlicht moving boat to showroom.

Newspaper clipping of new showroom. Dock employees Les Ford and Jamie Teeters standing by.

At the same time we built the 200 Dock. It had 18 double slips, and they were 18 feet wide by 26 feet long. We thought these would accommodate the "big" boats for a long time, and it did for a while, but not anymore...

200 dock under construction.

Even with a boat in the store, it still seemed empty. At the time we had a couple small beer coolers. We had just started selling beer at the dock a couple years prior to that. Quick side story: Before we started selling beer I was at a dock operator's meeting and during the "social hour" I asked the colonel at the time if we could apply for a liquor license and sell beer at the dock. He turned around and grabbed a beer out of the cooler and said, "I don't see why not!" He and I got along well. In 1990 we put in the large walk-in cooler and expanded our selection of cold beverages for sale.

On July 30, 1986 a bad storm hit the marina. In fact, three Fridays in a row we had bad storms that resulted in damage to the docks, but the one on the 30th was the worst.

It was a mess.

The roof was blown off the 500 dock. That dock was then totally destroyed in 2006.

This was actually from a previous storm, which was also a big mess.

Ed Kolaks left of me looking at damage. I think that is Mike Cochran with his back to us in the boat.

The storms kept coming. On July 4th, 1988 we had the worst hailstorm ever. It was the middle of the day, and boats were out everywhere. David Relyea, Goldfire sailboat owner, was anchored up at The Saddle. He would occasionally call in on the VHF radio to report weather and other activities. He first called and said a storm was rolling in, then he said it was hailing, then he said "Listen to these hailstones!" Within a few minutes it hit Pontiac.

Biggest hailstones I've ever seen.

Tom Antoff shows off one of the hailstones.

Written by Cap'n T. Morgan