Did you know that at one time small boats were constructed in Charlevoix in the downtown business district, away from Round Lake?
One hundred years ago, Bill Bellinger, a dealer in souvenirs, photos, postcards, musical instruments and other items that catered substantially to the summer trade, was on his way to becoming a longtime fixture on Bridge Street. Bill was also building boats in the small space behind his store near the channel bridge. His father, jeweler Charles Bellinger, had built the buildings there that now house Scovie’s restaurant. The family lived upstairs.
Bill became a jack of many trades, pretty much self-taught, and building a boat of any type came to him as naturally as a bee takes to a flower, right up his alley. Literally, since the space he worked in was up the short alley from Park Avenue beside the Smoke on the Water restaurant.
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The accompanying photo shows Bill, his son Jim, and grandson Bill Jr. standing beside the hull of a recently completed sailboat in the mid 1940s. The latticed structure at right is the rear porch of the Alhambra Hotel, once the Lewis Grand Opera House constructed in 1883, that was removed in 1947 to make way for the current channel Memorial Bridge. How did Bill get his handiwork out of there and into the water?
Charlevoix Courier, Oct. 11, 1922: “NEW CENTERBOARD CRAFT BUILDING. Bellinger’s Boat Auxiliary Craft Type. Same Design As Famous ‘Typhoon’ That Crossed The Atlantic In 1920. Will Bellinger is building an auxiliary cruising ketch in the back yard of his store on Bridge Street. This craft will be 35 feet long, and 12 feet beam. She is equipped with a centerboard and will draw either three feet of water or ten to twelve feet, according to whether the board is up or down. (Anyone know what the term “board” refers to?)
“The keel and frame are of white oak, also the planking, all to be creosoted. The cabin will be of the regulation hunting type, equipped with four berths, toilet and galley. The engine has not yet been selected, but Mr. Bellinger advises that it will be of a heavy duty type to deliver about ten horsepower.
“Mr. Bellinger is building his boat for his own use according to a design of William Atkins, naval architect of Montclair, N. J. She is the same type (but ten feet shorter) as the ‘Typhoon,’ also designed by Mr. Atkins, that crossed the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool in 1920.
“The owner expects to launch this boat sometime next June. In order to accomplish this feat, it will be necessary to build a skidway across the back end of the Mussalem property (Mr. Mussalem owned the Alhambra Hotel), down the bank and over the boardwalk leading to the life saving station (the Coast Guard station once near the former fish hatchery at Lake Michigan Beach), and into the channel. Mr. Bellinger says he launched a thirty footer from the same spot some time ago and anticipates no trouble with the next one.”
The life saving station had a skidway from the building down into the channel wide enough to accommodate two lifeboats.
Imagine today nursing a cocktail on the Weathervane Inn deck and seeing, across the channel, the hull of a 35-footer gingerly descending the embankment beside the steps of Hoffman Park, turning 90 degree to the west, then inching along the channel embankment almost out of sight. On dry land. What is in this cocktail, anyhow?
Fifty years later, during a period of very high lake waters, Courier editor Bob Clock wrote an editorial on the high winds we had been experiencing, which “drives me right up the wall.” Oct. 11, 1972: “An Ill Wind. Of all the unkind weather phenomena visited upon northern Michigan, I think wind is the worst. Sunday afternoon we took a drive down Fish Hatchery Hill for a closer look at that big, boiling cauldron called Lake Michigan. Waves were breaking over the pierheads and there wasn’t a fisherman in sight. Last Sunday they were elbow to elbow.
“All of the beach playground equipment was underwater from time to time as waves driven by a stiff west wind crashed against the retaining wall that separates the beach from the roadway.
“On Pine River Channel, the waves were coming right over the revetments, soaking the grassy walkways on both sides. (Charlevoix did not yet have the cement walkways we enjoy now) From time to time, spray would sprinkle pedestrians and automobiles crossing the bridge.
“Of course the season’s first big blow would come the day of the Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Color Cruise.’ The Beaver Islander never left the island, and 200 people ticket holders were left waiting on the city dock. Ironically, Round Lake and the Lake Charlevoix shoreline in the lee of the storm remained calm and unruffled throughout the day. A Lake Michigan gale can spell catastrophe, witness the hundreds of ships that have foundered off our shores in just such a wind as we had Sunday. When 60 and 70 mph winds churn 20-foot seas on the northern lakes, landlocked Kansas looks mighty attractive.”