I am certain that both the Rand and the Fisher brothers belonged to the Grosse Point Yacht Club Rich. The research I have done indicates that this was a very exclusive club and I think the Detroit Yacht Club came several years after 1928 and after the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club. When I was growing up and working around and at that dock, we would log the yachts as they arrived with: Date, Time, Name of Vessel, ID#, Owner, Home Port, Destination, & NOTE... the NOTE would be Yacht Club affiliation. The State Dock had no problems moring yachts up to 45 and 50 foot. Anything larger had to anchor off and use a dingy. We would log any vessels that came into the harbor for the Coast Guard that was also stationed at Harbor Beach as they would sometimes radio or call to find out if we had records of a vessel in port. On holiday weekends, the boats anchored just off shore would number around 30 or so and we would log as much info as we could as they entered the harbor with binoculars. The "floatila" anchored off was primarily GPYC IDed by their burgees. When the Four Rs would come to port we would laugh and joke about it being time for me to go to work. The Four Rs was a GPYC and we could all recognized it from about 12 miles out as it approached. I do not recall the Fisher Yacht in particular, but I was welcomed on board the Four Rs several times by the crew. An interesting note... the Harbor Beach Resort Association had a common club building located on the shore line that was known as The Casino.
Some links:
http://www.harborbeachresort.net/outside_home.asp
I used to dive off of the "crib" of this lighthouse and I remember freinds that dove off from the top rail. We partied here a lot mostly on the break water because if we went into the lighthouse too much, the Coast Guard would be sent out to check up on us. They usually asked if our beer was cold! It always was and that was no problem to share but after a while they would "hit on" the girls so we usually hung out at one of the other two "break walls"
If I remember right: "crib" to water=18' "Top Rail" to water= 38' Water Depth at lighthouse 38' distance to shore= 1 mile exactly... I swam it several times the first being the "1 mile swim" for Boy Scouts at I think 13 yoa?
http://harborbeachchamber.com/light.html
http://harborbeachchamber.com/lighthouse.html
Some great memories from the 60s when life was so simple!
I see things have changed... there ar now only two break walls and that great old "fog horn" that only changed it's voice twice that I know of... is decommisioned.
It has been a long time since I have been there.
