For Peter Renner, developer and architect of Waterfront Condominiums, an escape from the city couldn’t be quicker, courtesy of the 27-foot powerboat he keeps tied at a Waterfront slip. “You’ve worked all day, you leave the office at 4:30, you’re out on the lake at 4:45, and by 5, you’re out 15 miles. And it’s like you’re up north,” he says, immersed in waves and wind and a seemingly endless horizon.
Life on our Great Lake – and the city’s harbor and three rivers that feed it – may be one of the most underappreciated charms of Milwaukee. From small powerboats to sailing vessels to mighty yachts, the boating life has a huge pull for many locals. They may tie up their boat for dinner at a riverside restaurant, sail down to Chicago or across to Michigan, or sleep overnight without ever leaving the dock.
Many visitors to Milwaukee come via boat to attend Summerfest or enjoy Downtown. Chicago boaters are buying Downtown condos because they find the harbor, rivers and lakefront so entertaining. The new scene in Milwaukee is all about the water.
Advances in technology and local facilities have made it increasingly easy to enjoy the lifestyle. “You don’t have to be an old salt to go across the lake anymore,” says Craig Duchow, co-owner of Harborside Yacht Center. Global positioning systems tell your exact location, sonar offers a 3-D picture of the lake bottom, and thruster systems reduce the potential for embarrassment while trying to dock. On some new models, he says, “you can drive a boat with a joystick, like you’re playing a video game.”
Sailboating has passionate devotees, but Dan Couillard, dockmaster of the Milwaukee Yacht Club, said the trend is toward powerboats. “With a sailboat, you can’t have the family along (if they don’t) know what to do. Powerboating, you jump in the comfy chair, turn the key and go.”
Sailing takes knowledge, and it takes a crew – or it used to. Paul and Elaine Boldt of Oconomowoc are not expert sailors – their only training was a copy of Sailing for Dummies– but with electric winches and other sail-friendly technology, they can handle their 47-foot boat.
All the new gadgets make boating easier, but may mean operators know less about wind and water than a generation ago. “Occasionally a novice boater gets in a little trouble,” says Bruce Nason, rear commodore of South Shore Yacht Club.
It’s not quite the ocean, but Lake Michigan can present some real challenges. When Keith and Sally Ponath of Franklin plan long trips on Lake Michigan with their powerboat, they’re always aware that weather may change their plans. “We’ve been out in 12-foot waves, and it’s no fun,” he says.
“You have to respect that lake,” says Sandy Roller of Muskego, who with her husband Ron owns a 46-foot powerboat. “You can have 10-foot waves in half an hour.”
Among boaters, the issue of sails versus motors forms a friendly rivalry. But they do agree on what makes the lifestyle appealing: They love water and the outdoors. They love having this getaway. And they love the new friends and social possibilities.
That is true even if they never leave the marina. With the price of fuel to consider, powerboaters in particular often spend evenings or nights on board without turning on the engine.
“Some people won’t go out but one or two times a year,” Nason says. “They’ll sit down and read the paper on the boat, or have a cup of coffee or a cocktail.” A dozen or so families at South Shore, he adds, “almost live on their boats during the summer. This is their ultimate relaxation.”
“You get a gang of people and sit on the
boat until 11 p.m. Friday, why go home?” says Keith Ponath.
“Cocktail hour starts around 4,” Elaine Boldt says. “Boat life for us has been incredibly friendly. If you want to be introverted, you can be introverted. If you want to be extroverted, you have that option.”
The lifestyle can be expensive, but a starter boat is not prohibitive. A few thousand dollars will get you a used, functional motorboat, and “there’s a lot you can do, even with a 16- or 18-foot runabout,” says Ponath. He recalled his first boat fondly, a 19-footer with a portapot and camp stove, and “I had just as much fun with a 26-foot boat as I do with a 53-foot.”
But prices rise fast into the hundreds of thousands (over 30 feet) or millions (over 50 feet). You can also count on paying thousands more every year for slippage, winter storage and maintenance.
For a powerboat, fuel also takes a bite. Gas is more expensive at the marina than at the corner filling station, and a good-sized boat gets less than a mile to the gallon. The Ponaths’ annual trip to the North Channel of Lake Huron costs about $2,500 in fuel.
Nevertheless, boaters can’t resist trading up in size. The 43-foot motor yacht owned by John and Joanne Verbraken of Franklin is their sixth – each bigger than its predecessor, and “each one was going to be the last,” John says.
“You get two-foot-itis,” Ponath joked. “All boaters have the urge to move up, but two feet is a quantum leap in a boat – it’s a broader beam, it’s more amenities.”
Their custom-built, 53-foot, three-bedroom motor yacht is “our summer cottage,” Ponath said. “We don’t gamble, we saved and invested well, we chose to spend our money buying a boat.”
Technically, “boat” yields to “yacht” at 39 feet, but self-described boat nut Brian Read, president of Southwind Marine in Milwaukee, says more qualitative factors count as well: “It’s the quality of the finish. It’s the level of detail and how well-cared for it is. What I think makes a yacht beautiful is the craftsmanship.”
Read loves buying old boats and restoring or refinishing them. “I never met a boat I didn’t like,” he says. Sail, power, wood, fiberglass – “I like them all in different ways.”
The boating life creates a natural camaraderie, its practitioners say. “Any time you come in, people on the dock run to help you and catch your line,” says Sandy Roller. “It doesn’t matter what kind of boat it is.”
“When you become a boater, you become part of a community,” says Read. “The Harley group’s got nothing on us.”
Recently in his store, Duchow was startled to see a sailboater from Port Washington greet a powerboater from Chicago. “I said, ‘How do you two know each other?’ and they said, ‘Oh, we met over in Frankfort (Mich.) two years ago.’ ”
Michigan is a popular destination for local boaters; the water is warmer, the shoreline is sandy and accessible, and the coast offers a string of sheltered harbors and summer resort towns. Michigan, Renner contends, is far more boat-friendly. “It makes Wisconsin look like a Third World country.”
Chicago is another major Lake Michigan destination. Many local boaters will take a long weekend to moor near Navy Pier and enjoy the activities of a megacity.
Group outings are another option. Keith Ponath’s children grew up in a tight-knit group of boaters, the Waukesha Cruise Fleet. The group took multiple-boat lake or river cruises, adults and big kids watching out for little kids, hopping from one boat to the next and using playgrounds at various marinas. Now the cycle has started over again with his grandchildren.
Some boaters think much bigger. Frank and Ronda Arndorfer of Colgate had a sailboat until they “went to the dark side” in 2004, deciding that power would be more practical for the long journey they had in mind. They are now about halfway through a life goal of many enthusiastic boaters, the Great Loop – down the Mississippi, across the Gulf of Mexico, up the Atlantic coast, and back home through the Great Lakes.
But the most popular activity, among boaters who actually leave the slip, is day trips. The Boldts are atypical in using their boat for fishing, but they’ll invite friends for a three-hour tour, fish for salmon from the boat, and return to port to grill the catch and open a bottle of wine.
Boating provides a kind of reverse scenery for local residents. “The city of Milwaukee looks completely different and fascinating from the water,” says Frank Arndorfer.
“You can’t really appreciate the Calatrava unless you’ve seen it from the lake,” Elaine Boldt says. Summer fireworks are also a special experience from this vantage point. “I keep a log of all the fireworks and try to see as many as I can,” says Sandy Roller. “Milwaukee does summer right.”
The city has limited lakefront dining options – a matter of some grumbling among boaters who’d like to moor and eat something more substantial than a hot dog while watching the water stretch to the horizon. But many restaurants have sprung up along the Milwaukee River.
Milwaukee Ale House is among a handful with slips next to their patios, allowing boaters to sail right up to dinner. Cameron Huck, assistant restaurant manager, says the slips are always full on weekends in the summer and early fall. A boat that has trouble docking in the current can count on some help from the patio. “If a boat tries five times, there’ll be patrons cheering them on when they finally succeed,” Huck notes.
Boaters heading from their riverfront slips out to the lake frequently stop for a few mini-kegs of to-go beer at Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, says Ryan Hartman, the brewpub’s general manager. Rock Bottom also sees regular out-of-town visitors. “One couple from Racine will tie up by the restaurant and spend the night. I come back in the morning and see them again. It’s kind of funny.” Is that legal? “I don’t know,” he confesses.
Those who want more than just dinner next to the water can check out the condos proliferating along the river – many of them with boat slips. That has attracted new residents to Downtown.
Local marinas also see an annual influx of visitors from Chicago, Michigan or other points along the lake. Groups will reserve slips at Milwaukee Yacht Club and arrive in packs of 20 or more – especially during Summerfest or the ethnic festivals. “They’ll stay three to five days, bring the family along, and that’s one of their vacations,” Couillard says.
At McKinley Marina, every guest slip during Summerfest is usually reserved by February. Festival reservations are also filling up for the 20 new slips scheduled to open this summer at Lakeshore State Park (the old Summerfest island), although restrooms and other amenities will have to wait until 2009.
The South Shore Yacht Club also gets plenty of lake-borne visitors from out of state, says Nason, and they explore the growing nightclub and restaurant scene in nearby Bay View.
Boating life is growing in Milwaukee. Along with many new slip locations, recent renovations at McKinley Marina – by far the lakefront’s biggest facility – have made things more inviting and accessible. The Calatrava, Discovery World and the Third Ward boom all give boaters more to do.
“There’s all these little pieces to the puzzle,” Duchow says. “It’s getting to be a better and better package.”
David Lewellen is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer.
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