At the January membership meeting, PC Dan Krahe proposed to the members a plan for shared membership for spouses. The thought is that shared membership will increase member participation and help to attract new members. A summary of this proposal is listed below. Please take a look and be ready to share any comments when it’s time to officially consider this proposal:

1. Any member that is married (recognized by the State of Pennsylvania) can share the membership with their spouse after their first year probation.

2. No additional fees will be attached to the membership.

3. The spouse can attend meeting, voice opinions, make a motion, and join in any discussions at the membership meetings.

4. If both husband and wife attend a membership meet-ing, only one meeting credit will be given. So one or the other member or both must attend four of the last eight meetings to be considered voting members. (Of course meeting all other criteria according to the constitution.)

5. Husband and wife members may only cast one vote per question.

6. Either or both members may run for office(s) if they are voting members per #3, but they do not “share“ the office.

7. Both spouses will share past commodore privileges if one or the other is elected Commodore.

8. Spouses can share the work hour burden, with one or the other or both working the required hours for the year.

9. Any roster kept by the secretary or treasurer will have the member that applied for membership listed first and the spouse second.

10. Any member cohabitating with a member of the opposite sex may petition the board of directors for the same sharing of his, her membership with his/her significant other.

11. In the case of divorce or separation, the membership will be retained by the member that had applied for membership.

12. If the member that applied for membership should die his spouse or significant other would remain a member retaining all points.

Henry J. Zawistoski, Sr., 85, of Greene Twp., passed away on Sunday, November 27, 2011 at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, following a prolonged illness. He was born November 28, 1925 in Erie, son of the late Walter and Caroline Wesolowski Zawistoski. Henry was a US Army veteran who served during World War II. He was awarded the Purple Heart Medal. Henry was employed for many years by the US Postal Service until his retirement. He was a member of Our Lady of Mount Carmel RC Church. Since childhood, Henry’s passion had been boating, and he was a member of the Presque Isle Yacht Club. Survivors include his beloved wife of 64 years, Mary Rapela Zawistoski; three children, Joyce Whaley (John) of Lakeland, Fla., Henry Zawistoski, Jr., and John Zawistoski, both of Erie; five grandchildren, Steven Reisenweber (Tara) of New York City, Dawn Pinter (Mike), Mandy Zawistoski, Tiffany Vercillo (Anthony), all of Erie, and Julie Williamson of South Carolina; six great-grandchildren, Jonathan, Kayla, Natalie, Skylar, Sydney and Luca; one brother, Carl Zawistoski (Dolores), of Erie; one sister, Regina Luschini (Danny),, of Erie; and several nieces and nephews. Friends may call at the Dusckas Funeral Home, Inc., East, 2607 Buffalo Rd., on Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and are invited to attend a Prayer Service there on Wednesday at 8:15 a.m. followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 9 a.m. at Our Lady of Mount Carmel RC Church. A private interment service will be conducted at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. Memorial contributions may be made to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church Building Fund, 1553 E. Grandview Blvd., Erie, PA 16510. To send condolences, please visit www.dusckasfuneralhome.com.

Peggy Spencer Stow, age 96, of North East died on Sunday, November 27, 2011 at Parkside at North East. Peggy was born July 28, 1915 in Manchester, England, where she attended Cheadle Hulme School. After graduation, she attended Loreburn Secretarial College and moved to London. At the start of WWII, she worked for the British Red Cross, then in 1944 she joined the American Red Cross as secretary and served in Paris, Rome, and Munich at the 3rd Army headquarters. Munich was where she met her future husband Bill and she moved to North East with him in 1946. She made several trips back to England over the years, helping to pay for them by picking grapes, tying vines, and selling over 200 pairs of deerskin gloves, which she painstakingly cut out and sewed by hand! Peggy was a very dedicated member of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross, where she sang in the choir and served on the Altar Guild and Bishop’s Committee. She was a Golden Star member of the Order of the Eastern Star, program director of the Merry Oldsters Golden Age Club for 10 years, a Girl Scout leader for seven years and a 50-year member of the North East Choral Club. She was an avid tennis player and at her home in Florida, she played tennis every day until the age of 93!! She loved to go on cruises and financed some of these adventures by selling “Happy Feet” shoes. Peggy’s husband Bill truly loved sailing; over a span of nearly 40 years they sailed around Lake Erie, with Port Dover Yacht Club in Ontario as a frequent destination. There they spent the long July 4th weekend (including Canada Day on July 1st) then sailed back across the lake to Presque Isle Yacht Club. She was Bill’s “First Mate” for many sailboat races, and after Bill passed away in 1991, she became a crew member of the tallship Brig Niagara at the age of 79! She sailed in Bill’s memory on numerous voyages up and down the Great Lakes. Due to her “short” stature, she was a favorite tour guide on board since she didn’t have to duck below decks. She loved gardening, singing, sewing (especially making custom-order rabbits), playing poker, and dancing. Intelligence, talent, dedication, loyalty, energy; these qualities made Peggy such a wonderful woman. She had an infectious exuberance for life, a ready laugh, a cheerful disposition and a wonderful sense of humor. She will be remembered for that love of life, the sparkles in her snow-white hair and the sparkle in her eye. She was always ready for a party and kept everyone entertained with her amazing ability to tell stories and jokes. Peggy was preceded in death by her husband William R. Stow, her sister Esme` Spencer Wright and her brother William Gibson Spencer. She is survived by her daughters Sandy Stow Jebb and Judy Stow Williams, nephew Bryan Stow, grandson Jeff Payne, granddaughter Stephanie Sharpe Duffy, grandson Joshua Sharpe, four great-grand children and numerous nieces and nephews in England. Friends may call at the William D. Elkin Funeral Home, 65 South Lake Street, North East on Thursday 7-9 and Friday 2-4 and 7-9 and are invited to attend a funeral service at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. Officiating Rev. Carol Carlson. Interment Cathedral of St. Paul. Memorials may be made to the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross, 53 W. Main Street, North East, Pa.

Sailing club members Jim & Linda Morehead have “started their journey.”  During the past 12 months they sold all their land based stuff.  For the last month they were ‘live-aboards’ at the club.  On Saturday July 23 they signed out on the PIYC trip log.  Yknot3 (their Sabre 38) is now their seagoing home.  Most recently they visited the Erie Beach Hotel in Port Dover for one last Lake Erie perch dinner.  At last update, they were in Saint Catharines, ON after a down passage through the Welland Canal, bound for Florida.  Their progress is being chronicled on their blog site at http://jlmsail.blogspot.com/ – their email address is jlmsail@yahoo.com.

PIYC Floating Clubhouse 1954

This photo was taken around 1954.  At this point in time, the club was given permission to construct large boat slips and was allowed to moor their clubhouse next to these boat slips.   This area was located just to the East of the small boat slips shown in the 1948 photo.  The large boat in the foreground belonged to Ben Bjalme who lived aboard this boat in the summer one season with his wife and two daughters.  Prior to this move, the floating clubhouse was moored near this area and had to be accessed via any boat.  I believe that arrangements were made to move the clubhouse into the new dock area, once they were built.

PIYC Lockerhouse 1948

This photo taken around 1948 shows the club’s “Lockerhouse” located just south of the old Presque Isle State Park’s Police Barracks where the original small boat stalls were located.  Larger boats were moored out front of these stalls on floating kegs that were chained onto very heavy weights sunken into the bottom of the bay.  Everyone that had a boat moored on a keg needed a dinghy to travel back and forth to their boat.  In front of this lockerhouse you will see our dinghy resting against the “loading dock” where one could launch and load their dinghy to travel to their boat.  Fifteen minutes was the time limit to be in this “locading dock” as many folks needed to use this spot.  PC Elmer Schmidt is the guy standing there facing the camera with the sweater and hat on.  Inside this lockerhouse were many individual lockers where the fellows stored their boating equipment like outboard motors, gasoline, ropes, fishing gear, etc.  Club members paid an annual rental for these lockers as well as their dockage to the club, which in turn paid the State Park an annual lease fee for the leased area.

This information has been added to PIYC History page.  Thanks to P/C Harold Eisert for providing us this information.