Tuesday July 26 is Fergburgs in support of the Sailing School. By now, y’all know the drill. Ten bucks gets you a burger with a choice of sides. Grilling starts at 5:30 p.m. and continues until 7:00 p.m.
Thursday July 28, sailors and interested crew gather for the weekly race series, details to follow later on in the week.
Friday July 29 is Cocktails at the Club starting about 5:30 p.m. and continuing on. Bring an appetizer to share if you wish and join this very informal gathering of members.
Other Happenings:
Saturday morning these member volunteers (Greg McMillan, Arron and Taylor Taylor, Tom Bell, Russ Carlson, Sheryl Baun, Carl Thoreson, Tom Blackburn, Brian and Beth Moore, Eric Angel, Rick Mayfield, & Gary Ferguson) showed up to get some ground’s chores done. Including spray painting (30 cans of black) all of the wire tables and chairs on the deck. Also, moving rocks on all the parking lot walls to even them out ascetically, and to kill the weeds that were spreading in front of the shed. All this work took less than 2 hours. Because of these people your club looks a little better today. Tell them thanks for being part of the volunteer workforce.Failure of North Seawall – about 6 weeks ago we started to notice the crushed limestone ground cover was sinking along the center of the north wall and the wall itself was bowed outward to the lake. A subcommittee of grounds and dock committee members consisting of Gary Ferguson (Chair), Dave Golder, Alex Zaydel, Bob Kesling, Jeff Yeager, and myself convened to formulate a plan to stabilize/repair what we consider as an immediate and urgent situation. To date we have:
- established a means to measure further outward movement of the wall toward the north. Up until last evening’s storm we had determined that in the last 5 days the wall appeared to have ceased any more movement but then moved 7 inches overnight. We will continue to measure daily.
- determined what the sub-ground content is to help understand what is causing the wall failure. Soils and Structures of Muskegon was contracted to perform two ground borings to determine these sub-soils (what our land is sitting on). We have their report in hand and this information will be shared with an engineering firm as we move forward.
- approached Underwater Construction to inquire if they would conduct an underwater video of the outside of the wall and they agreed to do so for LYC. This was an estimated $5-6000 project for them but they graciously did it at no charge to us. Results were encouraging – no wall holes, thus no stone or ground content from the land side of the wall has moved outside the wall, and no kinking of the steel sheets. These are both substantial findings that the steel sheets appear to be in good shape. At this point the consensus is that possibly some of the underground tie-backs have failed allowing the wall to “bend” lakeward.
- contacted the engineering firm Prein-Newhoff’s Marine Division to submit a proposal to guide us in determining what would be the best option(s) for the wall repair.
What’s next? Consultation with experts from Soils and Structures, Prein-Newhoff, and local contractor, Hallack Construction indicated an immediate need to move material away from the seawall and to unearth the tie-backs, whalers, and dead-men (Mother Nature last evening helped us out a bit and revealed at least one broken tie back and whaler. This action will remove pressure on the wall and remaining tie backs and provide valuable information to Prein-Newhoff for recommendations for repair. Once an engineering report is in hand, multiple contractors will be solicited to submit bids to complete the recommended repair. The removed material will likely be placed along our east parking lot next to the north stone wall. What this also means is that, for the near future, there will be significant construction activity along the north and east side of the club grounds, so please exercise caution when entering, exiting and moving about.
What we have in our favor, hopefully, is that this work can be conducted on club land thus permits will not be required to repair the wall. Initially we feared that wall replacement may be necessary thus requiring a permit process with the Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, & Energy that could stretch to 6 months or more. We are encouraged by results so far that we may avoid this.
This information has been submitted to the Board of Directors requesting concurrence and authorization to spend an amount not to exceed $25,00 for the engineering proposal ($13,000), soil borings ($7,000) and material displacement ($5,000). Additional funds for the repair will be requested once contractor bids for the work are in hand.
Ludington Yacht Club 