History- The Early Years


Curly Ellis	Lafferty Marina	Juergen Hendel

In the early 1960’s there was no small sailing clubs in the Essex Country Region. The Windsor Yacht Club existed and had many large sailboats but not what the purist had in mind. During the early 1960’s, 20-25 hard-core sailors met at the home of the late Dr. Norman Hillary to form a pure sailing club. During this meeting Juergen Hendel and Curley (Douglas) Ellis tried to interest the sailors to sail on the river, and make the first club a river club. Many of those present were not about to do that and the club ended up on a beach off Matta’s Park and was known as the Windsor Sailing Club. This club later became known as South Port Sailing Club with its official opening in November of 1962.

In late 1962 or early 1963 Juergen Hendel and Curley (Douglas) Ellis with other boating enthusiast chose the Detroit River as their primary sailing area. Their first home was at Lafferty Marina, owned by Joe Lafferty at the foot of Martin Lane in LaSalle. This was a small place with somewhat run-down docks and a yard full of stored wooden boats in varying stages of disrepair.

During the winter of 1962-1963 the majority of boat owners, both power and sail at Lafferty Marina approved the formation of a new club. Doug Kirkaldy and Harold Brush represented the power boaters while Keith Warner, Curley Ellis and Juergen Hendel represented the sailors.

During the next several meetings this group of boaters formed a new organization and it was called LaSalle Mariners Yacht Club in recognition of Robert Cavalier de LaSalle, the French explorer who was the first to sail up the Detroit River in his ship the Griffon in August of 1679.


	The Early Years 1960-1963