About Maritime Machines
The Mission of Maritime Machines is to help preserve and operate the finest vintage yachts on Lake Michigan. As part of that mission, we provide maintenance and operating services to both the ROBERT ALLAN II and WILD GOOSE Clubs.
The operating team has many decades of boating experience and includes:
Ace Etsch, Chief Engineer and Archivist,
Toby Lindo, past Commodore – Heritage Wooden Boat Club,
Clem Majerus, Chief Boatwright
Dan Snyder, 500 ton Coast Guard Rating.
One of this team serves as Captain whenever a Club boat leaves the dock.
We completed a major rebuild of ROBERT ALLAN II in 2008, including replacement of the stem, and repair or replacement of twenty planks, twelve frames and eight butt blocks. In August of 2008, the team also brought WILD GOOSE across the finish line a quarter of a mile ahead of our principal adversary, the 1929 Alden schooner ALLEGRO in our annual match race.
One of the highlights of the year is our annual fall cruise around the Lake. Last October, we visited Waukegan, Milwaukee and Saugatuck on our way to winter quarters in St. Joe, Michigan. And top honors for hospitality go to RJ Peterson, the proprietor of Tower Marine in Saugatuck, who made us feel as if we owned the town while we were there. We could not have had a better visit, including a private tour of the 350’ steamship S. S. KEEWATIN, built in Scotland in 1907, which has been beached on the shore in Saugatuck since 1968.
