TORONTO — The Island Yacht Club (IYC) has a new lease on life.
On Feb. 5, members voted nearly unanimously to approve an agreement that will see the storied yacht club turn the management reins over to Blockhouse Bay Management Company.
The move will avert a looming bankruptcy, as the club struggled to pay ongoing expenses and meet mounting debt that now stands at $1.6 million, said IYC Commodore William Kassel.
“I’m thrilled everything is moving forward. I think it will be bigger and better than ever,” said Kassel, a member of the club since 1973.
Over the years, the IYC has lost members to other boating clubs. The club suffered a body blow in 2004 when a fire destroyed the clubhouse and members looked elsewhere for their boating needs. More than half the members left at the time.
Currently, the club has 43 boats but 120 slips, leading to a shortfall in funds to pay fixed costs, such as rent and taxes.
“We would have been bankrupt and the club would not exist. We were getting really close to it,” Kassel said. “We were great boaters, but terrible managers.”
Blockhouse Bay was recently incorporated by the people who own the Toronto Island Marina, Bill Duron, Gary Lovas and Carl Lovas. Duron is CEO of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.
Duron and his partners have a proven track record in operating boating clubs, Kassel said. They turned around the fortunes of the Toronto Island Marina, which like the IYC had more slips than boats. Today the Marina has a waiting list for its 330 slips.
Under terms of the new agreement, Blockhouse Bay will invest $1 million in the IYC. The IYC’s 43 boating members will each commit $5,000 to the club while the 12 social members will contribute $1,500 each.
Kassel expects Blockhouse will solicit new members immediately, likely from the Toronto Island Marina’s waiting list. Currently the IYC is the only club in Toronto’s inner harbour with available slips, he said.
Blockhouse will take over management of the clubhouse restaurant, as well as the docks, summer and winter storage and the tender service.
It will upgrade the existing fixed docks and turn them into floating docks, making them more convenient for members, and upgrade the electrical service.
Still to be determined are the new membership categories and fees. However, current members will experience lower membership fees this year as well as reduced tender charges. Docking fees are expected to rise by four per cent, Kassel said.
With a restructuring of debt, which has been approved by the club’s bank and debenture holders, approval by the City of Toronto, the club’s landlord, new management and an expected growth in membership, the IYC should return to financial viability, Kassel said.
“They’re going to restore us to the glory we had in the past,” he added.
The IYC was founded in 1951 on Mugg’s Island for Jewish boaters who were excluded from gentile sailing clubs.
The club began with 15 to 20 members, and grew at one point to 350 members.
Prior to the fire, IYC boasted 110 boating members and 40 social members (based on family units), or about 300 to 400 people in all. In 2012, when the club celebrated its 60th anniversary “on the lake,” the club had 80 boating members and 25 social members.