The History of Corvette
The original Corvette sailing on Lake Michigan. That's Dad on the stern and me on the cabin top. This photo and the others on this page were taken in 1969.
Hello, My name is Dan Berkey. With my wife Nancy, I have owned Corvette since 2007. This story is a little about my sailing life and how I came to name this boat Corvette. I am a lifelong sailor. I grew up in northern Indiana and spent summers at a small cottage owned by my grandparents on Lake Wawasee, a freshwater lake in Syracuse, Indiana. My Dad, Pete Berkey, taught me to sail on that lake.
In about the fall or winter of 1967, Dad decided he wanted a BIG sailboat, and so he purchased a custom built, all-wooden, full keel sloop built in the 1930s. The name was Corvette. She was berthed at Michigan City, Indiana, about a 3 hour drive from our home. I think the original Corvette might have been designed by the famed design firm, Sparkman and Stephens, but I can’t say for sure. She was 41 feet (just like our Corvette), and had tiller steering (unlike our Corvette). Corvette sailed the Chicago-Mackinac race several times from the 1930s to the 1960s, and one time was nearly knocked down in a great lakes storm when the mahogany barn door rudder decided to depart from the aft end of the keel.
During the time she was owned by my Dad, we cruised Corvette the full length of Lake Michigan from Chicago to Lake Huron. We had no major mishaps other than a cranky old Graymarine gasoline engine which always seemed to break at the most inopportune times. I got my first “sea legs” cruising on Corvette, and watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in the summer of ’69 on a small black & white TV aboard a cabin cruiser two slips down the dock from Corvette.
Maintenance for an all wooden boat is enormous. I remember many freezing, dead of winter hours spent in a Michigan City warehouse sanding and refinishing Corvette’s brightwork. The bulwarks on Corvette were a beautiful mahogany. At launch time each spring, those bulwarks just sparkled! But the varnish technology of the time meant the process had to be repeated all over again by haulout time in the fall. We also had to repaint Corvette’s hull with antifouling every winter During those years they put mercury in bottom paint. I hate to think how many of my brain cells must have mutated while we sanded that full keeled bottom each year.
Mostly owing to the maintenance burden, Dad sold Corvette in 1970 and moved to a smaller fiberglass boat (an O’Day 26) which he sailed on Lake Wawasee and the North Channel Islands of Lake Huron for the remainder of his life. Dad told me later that Corvette was purchased by a couple who planned to cruise her out the St. Lawrence Seaway to the eastern seaboard and Caribbean. I don’t know what became of Corvette, but I like to think she is still out there making someone’s sailing memories.
Dad died in 2006 at the age of 74 from a rare cancer. He loved life and he especially loved sailing. Those who knew him, know he truly embodied the spirit of a sailing corvette., and so we named our Corvette in memory of him and his love of sailing.
Here are a few pictures of the original Corvette. Most were scanned from 35mm slides that were found after Dad’s death. They have been Photoshoped to the extent of my meager ability to clean them up and correct the colors.
On port tack with the starboard rail in the water. Those are Michigan City dunes onshore.
Wing and Wing
In the slip. That's me up the bosun's chair on the spreader. I was 14.
That's Mom. How about those 60s fashions! Dad's near the mast.
Dad doing some cleaning. Check out those guns! He needed those. Corvette had wicked weather helm. That's me on the bow line at age 14.
Finally, my favorite picture. Dad on the helm and that's me next to him in the orange shirt. This is why I sail today.
