FERRISBURGH — The Basin Harbor Club is making a major change to its Lake Champlain waterfront — replacing its combination of moorings and old cement and floating docks with new, modern floating docks to better accommodate boaters who want to tie up and stay overnight at the resort and enjoy its offerings.
The work, expected to be completed in time for the May opening of the club’s 131st season, is being done by another noted Ferrisburgh concern: Dock Doctors, headquartered on Route 7.
“They’re a wonderful resource, and they’ve been wonderful to work with,” said Basin Harbor Club co-owner Pennie Beach. “Their drawings are really exciting.”
The biggest advantage the new docks will offer is that that can be adjust to the lake’s changing water levels. Beach recalled several years back when Champlain reached record high levels and the cement docks were underwater, compared to this spring and summer, when rain and snowmelt was scarce and she joked that boaters had to rappel down to their boats from the cement docks.
“Whatever year it was the lake was so high, that was a wake-up call,” Beach said. “Then you have the extreme of this year, when people could practically walk across the harbor.”
There will be other benefits, too. Work on the ground is complete, and it includes full handicap accessibility to the docks for the first time.
“They are totally accessible,” Beach said. “The other docks had a series of obstacles if you happened to be in a wheelchair or had difficulty with mobility.”
Buried power to the docks has been added, and each dock slip will have a plug-in power outlet.
“We were dragging long heavy-duty extension cords around,” Beach said. “Now you’ll be able to plug in right at your slip.”
The club also is adding a dock dedicated to swimmers, including shower facilities, one that is safely away from boat traffic, an issue at times in the past.
“We also are creating a large swim dock, in an area that is marked for swimmers,” Beach said. “There’s going to be a much more clear traffic pattern now, just by the way the docks are situated.”
As was the case before the project, the docks can still handle up to 50 boats. But Beach said they will also be more stable than the floating docks the club did have.
“They weren’t as stable as they will be with Dock Doctors’ premium product,” she said.
The club will charge guests $100 in July and August to stay overnight on their boats, plus a per-foot charge, and $50 plus a per-foot charge in May, June, September and October. According to a press release, the fee allows full access to the property, including its golf course and other recreation options and amenities.
The Basin Harbor Club will not offer pump-out services or fuel sales.
“We are not a marina. It is just a dockage station, so people can come and have lunch at the Red Mill and play golf or something and tie up their boat,” Beach said. “They’ve always done that. It will just be a lot more convenient for them now.”