TRAVERSE CITY -- Motoring out of the marina Saturday morning, 11 sailboats unfurled their sails and set a course for a week of fun.
Forty-five members of the La Trappe Creek Society gathered at Bay Breeze Yacht Charter in Elmwood Township Friday evening to complete final preparations for the journey.
Renewing friendships and stocking provisions, the once-a-year explorers were eager to launch a week on the northern Great Lakes, with destinations spanning Traverse City to Mackinac Island and back again.
The expedition marked the 37th annual men-only, multi-generation gathering of friends, relatives and friends of friends. Charging no dues and fielding one week-long trip a year, the La Trappe Creek Society is a floating party that also features serious sailing and less serious racing -- at stake each year is a coveted florescent child's sand pail.
The society's guiding principle: share fun times with great companions who take their moderation in moderation.
"The group didn't really form up until two or three years after it began," said Ethan Welch of Rochester, N.Y., co-founder of the group who serves as Admiral. "It got its name after an estuary off the Chesapeake Bay on the Eastern Shore of Maryland when we were happy to be there one evening -- we had to scurry to the chart to find out, 'Where are we?'"
Dick Kennedy, of Omena, is the local participant in the society, a cousin to Welch who has helped handle logistics for this trip. Kennedy noted that the skills of the group span a wide range, from licensed sailors to the "grunt guys and galley slaves."
"It's what they call a bareboat charter, we rent and do all provisioning and provide the crew," he added.
The group's roster has grown to number about 100 men from around the world, including members from Finland, Belgium and Great Britain. A few new sailors join every year while others drop out of the informal group. The biggest trip was to Newport, R.I., when 65 members sailed that year.
Every year, the society explores a destination chosen by the group's leader, the Commodore, who alternates a domestic and a foreign port. Leading by edict with just a shade of democracy, the commodore also assigns the members into crews.
The Commodore for more than 30 years, Welch turned the helm over to Jay Kenlan of Wallingford, Vt., who was hooked after his first adventure with the group decades ago.
"It's really hard to tell people what the magic of the group is, it's a wonderful group of guys," said Kenlan, noting that members span the professions from doctor to auto mechanic to retired nuclear submarine captain. "We occasionally have someone who doesn't match up and they just sort of drift away."
The La Trappe Creek Society has explored destinations around the world -- including Ireland, Greece, Australia, New Zealand, the Mediterranean, Tahiti, Belize and Turkey -- as well as around the United States. This is their first venture to Michigan.
Some trips over the years featured an additional week where wives joined the sailors at the destination for a week of land-based touring.
"There's something very romantic about kissing your wife and saying, 'See you in Istanbul in a week,'" said Kenlan.
Wherever the La Trappe Creek sailors go, good friends or not, they have found that a week is a perfect span of time together.
"In about six days when you're finished, everybody's developed their own odors and the food is kind of running out but everybody's still speaking to one another," said Bob Joynt of Rochester, N.Y. "We've never pushed it more than five to six days."
A retired vascular surgeon, Welch and three friends took the group's first trip off the coast of Maine in 1972. The friends owned a Hobie Cat together and decided to learn to sail something bigger. After completing some United States Power Squadron courses, they ventured forth into the ocean to apply their new knowledge.
"It turned out to be a unique and enjoyable experience -- we learned a lot and learned that we didn't know a lot," recalled Welch, who is publishing a book about the group next month. "It was the tail end of Hurricane Agnes and the seas were 10-12 feet and if we knew what we knew now, we never would have gone out."
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