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Constructed over the site of a former marina, a Charlevoix residence on Round Lake houses nostalgic nautical keepsakes, open views of blue and a lifelong love of boating.

By Lisa M. Jensen

Today the Little Miami, a tributary of the Ohio River near the southwestern edge of the state, is fringed by a series of scenic parks. Bike trails wind aside abandoned rail grades flanking the river. Having grown up along its banks with his two brothers and parents in a cabin built by his dad, John Winn remembers the mud.

“It was an awful river,” he said with affection. “But we water-skied on it, and we had a row boat, and a canoe. Our grandmother, who lived near us too, bought us a little used boat – a 16-foot Trojan. I remember the gentleman who delivered it for us, how he backed it down and put it in the water.

“I was in the third grade, and for me that was the defining moment I knew I wanted to be in the boat business.”

A few years later, the family moved to Greenville, Michigan, and a few more beyond that, John graduated from Western Michigan University. Seeking a sales position, he only knocked on the doors of boating companies. Early in his career – along with his brother, Bill Jr. – he began representing Saf-T-Mate Boat Company in Cadillac. When his boss, George Spicer, decided to sell the small fiberglass production outfit, he made an offer the Winn brothers couldn’t refuse.

“George said, ‘You either buy this, or you’re fired.’”

So John and Bill Jr. called up brother Charlie, then based in Lansing in the securities business, and father, Bill Sr., executive vice president of Triumph Motorcycles out in California. Underfinanced but fueled by their enthusiasm for boating, the family purchased the small company in 1975. Three years later, a fire all but wiped out the burgeoning business. Only a few parts of finished boats had been rescued from destruction.

The Winns were at a crossroads.

“We got a couple of SBA loans and sold our homes – the guy who bought mine offered me an extra $15,000 if I left it furnished, just took my clothes and photos,” John said. “By the end of that day, I didn’t own a fork, toaster or towel. We sold everything we could, rolled the dice, put it all back in the business, and in 1979, constructed a new manufacturing warehouse and facility in Cadillac.”

President Jimmy Carter threw the next curve ball in 1980: “He proposed a boating ban on weekends to save gas,” John said. “While it never passed as a law, it scared the public out of making marine purchases, and 40 percent of the boating manufacturers went under that year. His announcement had come out in national news the day after we had picked up 14 deposits at the Milwaukee Boat Show. We ended up giving every deposit back.”

While the industry floundered, the Winn brothers set to work designing new fiberglass boats for families. They introduced their Catalina line of tri-hulls, Santara cuddy cabins and Candida deck boats. “Slowly we began to grow, and then, later in the year, really began enjoying phenomenal growth,” John said.

Last year, Four Winns celebrated its 30th anniversary as an international leading producer of recreational marine products, including innovative Stable-Vee Hull Design engineering in 1993; Four Winns is also one of the first manufacturers to offer the Volvo Penta Inboard Performance System (IPS) – joystick controlled, ground-breaking docking technology – on its 378 Vista cruiser. Dealerships for the company can be found throughout the globe.

John, meanwhile, continues to celebrate his love of boating a little closer to home.

The Boathouse

Throughout the years, John Winn has collected boats.

It hasn’t mattered whether they were canoes or antique wooden runabouts, classic motorboats or racing vessels. He loves them all, and along with them, every kind of nostalgic, nautical paraphernalia that can be found or imagined.

“I have a nickel Coke machine, and a boat that rocks back and forth like the penny horse at Meijer, for the kids. There are lake maps and signs from old boating companies and engine dealers. We have a whole row of square cushions, the kind that were once legal as life preservers. And along with a lot of antique paddles, probably 60 or so that I bought new, unfinished, from a company in Oregon. I finished those off myself, with nostalgic logos.”

He also loves Michigan. While his brothers opted to head south during the state’s less amiable seasons, John and his wife decided to make Charlevoix their year-round home in the early ‘90s. The bustling summer activity of picturesque Round Lake drew them to the location.

“We have three kids – a 19-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and a 15-year-old son,” John shared. “It was only a few years after our youngest son was born in 1991 that we realized he would probably never walk, and the house we were in wasn’t conducive to a wheelchair. I was fueling up the boat one day at Bellinger Marina – Round Lake is mesmerizing in the summer. I thought, what a spectacular spot. And I turned to Bill Bellinger and asked if he wanted to sell his marina. He said, ’Do you want to pump gas?’ I told him, ‘No. I want to build a house here – this would be a great place for my son.’”

Andre M. Poineau has been designing and building waterfront homes in northwest lower Michigan for 23 years; he has approximately 30 designs on Lake Charlevoix alone. In particular, Poineau specializes in unique projects – including complex, high-end boathouses.

“These projects require special circumstances and extensive permitting,” he said. “But the outcome of this exhaustive preparation and detailed design work results in the ultimate connection between a family and the water.”

Following the appropriate environmental studies, due diligence and demolition of the marina, Poineau designed a speculative boathouse. “John and I used it as a learning experience toward the end goal of designing the ultimate boathouse for a man whose life has been boats,” he said.

The result is a Nantucket-style residence designed to be an integral part of this boathouse. “Warm, darker tones of the home allow unhindered views into the boathouse from extensive windows,” Poineau noted. “The project functionally displays John’s museum quality collection of classic craft, as well as memorabilia collected from a lifetime in the boat business.”

Among it are memories of three brothers growing up along a muddy river, a used motorboat, and the woman who brought them together. What surrounds him now is only, John considers, a ripple effect of his grandmother’s early influence, and her greatest gift.

“She gave us our opportunity to love boating.”

Lisa M. Jensen is the editor of Michigan BLUE.