It started with a book, “The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore.” It was the twins’ love of their 36-foot Chris-Craft boat that inspired Barb Lusco to say, ‘One day, I’m going to have my own 36-foot Chris-Craft boat.’ Combine that with a love of Lake Michigan and numerous beach day vacations with her family as a child, and of course Lusco was bound to be a boater.
Lusco is the Portage Marina Harbor Master and eventually did own that Chris-Craft dream.
“When my husband and I got into boating we ended up getting a 33-foot Chris-Craft boat and that’s how it all started,” she said.
They owned a wooden boat for five years before working their way up through different models and materials, until they settled on a 43-foot Chris-Craft boat made of fiberglass.
When her husband passed away in 2010, Lusco was unable to maintain the beast of a boat, but now as the harbor master, she will never be “boatless.”
Before becoming master, Lusco worked for 13 years in the heavy equipment industry as one of the few women working within the field.
“That industry includes everything you see by the road side: tractors, backhoes, road construction, so I learned everything I could because being a woman in the field was a rare thing back in the 80’s,” she explained. “There were not a lot of women in that type of work and I got my experience in parts and services and I eventually managed two different stores; one in Gary and one in Portage and they were both heavy equipment dealerships.”
She met her second husband while working here and eventually the two moved to Portage, since it was in between his hometown of La Porte and hers of Lansing, Illinois.
Her husband was also an avid boater, and the two would make trips to Michigan towns or just lounge on the deck throughout the summer. The longest trip they made was to South Have, Michigan and back, a fun weekend, but not a distance they did often.
“We took trips St. Joe, New Buffalo, South Haven… just creeping up the lake,” she said. “Our boat was so big. It had two big block Chevy engines and the fastest it would go was 28 miles per hour and it went half a mile in a gallon of gas. One trip South Haven was about $1,500 in gas back and forth and we realized, ‘We don’t go to far in this boat do we?’”
Instead, the boat was a big live-on house, a floating cottage, as Lusco called it.
“We spent a lot of time on it,” she said. “It was wonderful.”
Since 1985, she had been involved in boating, with a membership within the Marquette Yacht Club and the Lake Michigan Yachting Association. So, when the harbor master position presented itself in 2013, the duties and way of the land came easy to her.
She is at the marina seven days a week, even if just for a few hours on the weekends. She is there every winter too, where she deals with membership dues, maintenance work, and making sure the pipes and docks don’t freeze.
Lusco sold her boat, and with her busy schedule at the marina, she is not able to get out on the lake as much as she used to.
“I know a lot of the people who own boats and in fact the people I didn’t know when I started I am now proud to say I am friends with,” she said. “I don’t have a boat anymore but I have FWB, Friends With Boats, and they are always inviting me out.”
What she loves about the marina is working with the variety of employees, including the college kids home for their seasonal job.
“I have only had two jobs, but I love each job and I love working with people. The marina gives me the chance to work with high schoolers,” she said. “It is very rewarding to be have the chance to work with these young people and hopefully they get a good taste for their first job when they leave here.
Overall, she said she works with the best people who help make each day different and exciting.
In her free time, Lusco volunteers for the American Legion in Portage, which does a lot for the veterans in Northwest Indiana.
“I am very active in volunteer work. People always say find the busiest person in the room to do extra things… well, that’s me. I am a big ‘Yes” person,” she said.
Lusco volunteers at special events hosted by the legion, always filling a need where she can. She wants to start volunteering with the Visiting Nurses Association as well.
“I like to help people and knowing I made a tiny difference in someone’s life, at the beginning or in the middle or at the end of their life,” she said.
Lusco has traveled both land and lake, enjoying the adventure of experiencing a new place. However, she always returns back to her marina and to her home.
“I try to make everyone happy and keep the marina a clean place,” she said. “It is a wonderful place to work and I just can’t say enough about it. I don’t want to leave here. It is my home.”