Shelter Island Yacht Club - A Centennial History

The Shelter Island Yacht Club

A Centennial History

1886-1986
A book written in 1986 to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the founding of the club.

Acknowledgements

"History," according to one contemporary historian, "is not what happened but what surviving evidence says happened." All too frequently records are not made or, if made, lost. The S.I.Y.C. is among the dozen oldest yacht clubs in the United States but the documentarv "evidence" in its possession is decidedly meager. An open carton of modest dimensions contains an undifferentiated assortment of official minutes and other papers. mostly of little or no historical merit. . Only rarely are the yearly reports of flag officers appended, as mandated, to the annual meetings.

The Club's constitution specifies that its historian "shall prepare a summary of events of the year in such fashion that future historians or authors may be able to bring same to a whole, intelligent history of the yacht club" but that excellent provision has been more honored in the breach than in the observance. Not even the names of the historians, if ever appointed, survive!

Two yawning gaps occur in the minutes themselves. One very regrettable hiatus extends from 1890 to 1898 when the original clubhouse was a-building and American yachting was at a fever pitch of popularity. The second gap stretches from 1934 to 1940, a period of considerable turmoil and tribulation both locally and nationally. Still later, circa 1961-62, during the throes of renovation and traumatic "housecleaning" many mementos, even trophies, i1bruptly disappeared. Some discarded items were happily salvaged from the Town dump.

Fortunately, the story of the first fifty years is covered in a ~ historical booklet written by A. E. Fountain. Recent research, however, has revealed much fresh materiel especiaIly regarding the Club's founding personalities and turn-of-the-century yachting. This additional data comes from the quiet alcoves of the New York Yacht Club's elegant library, from the microfilm files of the defunct Brooklyn Eagle at the New York Public Library, from back issues of The Suffolk Times and other local papers and from the archives of the Long Island and Shelter Island Historical Societies.

As for the last fifty years, the historical booklets published in connection with the 85th and 90th anniversaries include valuable data which might otherwise have been lost. In fact the 85th anniversary booklet, edited by John Umpleby, wisely includes a reprint of the Fountain booklet.

Important supplementary information for these latter years has been gleaned from the personal recollections and papers of a score of former commodores and other longtime members to whom the author is deeply indebted. These persons include George Rowsom, Peter and Kathy Dinkel, Russell and Susan Holmes, Richard Fenn, Daniel Reich, Charles Hansel, Jr., Jay Helme, Wallace Tiernan, Dorothy Hassel, Trafton and Janet Badger, John Umpleby, Sam Hird, Walter H. Burden, Jr., Jasper Kane, John Lockwood, and George Bradley.

Grateful tribute must be lavished upon the late Waldo Kraemer and on Gregory Price, for twenty-four years a Yacht Club trustee. Prolonged interviews with both "old timers" yielded a vast amount of remarkably precise information covering the past five decades, in Kraemer's case eighty years!

Hearty thanks go also to Jay Helme, chairman of the Centennial Committee, for his personal interest and initiative in publishing this manuscript. To Olive Reich for her evocative sketches and artwork. To Don Allen for splendid new photographs and bringing out the best in some old ones. No effort has been made to burden this account with a bibliography and copious footnotes. However, an index is designed to facilitate reference to people and boats.

Stewart W. Herman Fleet Chaplain
November 25,1985

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