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.
A Centennial History
1886-1986
A book written in 1986 to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of the founding of the club.
The S.I.Y.C. emerged from the Great Depression and World War II in relatively better shape than it did a generation earlier from the multiple blows of the 1909 financial panic, the loss of the Manhanset House, and the first World War.
The Pinch Begins
In 1930, of course, the depression was only a few months old and many Americans in general were endeavoring to ignore the Crash. In March the Prospect House proudly announced that fourteen new bathrooms had been installed in its Annex. Private bathrooms were moving up from luxury to necessity. Simultaneously, the S.I.Y.C. trustees advised all members by mail that their dues would be increased to fifty dollars.
A week later a special meeting of the membership was called at the Crescent Athletic Club in Brooklyn to consider certain desirable improvements, specifically, repair of the Club's basin, remodeling the kitchenette and the extension of the dock which was described as "imperative". The estimated cost of three thousand dollars being no small amount in those days, the proposal was voted down by a majority of the twenty-two members present and twelve proxies. As an alternative it was agreed that donations might be solicited, and by August the needed funds were forthcoming.
The Schedule of Events, as it was called, had by this time pretty well been standardized. First, three racing classes competed for prizes, the Stars, the Shelter Island one-designs, and the Wee Scots. Secondly, inter-club rivalries involved three other nearby clubs, Devon, North Fork, and Sebonac. Thirdly, social occasions included the Commodore'sCourtney Green in this case - luncheon in mid-June, a clambake with fireworks on July 4, a Ladies Tea and Water Sports in mid-August, and a Masquerade Dance at the Country Club on Labor Day weekend.
The next season too - the forty-fifth anniversaryturned out pretty well. In fact, it was cheerfully declared "most successful". At their winter meeting the trustees had decided to postpone the Water Sports festival "indefinitely" but twenty-seven races were scheduled, all of which came off as planned. It mayor may not be a sign of economic anxiety and increasing sobriety that the membership agreed to resume, after a lapse of a dozen years, the observation of Yacht Club Sunday at the Union Chapel. The Rev. Percival Huget, newly-elected Fleet Chaplain, was clearly instrumental in "resurrecting", as he put it, this "old custom".
The event was duly restored to the Club calendar the following year when forty members assembled at the west porch of the Prospect House on July 31 to march up through the grove of old trees to the Chapel. It is also a matter of hard fact that thirty-one members resigned from the Club that summer and several others were delinquent in paying their dues, but the reasons were plainly financial rather than religious. Excluding the thirty Juniors, regular membership now hovered around one hundred.
The fleet was shrinking. The old one-designs were now down to two, but the Stars and Wee Scots were still quite active. There were power boat races and a cruise to Fisher's Island. Visits with other clubs were exchanged, sometimes with unanticipated success. A pre-race luncheon for one hundred fifty persons was arranged to welcome the Devon and North Fork Clubs, but three hundred guests appeared. The explanation seemed to be that more Islanders than expected had responded to a friendly invitation. In summing up the 1932 season at the annual meeting, Commodore MacKay Sturges allowed that it was "not nearly so bad as most people thought it would be". Regardless of qualms, morale remained stubbornly high.
A year later membership dropped to ninety-one Seniors and twenty-six Juniors. Dozens of cottages were for sale or for rent. And Mother Nature was not kind. A spring storm did $1,700 worth of damage to the Club's bulkheads. The Commodore's final report for 1933 acknowledged not only the loss of members due to economic difficulties but also the depletion of the Star fleet because of sales. They seemed to be following the Nationals into limbo. Nevertheless, MacKay Sturges extracted comfort from the thought that the S.I. Y.C was "better off" than other clubs. After all, the Juniors were doing well! He held out the hope of introducing another class of boats.
At this rather critical juncture James W. Heatherton entered the picture as commodore, evidently with a flourish of trumpets. Without in any way detracting from his able predecessors, Heatherton was preeminently a man of audacious ideas and restless action. His business interests were varied, ranging from ownership of The Plumbers' Journal, founded by his grandfather, to a plenitude of real estate enterprises, including the development of the Hedges running from Shelter Island's main road to Gardiner's Creek. He built several houses there which he rented for over a dozen years and eventually sold off. His original concept was to develop a boat basin in the creek with a swinging bridge at its mouth. His letterhead listed him as president of Heatherton Realty Corporation, Unsco Realty Corp., and Franklin Nassau Corp. He also toyed with the idea of opening a second ferry line to Greenport.
The Tide Begins to Turn
Depression or no depression, the new Commodore bubbling with big ideas plunged into office with gusto, advocating the need for more space in the clubhouse for Juniors and for dancing. Also new furniture. Artemas Ward backed him up and the trustees went along. It is frustrating to report at this interesting point that there is a big black hole of almost five years in the Club's meager records. The only surviving documents are one copy of the printed Schedule of Events and an accounting from the Club's catering service showing a net gain of $3,328 on the sale of food, beverages and cigarettes, plus $455 earned by the ladies of the Sandwich Committee.
The 1934 Schedule itself, however, is startlingly distinct from all others which went before or followed after. Consisting of more sugar than salt, it is loaded with onshore social events: every Monday afternoon a Ladies Dessert Bridge and every Saturday afternoon from 4 to 6 P.M. a Tea Dancing. A post scriptum at the end of the Schedule casually mentions "racing all classes" on Sunday afternoons at 2:45.
In the absence of other sources, let's turn to the 50th Anniversary booklet whose final pages cover these years, 1934-36. It is important to read A. E. Fountain's crisp prose in the light of two major concerns which were now preoccupying the nation and the world - first, the deepening depression and, second, the awesome rise of the Nazi dictator.
"In 1934 Commodore J.M. Heatherton, realizing the times were not yet ripe to stimulate active interest in new racing classes, decided to revitalize the Club through the medium of longawaited and much-needed alteration to the club house. About $3500.00 was collected from members to cover the cost of proposed improvements. With this amount the club house was greatly increased in size, refurnished and thus made impressively attractive. The membership, both Senior and Junior, promptly increased. A new class of small sailing dinghies (10 feet overall) was added in 1935 and the weekly racing of these boats by the youngest skippers ever to take to the waters, directly in front of the clubhouse, produced keen competition and enthusiasm."
A great deal of interesting information is implicit in that brief paragraph. It throws some light on the contributions which Heatherton undoubtedly made then and later. For instance, the comment about the clubhouse being "greatly increased in size" obviously refers to the enclosure and enlargement of the north porch, practically his first project. Let it be noted that this was also the first major alteration to the shape of the original-1892 - structure! Today the old building is totally encased in numerous accretions.
As for the sailing program, two significant developments may be attributed to Heatherton's zealous initiative. First, the commendable introduction of a class of modest sailing dinghies for the youngest skippers which led to the formation of the above-mentioned Sandwich Committee. The most nostalgic recollection of that period in the mind of one young participant is the glass of coca cola with a dipper of vanilla ice cream that, for her, climaxed the dinghy races. Otherwise she would rather have played tennis!
Another new development immediately attributable to Heatherton'sleadership was the organization of the Eastern Long Island Y ach ting Association in 1935 or 1936. E.L.I.Y.A., for short. This organization was intended to comprise all of the clubs in the Peconic Bay area, namely the Orient, Chinese, Southold, Old Cove (New Suffolk), Mattituck, Devon (East Hampton), Mecox (Bridgehampton), Menantic and the S.I.Y.C This happy idea may have been inspired by the Peconic-Gardiners Bay Fleet which, according to its letterhead" originated" in 1911 and was "organized" in 1922 as an inter-club Star regatta.
Heatherton's further contribution to Eastern Long Island sailing was the impressive Brooklyn Challenge Cup which for a number of years graced the S.I.Y.C trophy shelf until he eventually presented the cup to Greenport's Chinese Yacht Club. Thereby hangs a tale, the first part of which may be recounted here.
The Ocean Challenge Cup, as it was originally called, had been given to the Brooklyn Yacht Club in 1905 by William Randolph Hearst to encourage long-distance yacht racing. In 1937, however, the last race for it was run and the Brooklyn Yacht Club was disbanded. Heatherton was one of the three members who shared the responsibility of paying the venerable club's outstanding debts and disposing of its remaining assets.
He brought the Hearst cup to Shelter Island where for years it was displayed on the mantel of the S.I.Y.C clubhouse. Did he or did he not offer the cup to the local Club during his second term as commodore, 1938-397 We don't really know. The next installment of the story belongs, chronologically, in the 1950's.
Meanwhile, returning to the final pages of Fountain's historical booklet, let's pick up one more paragraph:
"Already in 1936 Commodore A. C Bedford has infused new life into the Club and inter-club racing. . . . Star racing is revived and 1936 the championship of the Peconic-Gardiner's Bay will be contended for. . . . already several important new sailing yachts have joined the fleet. . . , and can be raced in mixed classes which the Club now sponsors. A further lifting of the financial depression will bring in many more."
To Bedford, a top oil executive, goes credit for organizing a kind of apprenticeship "pipe line" for moving flag officers toward higher rank. By the time a man had served two years as rear commodore with particular responsibility for Entertainment, followed by two years as vice commodore in charge of the House, he was ripe and ready for the top post.
The year 1936 was also marked by the Club's participation in a rather heroic effort on the part of Long Islandregardless of the depression - to honor its 300th anniversary. Shelter Island Town in conjunction with Southold Town planned a day-long event with the help of the S.I.Y.C and the Menantic Yacht Club. The day began with the assembly of a fleet in Southold Bay at 10 A.M. and a parade of boats to Dering Harbor, followed by lunch at the Yacht Club. In the afternoon there was a pageant depicting the landing of the first white settlers in 1652 and their encounter with the Indians. Then came a gala dinner and dancing at the New Prospect House.
Of course the S.I.Y.C was celebrating its own 50th anniversary, the occasion for Fountain's gold covered booklet. The high point was a Surprise Party on August 15, but the nature of the surprise has not been handed down. Also, on the July 4th weekend the S.I.Y.C and the Menantic Yacht Club jointly sponsored a beefsteak dinner at Tuthill's boatyard, with fireworks.
The Rainbow Room
It would indeed seem that betwixt the Heatherton and Bedford initiatives the tide was turning toward relative prosperity, if not toward world peace. Although there is no other available reference to it, the Rainbow Room must have been added at this time, either in 1936 or 1937. Despite the sizeable enlargement which had been effected by extending and enclosing the north porch, the clubhouse was still uncomfortably small for buffet dinners, dances, card parties and bingo. The nearby hotel was still available but the clubhouse itself could not be used for sizeable affairs without either moving the excess furniture out into a shed built for that purpose or putting up a large tent. Both alternatives were cumbersome and consequently aggravating.
The generosity of three men - Heatherton himself, La Verne Hench, and Alfred Rogers - made possible the construction of a large rectangular room abutting the south side of the original building. Its name derives from the famous America's Cup defender Rainbow whose wheel is still displayed on the wall. She was a J Class boat, overall length 126.7 feet, built by Herreshoff as the 1934 Cup Defender. Souvenirs of this famous racing yacht were presented to the Club by Capt. George H. Monsell who for thirty years was Commodore Vanderbilt's sailing master of three America's Cup winners: Enterprise, Rainbow, and Ranger. Monsell himself was an honorary member of S.I.Y.C and had a business with his brother in Greenport. He lived in Cutchogue and died there in 1951.
Except for the likelihood that the Rainbow Room was built at this time, the year 1937 is a blank and all that we know of 1938 is that the Yacht Club was not blown away in the worst hurricane ever to visit the Island, although the light at the end of the dock was leveled. Meanwhile, over in Europe, despite Hitler's "peaceful" resolution of the Austrian and Czechoslovak "problems", the smell of another major conflict was growing distinctly and disturbingly stronger.
Copies of the Shelter Island News, launched as a four page weekly in 1939 at a subscription rate of twenty-five cents for the season, contained a glowing description of the new dining terrace overlooking the hotel's tennis courts. Then, two months later, an equally glowing account of the fire that destroyed the hotel's laundry.
First-run movies were being shown nightly at the Casino Theatre on a screen set up at the end of the bathing pier. But the best show of all, evidently, was the parade of fine yachts and famous names, including Alfred P. Sloan's Rent!, the Duponts' Marmot, Mrs. Payne Whitney's Captiva, J. W. Hubbell's Capella, Barbara Hutton's Hussar and, most exciting of all, Jacques Cartier's elegant yacht on hand for the wedding of daughter Jacqueline to Sylvester Prime, the stellar event of the season.
With two exceptions, there is no evidence that these yachts registered at the Club. For a few years Alfred Sloan, head of General Motors, was a member, although he lived aboard the Rene, which was so large that she was moored outside the harbor buoy. On the other hand, J. W. Hubbell, President of the New York Telephone Company, was a summer resident of the Village of Dering Harbor and an active member of the S.I.Y.C Still another contribution to the season's excitement was the first National Invitational with prizes offered by Jack Heatherton who had returned to the Club's helm in 1938-39.
Rather amazingly, the following season - despite the disasters that overcame the Netherlands, Belgium, and France - was one of the Club's best. Dr. William H. Price was Commodore in 1940-41. The depression had lifted and the economy - thanks not least to the war - was reviving. A five passenger Stinson airplane provided commuter service, commercially of course, between the Yacht Club dock and Wall Street.
It is tantalizing to recall that the New Prospect's chef catered a dinner dance for the Club members, the menu including oysters on the half shell and lobster a la Newburg for, according to the Shelter Island News, an unbelievable $1.25. Maybe it's a misprint. As a special feature of the evening each person was requested to submit five questions regarding Shelter Island for impromptu answers by the other guests.
More to the point, a full-fledge racing program was successfully executed. It included the First Annual Invitation Regatta of the E.L.I.Y.A. Five clubs participated: Devon, Old Cove. Southold, Orient. and S.I.Y.C What happened to the other five? To spur the one-design racing program, La Verne Hench at the beginning of the summer offered to buy up the few remaining Nationals provided that the owners would reinvest in Stars. Whether anyone took him up is not known. Incidentally, the arrival and departure of the Nationals - never very numerous nor popularremains a minor mystery. They definitely were not a success and didn't last long.
The Club's social calendar was crowded with special occasions on shore as well as afloat. The biggest event of the season may have been the Ship's Dance to honor the Fisher's Island and American Yacht Clubs. Devon, Orient, and Southold were also invited. The traditional Water Sports Festival was held at three o'clock one Sunday afternoon after consulting with the Fleet Chaplain.
Despite the ever-widening war in Europe and North Africa, the 1941 season was more of the same. Although Hitler had invaded Norway and Denmark, tried to invade Britain and turned in fury upon Russia, the waters around the S.I.Y.C remained remarkably calm. The season opened early with a Memorial Day visit from the combined Cruising Club of Stamford and the Off Soundings fleet. Thirty-six boats, big and small, cast off from Stamford at 10 A.M. for the eighty mile run to Dering Harbor where they rendezvoused with sixty Off Soundings boats for a Saturday race to Duck Island.
On July 4 the S.I.Y.C held a "formal reception" from four to seven o'clock and the next day the Huntington Yacht Club arrived with twenty boats on its annual cruise. There was a big dinner at the Prospect House to which the local Flag Officers were invited. A full racing schedule for the season included the Third Annual Regatta of the E.L.I.Y.A. which brought together one hundred yachts belonging to the five member clubs. Strangely enough, a survey that summer revealed that only eight percent of the S.I.Y.C members were interested in racing.
Back in January the trustees had decided to dispense with the elaborate Water Sports festival but in mid-summer that decision was reversed and the aquatic carnival was held as usual. . . with fireworks. In fact, the event was acclaimed as the 40th anniversary of the very first festival, so the Fireman's Band was summoned to provide musical accompaniment.
Another decision by the trustees, namely, to purchase a new tender at a cost of $1,400 was not reversed. Other improvements, such as a hot shower and additional space for the storing of furniture, went forward on schedule. More ambitious plans for the enlargement of the club house were gestating. A notable addition to membership this season was Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. who had bought the former Manhanset Casino and who acknowledged his election to the Yacht Club by reminiscing on his recent experience as commodore of a yacht club in Paris, France. Further evidence of the goodhumored imperturbability of the membership can be read in the Shelter Island News which reported that the men of the S.I.Y.C were "inaugurating an annual custom by inviting wives and guests to cocktails and dinner" . . . and calling it a "middle-aged spread"!
Pearl Harbor Hits Dering Harbor
Then came Pearl Harbor and the Club found itself compelled to come to terms with the Second World War. Nobody solicited binoculars or sextants this time but some of the members –reminiscent of 1918 - patriotically turned their pleasure craft over to the Coast Guard for war duty.
The trustees quickly established a new, two-pronged policy: 1) to offer all possible assistance to the Navy Department and the Coast Guard; 2) otherwise to carryon whatever activities conditions permitted.
At the midwinter dinner-dance held at the New York Yacht Club with Navy brass as guests, Captain Stott USN, "gave a tremendously interesting talk on the war as he saw it".
In six months membership dropped from one hundred fifty-five to one hundred thirty-nine, then by July to one hundred twenty-eight, including only ninety-nine regulars. No dues were to be levied on the seventeen men already in military service. It was soon discovered that there would not be enough boats for a racing program, although one lone race was run in September. The tender, purchased the year before, was de-commissioned to save money. All proposed improvements, save the septic tank, were adjourned "until normal conditions were restored".
Conditions proved to be anything but normal that Spring. On the very eve of its seasonal opening the old Prospect House burned to the ground in a most spectacular blaze. At one stroke the Island was stripped of its remaining grand hotel, the summer residents were deprived of their social center, and the Yacht Club lost its adjunct facility for gala occasions. Also, potential enemy agents lost a porch from which to keep tabs on the Greenport shipyards!
To keep the Club "alive and kicking", the flag officers proposed a schedule of Saturday night dances adding that "one of our most amiable trustees" had offered to furnish an exceptionally fine New York orchestra on the understanding that the Dering Harbor Golf Club be included in the arrangements. So, on alternate weekends, the two clubs shared not only the orchestra but also the use of a large tent which was trucked back and forth to provide plenty of space for tables and chairs near the dance floor. The amiable and very generous trustee was the same person who earlier encouraged the purchase of Stars by offering to buy up the unpopular Nationals.
La Verne Hench, head of American Oxygen Service based in Harrison, New Jersey, had come to the Village of Dering Harbor several years earlier and, after renting a place for three years, bought a spacious cottage overlooking the Greenport Channel and promptly transformed it into a stately mansion. Piece by piece more acreage was acquired, some at bargain prices due to the uncertain times, until he became one of the principal land owners of the Island. A large inland area was set aside for an arboretum and greenhouse. Two spots along the shore were foreseen as hydroplane landings but the Village Board quashed the idea. He had a succession of three fine yachts, the Florence, the beautiful Firefly I which became a casualty of war in the Caribbean during World War II and Firefly II, a large Chriscraft motor launch.
Mr. Hench continued to supply an orchestra for the 1943 season as well as the tent which had been acquired for his daughter's wedding and which his own crew of workmen put up and took down every weekend. Meanwhile, Commodore Jasper Kane - skipper of the much admired Georjabelle - contended manfully to keep the Club not only afloat but moving forward. His first Georjabelle was a Herreshoff H class 28 foot sloop, followed in succession by four other boats of the same name, the last of which was donated to the U. S. Naval Academy.
During the second World War Dr. Kane was also deeply engaged in the urgent pharmaceutical task of developing and providing an adequate supply of the recently discovered "miracle drug" penicillin to the allied forces. He regarded his Shelter Island weekends, despite the S.I.Y.C responsibilities, as R & R.
Of course there wasn't much racing. All sailing had to be cleared with the Coast Guard and all sailors had to obtain the requisite ID from the Coast Guard office in New York City. On at least one occasion a race was held with the Coast Guard unit stationed in Greenport where the shipyards were busily constructing minesweepers. Occasionally S.I.Y.C flag officers were invited as special guests when new minesweepers were launched.
Reverting to the World War I practice, space in the club house was offered to the Red Cross as well as to the Garden Club. Actually the number of regular members rose slightly to one hundred fifteen, but not all were dues paying. Some easily identifiable names appear in the gains and losses of the year: Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. resigned and Norman Bel Geddes - who at war's end would be heard pleading for long-distance races - was admitted.
It is remarkable that membership actually climbed toward one hundred fifty the following year, twenty-six new members having been added. The growth was probably a sign that the Depression was really dead. And the fleet began gathering strength. The tide of war, of course, had turned after D-Day against the hitherto invincible Axis powers. Saturday night dances continued on through the third wartime season and the tradition of Water Sports festival remained unbroken. The U. S. Navy made possible a number of film evenings. Then, almost as an afterthought, a cruel blow fell in November 1944, when a nasty hurricane hit, wrecking the flagpole and seriously damaging the dock, the ramp, and the clubhouse floor with an angry inundation of salt water.
With the passing of that storm - the third in five years - and the imminent defeat and death of the Nazi dictator the worst was over at last. The revival of yachting on Shelter Island could begin.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Pictures | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Pictures | Chapter 6 |
Chapter 7 | Pictures | Chapter 8 | Pictures | Chapter 9 | Pictures | Chapter 10 | Pictures