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.
An excerpt from Ann Horan's report as Off Shore Race Chairman during the 1979 season is worth preserving, especially as the Club archives do not contain many such accounts.
"The Heatherton Race was beset, besieged and bewildered by Block Island Week, our own fog and in general lousy sailing conditions. Although twenty- three entries were on hand, only ten started off in the gloom. Some found the Ruins mark - or so they said - and others felt it was off station. With this in mind, your Race Committee felt it wise to abandon the whole idea and declare it no race. Most (7) participants cheered this decision."
Here's a complementary excerpt from Stanley Horan's report as Cruise Chairman.
"The Mini cruises are truly a success. We actually got out twenty-five S.I. Y.c. boats for long weekend cruises this summer. In July we ventured to the Connecticut River and a grand cocktail party a la raft in Hamburg Cove. If you've read your mail you know how much fun we had. Shelter Islanders played tourist in Essex Saturday and wound up the day with a cocktail party and prime rib dinner at the Essex Yacht Club. Dinner was followed by a song fest and a conga line throughout the dining room."
Maximizing Momentum
Meanwhile that summer fifty youngsters were receiving sailing instruction and the Helen Price Tennis Trophy for mixed doubles was established to promote more competitive activity on the courts. A subtle note of humor crept into Secretary Rowsom's otherwise sober minutes which in the interests of time were always approved unread. The matter at issue was a motion to adjourn. "After heated arguments (it) passed by a narrow margin at 11:42 P.M." The meeting, incidentally, had not begun until 10:15.
Every aspect of Club life remained under review as the S.I.Y.c. entered the 1980's. Annual dues which had been increasing in steady increments from the postwar level of only twenty dollars had reached two hundred seventy-five dollars in mid-decade. In an effort to keep abreast of inflation it would soon hit three hundred forty-five dollars. A well-edited newsletter entitled LOG, initiated by Commodore Russell Holmes, informed the membership of plans and developments. . . but was short-lived.
As noted earlier, 1980 was the year in which Miss Sally Helme, daughter of former Commodore Jay Helme and a very active member of the Club, became the first distaff trustee!
Five more H-12's joined the fleet and ten 420's were purchased from the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point for seven hundred dollars each. The season's plans called for more Mini Cruises to Montauk and Block Island, also back to Essex. Saturday mornings were given over to Laser and Puffer races, Saturday afternoons to Etchell and H-12 races.
The number of youngsters in the sailing classes swelled to eighty. Renovation of the Junior Yacht Clubhouse included enclosure of the porch at one end and the installation of new shower rooms for men and women at the other end. A question was raised as to whether the launchboys were being adequately remunerated in wages and tips, and referred for study.
At the October meeting several important actions were taken. The bulkheading beneath the clubhouse was to be renovated for four thousand dollars. Repairing the concrete pad under the boat hoist was estimated to cost at least twenty-eight hundred dollars. Replacement of the hot water heater and sewer pump would come to twenty-six hundred dollars. Furthermore, the condition of the North Pier was scrutinized anew. It was found to be structurally sound but the bulkheads and surface were in need of repair at an estimated cost of fifteen thousand to twenty thousand dollars. And that raised the question of the lease, also the lease on the tennis courts.
According to Frank Ciaccio's meticulous minutes, "The Commodore (Russell P. Holmes) requested that he be authorized to enter into leases, on behalf of the Club, with the Shelter Island Heights Property Owners Corporation with respect to each of the North Pier and the Heights tennis courts, on such terms as he might determine, at a cost not to exceed the amount of those taxes, relative to each such property, together with a nominal amount in addition thereto." Nothing was said about reporting back. In this connection the Club eventually reached an agreement with the Town that if the new land-fill adjacent to the North Pier were ever to be abandoned by the Club, ownership of said fill would revert to the Town.
Membership categories were reviewed and reduced from nine to five and a tighter application of admission procedures was proposed. An attempt was made, in vain, to locate the trophies "floating around" and some other souvenirs. A few months later it was assumed that they had been "stolen" and a Trophy Committee, charged with reviewing and "updating" all awards, was shortly thereafter appointed.
In 1981 a pre-season debate Doughdish vs. H-12 erupted over the question as to whether one of the two models of the revived Herreshoff sloop, built by two different manufacturers, was eligible to race. In a Solomonic and grandfatherly decision, it was ruled that it would be "the policy of the Club not to become involved in disputes regarding class specifications and design, but advised that boats owned by Club members which had participated in competition conducted under Club auspices would not therefore be excluded from such competition, in the future".
Morris Piersol reported that the annual cruise began with twelve yachts and forty-two people aboard. The very first night out there was a gala dinner aboard the charter boat Mia Contessa in Smith Cove, after which some of the boats dropped out and the remainder proceeded to Block Island, Newport and Stonington.
Distinction and Decorum
This was the year in which a special honor came to one of the Club's most distinguished yachts, John Lockwood's Dolphin. This remarkable sloop, now over seventy years old, captured first place under its capable skipper in the Classic Yacht Regatta at Newport and second place overall among the eighty boats competing there. She also took first honors that same year in the Herreshoff Rendezvous at Bristol, Rhode Island.
The Lockwood family had been coming to Shelter Island since 1902, first to a cottage in the Heights where John's father, W. B. Lockwood, learned to sail in a makeshift rowboat on Chase Creek Pond. Later they summered on the North Fork. His Herreshoff sloop Dolphin, acquired in 1943, has in the ensuing forty-three years accumulated two hundred prizes, including the N.Y.Y.C. Corsair Cup twice. The latest distinction was taking third place in the 1985 Spring Off Soundings Regatta.
In the area of clubhouse decorum John Umpleby, Chairman of the Constitution and By-Laws Committee, suggested that "the behavior and dress in and about the Club premises had noticeably declined". Mr. Umpleby cited instances of dinner guests lacking ties, yachting guests wearing bathing suits and lax reciprocal yachting practices.
According to the Club minutes, the winter weather of 1981-82 was "excessive". The "ice eaters" which had been installed to protect the pilings had proved "ineffective". A "bubble system" costing twenty-seven hundred dollars was now recommended and, in the following September, approved. Damage caused by the winter's storms, including the replacement of sixty pilings, cost thirty-three hundred dollars.
Serious Racing
Based on a recommendation of the previous year it was agreed that the time had come for the Etchells and H-12's to race different courses. The smaller H-12's were assigned to Pipe's Cove and the Etchells to Orient Harbor. Thus, both would be racing outside of Dering Harbor, where there was danger of colliding with other boats, and also out of the tidal flow in the Greenport Channel.
Additional racing equipment - marks, tackle, staffing -would be needed but it was felt that "considering the investment made by Club members in such one-design boats and the enthusiasm generated as a result thereof, that the Club undertake whatever measures were reasonably required to support the one-design racing program".
At long last the printing of an official S.I.Y.C. Yearbook was resumed. For many years a list of members and some other data was available only in mimeograph form on typewriter stock stapled at the top corner.
In an effort to extend and support sailing instruction for Juniors, a group of Club members developed a proposal "to reorganize the sailing program into a not-for-profit corporation" . . . namely, as tax-exempt Sailing School which would lease space from the S.I.Y.c. The idea was to raise ten thousand dollars to refit the Puffer fleet, acquire more 420's and turn the entire Junior sailing program over to the new "School". The proposal dropped from sight. Two years later it was suggested that the aging Puffers be sold and replaced with 420's. The intervening year seems to have been uneventful.
Indeed the minutes of the "meeting of members" on July 2 can quickly be quoted in full: "As the first order of business, each officer and committee chairman made a report to the membership as to the state of the Club and the plans for the coming year. No other new or old business, the meeting was adjourned." Classified top secret?
Nevertheless in his concluding report Commodore Dinkel called 1983 "a strong year". Fair weather favored two successful regattas for J-24's and E-22's. the E.L.I.Y.A. Regatta, excellent series racing and a fifty boat turnout for the Heatherton Trophy. Finally he listed a number of practical suggestions for the future and, out of personal gratitude, conferred the title of co-commodore on his wife, Kathy.
Three Score and Ten – Twice
After a rather mild and trouble free winter, 1984 began auspiciously with a gala commissioning ceremony combined with the 70th anniversary celebration of John Lockwood's Dolphin and of Waldo Kraemer's S.I.Y.C. membership. A festive tent arose on the North Pier to contain lavish refreshments, a lively band and an unusually large turnout of members and friends.
The venerable Herreshoff sloop lay alongside the floating dock for all to admire and former Commodore Kraemer was on hand to receive the hearty congratulations and best wishes of scores of good friends. Before the next opening ceremony, however, the doughty 94-year old skipper of the graceful Windigo had passed to his eternal reward. Fortunately many valuable recollections of his Yacht Club years were culled in those final months for the writing of this book.
The following season, except for a budgetary problem, was a good one. The Heatherton Trophy Race attracted thirty boats and thirty-eight participated in the Poor Memorial Race. Eight boats made the cruise to Block Island. Ninety young people enrolled in the sailing classes and fifty in the tennis program. However, the treasurer reported a deficit of twenty thousand dollars. The trustees had to recommend an assessment of one hundred dollars per member. Simultaneously the initiation fee was boosted from six hundred to one thousand dollars.
A good momentum carried the Club briskly into the final year of its first century. To assure liquidity, the dues of the regular members were increased another five percent from four hundred forty-five dollars to four hundred seventy dollars and it was decided that the initiation fees would no longer be applied to the operating budget but to future maintenance and capital expenses. One of the next projects of that nature ought to be, it was said, the rebuilding of the front porch "which is settling a little more each year".
A major item, initiated by Commodore George Rowsom, was the ordering of a new diesel-powered launch at the cost of thirty-two thousand dollars. One hundred and forty donors made the purchase possible. At the time of the Commodore's dinner on August 10, 1985 it was formally christened. The old launch was refurbished for twenty-five hundred dollars and remained in service.
The Horans, husband and wife, again laid timely plans for a midsummer cruise in combination with the Essex Corinthian Yacht Club, to which they also belonged. Entitled "Nantucket Sleigh Ride", the trip was planned to include nine ports, port-to-port races, attractive layovers with, of course, parties. "You can count on some unusual measurements being taken into consideration," quoth the announcement with respect to the port-to-port races. "First to finish will undoubtedly put you in last place no matter how much you complain to whatever committee, or even the Commodore."
The Essex and Shelter Island fleets rendezvoused at the Block Island Boat Basin for a clambake, moved on to Cuttyhunk for a cocktail party, thence to Martha's Vineyard for dinner at the Edgartown Yacht Club, then Nantucket before heading homeward via Tarpaulin Cove or Quick's Hole or Quisset (depending on weather conditions) and into Westport for a cookout and finally Mystic Seaport Museum, all in just under two weeks. Of the thirty boats which started from Block Island, however, only three S.I.Y.C. vessels persevered until the end.
The year 1985 ended on a note of applause that augured well for the centennial year. The Rainbow Room was crowded for the annual meeting at the end of the season. The roster of all members stood at 257 of whom 223 were regular members. Twenty-four applicants were impatiently awaiting admission, but a proposal to raise the membership limit by ten met with strong opposition. The Junior clubhouse, equipped with a new stereo and refrigerator was flourishing. Ninety young people had participated in the seasonal sailing program under five instructors. But the Puffers were now twelve years old and ailing.
Thanks to good weather there had been racing every weekend. Special social events had been well attended, including those that were designed to raise funds for the next year's celebrations. Only at the close of this very fine season did hurricane Gloria succeed in disrupting the Schedule of Events, even pose a threat to the clubhouse itself. Prompt action was taken to remove all awnings, jack up the kitchen equipment, secure the launches and prepare for the worst.
Fortunately the worst never arrived and although a few boats were beached the Club "made it through without a scratch". Scratched, however, were bar and dining room service on the weekend after the storm. An impromptu "shipwreck party" was held on the following weekend to write finis to the Yacht Club year. Elaborate plans were already taking shape under Chairman Jay Helme's leadership, for the 1986 Centennial. The principal dates and events had already been decided. It would open with a commissioning ceremony on May 24, presided over by Commodore Thomas R. Wilcox, Jr.
July 4 Buffet Supper and boat trip to Town fireworks
July 5 Parade and Review of the Fleet
July 12-13 One-Design Invitational Regatta for Etchells, H-12s and J-Us
July 18-19 Large Handicap Invitational Regatta
July 21-Aug. 2 Centennial Cruise – Edgartown, Nantucket, etc.
August 8 Memorabilia Display and Reception
August 9 Centennial Ball (formal)
August 15-16 Optimist Pram Invitational Regatta
August 16 Junior Dinner Dance
August 17 Union Chapel Service and buffet brunch
From this point on information regarding the S.I.Y.C. must be sought in future historical publications, such as a bi-centennial booklet in 2086 A.D.!
Pictures following Chapter 10
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