By Airwaves writer Taylor Penwell
The dust from the summer program might be settling but if you are involved in a junior sailing summer program, you know that it requires year round attention.
Of course the best situation your club could be in is that the junior sailing director, head instructor or whoever runs the day-to-day operation of the sailing program, has done well and has agreed to come back for summer 2017.
If you aren’t lucky enough to have a person returning for the position, then it is time to start looking for the next candidate. Lets look at the possible timeline. If you listed the job posting the beginning of this November, it would take the hiring committee members a number of weeks to accept, review, interview and discuss the candidates. This process can done as quickly as a few weeks or can last months, often with the hiring committee left scrambling for a person when the summer program is about to start.
For this article we will say it will take two months to hire a suitable candidate for the job. Now it’s January of 2017. If the new leader is coming from outside the program, they’ll have to be brought up to speed on the program, its history, and how the basic operation has been running and their expectations for the next summer. Even if the person is being promoted from inside the program, they have to familiarize themselves with what is to be expected. No one can fully understand all the expectations until they day they take the position.
The director/head instructor’s next step after familiarizing themselves with the program is to staff their instructors and coaches. They should start by deciding whom from last year’s staff they would like to have for the next summer. This is where communication between the old director/head instructor and new one is important. They can discuss staff member’s strengths and weaknesses. Next, offers should be made to those staff members who will fit next year’s programs visions. It is imperative that these offers start to be sent as soon as can be. These offers should start being made in January.
Most junior sailing programs staff consists of young members in high school, college, or recent college graduates. In my experience as a head instructor I have found two common problems when staffing the junior sailing program. The first problem is that candidates change their minds. People will often agree to the job only to back out when the summer is right around the corner. The second problem is that people have plans for their summers a long time in advance. This could include studying abroad, traveling or maybe working at a different yacht club and if that happens you are already too late!
When you start sending offers to potential returning staff members it is important to give them a deadline for when they need to decide if they want to return or not for the following summer. I recommend giving them four to six weeks to decide before you open up the position for new candidates. The four to six weeks shows your loyalty for current staff and is a sign of respect. If after the decision period is over, it is time to start sending offers to other candidates for the position. New staff candidates should be interviewed to see if they fit the program needs. They should be made offers and given the same timeline for making a decision.
It is never too early to have staffed your summer program. That is if you have the returning staff and new staff members you are satisfied with. Just like the saying goes, the earlier, the better. It will give you room to work with if the staff hiring process takes longer than expected, or like mentioned earlier, you have someone bail.
Remember to use Sail1Design for posting all job vacancies for your program! Sail1Design is the best place to list for all jobs concerning junior sailing. Sail1Design is also a great place to list your resume for programs and yacht clubs to search for needed candidates. http://sailingjobs.sail1design.com/
We also have a very deep and large RESUME DATABASE available!
Thanks for reading and happy hunting!
Blog
Coaches Locker Room: The Importance of Teaching Sportsmanship To Our Young Sailors
By Airwaves writer Racheel Bennung
Coaching sailing is a great job, whether you do it full time, part time, or seasonal, nothing is greater than being on the water teaching our youth the joy of sailing. However, sailing can also be one of toughest sports to teach. One of the biggest reasons for this is because we are a self-policing sport. You won’t see any referees or umpires out on the course most of the time, so we as sailors must be honest and sportsmanlike on the water. This can be a hard concept to teach young sailors, since most other sports have someone else making the calls for their mistakes. Now they must be honest even when maybe no one saw their foul. This is why teaching the rules and sportsmanship to our young sailors is so important, and will lead to better and honest sailors.
Before we step into the racing rules section, we have the basic principles of sailing. The first one is titled Sportsmanship and the Rules, and states, “Competitors in the sport of sailing are governed by a body of rules that they are expected to follow and enforce. A fundamental principle of sportsmanship is that when competitors break a rule they will promptly take a penalty, which may be to retire.” Right here you see how important it is to teach these to your sailors. I personally don’t think coaches spend enough time teaching these, and I think one reason is they don’t know where to start. So today you are going to learn the best ways to teach the rules and sportsmanship to your young sailors. After all it’s one of the basic principles of sailing!
Let us begin with teaching the rules to your sailors. The rules are complicated, and a challenge to teach to your sailors. Even sailors who have been sailing all their lives have to look at the rule book to check themselves now and again. So how do you teach this complicated subject to your young sailors. Below are three tips for how best to teach your sailors the rules of sailing.
Tip #1: Make it age and ability appropriate
First thing is you want to make sure you are teaching your group appropriately. Teaching the rules to beginners that are 8 years old and beginners that are 14 years old are going to done very differently. So first, you want to identify your group and build your lesson plan off their age and ability. For beginners that are young, you should start with visuals lessons on what the rules are. You want to make sure you are going over the basics and not getting to in-depth. Intermediate groups that are a little older you can dive a little deeper, and start getting into what the rules state in the rule book. Make sure you stick to the bigger rules that they would see out on the race course. For our advanced sailors that are older you can get more into the rule book. You can have longer chalk talks, and really get into the nitty gritty of the rules.
Tip #2: Use the indoors, outdoors, and on the water to teach
Teaching the rules to young sailors needs to be interactive. We need to incorporate them into the teaching so they 
can understand the different situations better. Teaching the rules can be done not only inside, but outdoors and on the water. Some of the way you can teach the rules indoors is; a chalk talk on a specific rule, playing out situations with magnetic boats and marks, watching videos of situations, mock protest hearings, and quizzes. How you can teach the rules outdoors is; use actual boats on land to set up situations, and set up situations with real marks, starting lines, and making the sailors act as the boats. Teaching the rules on the water can be done with many different drills some are; short starting line, box drill, favored end of the line, and small course drills.
Tip #3: Make it fun
Making the rules fun is very important! If you just give your group a chalk talk on the rules every once in a while they will have a pretty boring time. So you want to make it interactive and fun for your group. Getting them involved and having fun with learning the rules will enable them to retain the information better then you just lecturing them. Lectures are important, and should be done, however, we need to make it fun for our sailors so they want to learn more!
Now how to do you teach good sportsmanship to your young sailors? As a young sailor it can be hard for them to grasp the concept of: “I hit a mark and no one saw it do I really have to spin?” We need to explain in great detail the importance of sportsmanship out on the water to our sailors. This is the foundation of the rule book, and we need to share its importance to our sailors every time they get on the water. Some great ways and things to teach sportsmanship to your sailors are:
- Team building activities.
- Talk as a whole on what makes a good sport.
- Teach your sailors its not all about winning.
- Teach your sailors that sportsmanship also means not only following the rules, but enforcing them.
It is so important to teach your sailors the rules and sportsmanship. This is no easy task as they can be both difficult to teach and difficult for your group to understand. However, we need to recognize their importance, and make sure we are spending time teaching them to our sailors in a way they will understand. The rules and sportsmanship are the foundation of sailing, and with us being the umpires out on the water it makes it one of the most unique parts of sailing. When teaching the rules we need to make sure we make it age and ability appropriate, use the indoors, outdoors, and the water to teach, and finally, make it fun! Sportsmanship is a tough one to teach young sailors, but by making it interactive with team building activities and talking about what makes a good sport we can accomplish the goal. Coaching is a great job, but no easy task by using these tips you are sure to have an easier and FUN job of teaching the rules and sportsmanship to your sailors.
Notice of Meeting: College Sailing 101: Inside the World of College Sailing for Prospective College Sailors
Don’t delay in registering; last year’s event was SOLD OUT! Parents are encouraged to attend. Click to register. ALL student athletes MUST register. Parents are welcomed to attend and do NOT need to register.
Current List (this will grow) of attending colleges:
| Tufts University |
| Brown University |
| Georgetown |
| St. Mary’s College |
| Bowdoin College |
| Mitchell College |
| George Washington U. |
| Old Dominion U. |
| Hobart/William Smith |
| Connecticut College |
| Gannon |
| USMMA – Kings Point |
| Fordham |
| U. Pennsylvania |
| Washington College |
| US Naval Academy |
| Roger Williams |
| SUNY Maritime |
| Syracuse |
| U. Rhode Island |
| Christopher Newport Middlebury |
| Stony Brook |
| UMBC |
| Drexel |
https://www.sail1design.com/event/college-sailing-101-inside-world-college-sailing-prospective-college-sailors/?instance_id=8723
Club Profile: Hudson River Community Sailing
In a Nutshell
Founded in 2007 to serve the urban community, we partner with public schools to offer credit-bearing academic programs, internships, mentoring, and college readiness. Our youth development platform uses sailing, boat operation, and boat building to further academic skills and instill the qualities of character necessary for college and career success. We also serve the broader community through affordable marine education and recreation for individuals, groups, schools, businesses, and families.
NewsFlash: HRCS is Hiring Sailing Instructors!
HRCS Mission
Hudson River Community Sailing develops leadership and academic success in underserved New York City youth through sailing education and provides maritime education and recreation to the community at large.
We have ten J/24s sailboats, the most popular keelboats in the world. They are small boats that are fast and sporty, while being stable and safe. The J/24 is typically crewed by 5 people. Get in on the fun and find out why the J/24 is a great boat to learn the ropes on!
Our facility is an award winning pier and boathouse, located on the western side of the West Side Highway at 26th Street. We are an affiliate of New York River Sports, making up the most unique water sport access point in our city.
From Battery Park to mid-town, Hudson River Park is enriching the relationship of New York City residents and guests with their waterfront. A full description of current and future plans are available at their website.
NewsFlash: HRCS is Hiring Sailing Instructors!
The Aluminium Cocktail: What Goes Into The Perfect Mast
By Mark Jardine of Yachts & Yachting
While carbon is the ‘sexy’ material of choice for spars, aluminium accounts for a far greater proportion of the masts and booms used in sailing and is much cheaper. What goes into an aluminium mast, and the processes to consistently produce a good spar, though are far from simple – like a good cocktail, the mix of ingredients and the production processes are vital. We spoke to Selden’s Steve Norbury and Andy McCormack to find out more…
Firstly we talked to Steve about aluminium itself and where masts sit in the different ‘series’ available to a manufacturer.
“Over time masts have been made from quite a different number of series of aluminium, all to have different properties. The series of aluminium that is mostly used for mast manufacture, and what we use is 6000 series. The 6000 is relatively hard, extrudes well, is heat treatable and has good corrosion resistance. This means that we can buy them in a soft condition so that we can work with them, and then heat treatment brings them up to full strength. So overall, 6000 series aluminium is reckoned to be the best to make dinghy and yacht spars from.
“There are other families; the 2000 series is a copper-based aluminium and is also very strong. You would think they would make ideal masts, but unfortunately, they have terrible corrosion resistance. If you stored your mast in a bag, maybe for the Winter, you would literally open up that bag in the Spring and find that you had a pile of white powder!
“Another series which is used, is 7000 series. 7000 series has the advantage over the 6000 series in that its yield point is high. That means it is a very strong metal that you can bend further without it taking a permanent set. The disadvantage is that it is almost impossible to work with. You can buy 7000 series round tube, but you can’t get profile section, you can’t taper it, you can’t weld it, and again it has a corrosion problem in that after a few years you would find that your fittings start corroding. So it has been used for windsurfing masts and used for some Optimist spars, but, generally for dinghy spars 6000 is the best material that you can use.”
Andy McCormack is Technical Director at Selden and we asked him how you go about extruding a mast into a particular section.
“We have a range of sections, seven or eight, covering the entire dinghy range; some of them are very close together. Cumulus is our most popular section, we also have another section called Alto which is very slightly stiffer, and one called Zeta, which is slightly more flexible – they are very, very close together. Due to the volume of aluminium that we buy, we are able to have three separate dies, that are discrete sections, but very, very close, just a few percent stiffer or more flexible each way.”
With this range of sections, and having masts that are very similar in their characteristics, we wanted to know how they could ensure repeatability, managing to produce the same mast each time. Andy explains:
“Due to the volume of aluminium extrusions that we buy, we have a tighter set of tolerances that we have agreed with our supplier. Rather than using a British Standard or ISO Standard, we have a Selden Spar standard, which governs overall dimensions, wall thickness, straightness, material properties, and this standard is much tighter than commercially agreed standards that other people may use.”
The next problem for repeatability is when a mast section is tapered. This requires a cut and weld in a spar and we wanted to know how they kept the same mast characteristics each time. Andy told us about the technology Selden use to improve consistency:
“Rather than cutting the taper by hand, we have a plasma cutting machine, essentially a CNC machine, cutting a section out of the top of the mast, very accurately and consistently.
“We then press that together on a custom tooling for each section. After that the taper is welded on an auto welder – again, this is the same every time. This results in very tight tolerances and is completely repeatable; there is no human intervention.
The final stage of creating a mast is having it heat-treated and then anodized. Andy explains how Selden go about this process:
“We have our own heat treatment oven that is computer controlled with sensors clipped to mast tubes. This produces a graph of the heat cycle for every run. This way we can be certain that the material in the oven has been correctly heat treated.
We carry out a peening operation which gives us a uniform surface finish, it also removes any impurities off the surface of the material. That allows us to send it for anodizing in a state where they have to do the absolute minimum of cleaning and etching, meaning there is no further reduction in material before the anodizing is put on.”
Like all industries and companies, aluminium spar making is moving on, and Selden are at the forefront of experimentation and innovation. We asked Steve what changes are in the pipeline:
“We are all always working with our extruder to develop new modifications to this, or new blends if you like. We are working on some material now, which gives us a much higher yield point – for a dinghy sailor means that a mast will bend further before taking a permanent set. So while we are trying to improve that, we are also trying to retain its surface finish and its anodizing properties.”
Finally we wanted to dispel some myths about aluminium masts, particularly with regard to bend and gust response. Steve explained the facts to us:
“Gust response is all about when a gust hits, the masts bends, and when the gust disappears, the mast bends back. It is all about the stiffness of the material, the weight of the material, and pretty much nothing else. If you look at the formula, it’s the stiffness of the material which is the most important factor.
With aluminium there are very marginal differences in stiffness. But there are massive differences in their yield point – the point you can bend something to before it takes a permanent set. So aluminium masts are all the same stiffness, but they could have a different yield point.”
Selden are the biggest spar manufacturer in the world and work closely with their extruder on experimenting with the ‘mix’ in their masts. It is the volume of work that gives them the flexibility to do this as Steve explains:
“All our dinghy sections come from one extruder and we use many more tonnes of aluminium a year, making us a big enough customer to work with to develop spars with new proprieties. We can make a trial run of a section in a particular material, whereas I doubt they would do that for some smaller manufacturers.”
www.seldenmast.co.uk
Originally published in Yachts & Yachting, and re-printed with permission here
Club Profile: Sandy Bay Yacht Club
NewsFlash: Sandy Bay Yacht Club is Hiring a Jr. Sailing Program Director
JR SAILING AT SBYC
The Mission of the Sandy Bay Sailing Program is to give our students a broad exposure to the sport of sailing. Our primary goal is to develop, safe, independent sailors, by offering them an active and exciting experience that builds camaraderie, sportsmanship, and self-reliance.
Our secondary goal is to offer those students who have become independent sailors exposure to racing through our racing classes and teams. The desired result of the program is students with a love of the sport of sailing and the SBYC experience.
Our Junior Program uses 18 Optimist dinghies and 9 420’s. These dinghies are the choice of yacht clubs and sailing programs nationwide. They offer the student a sturdy platform on which to learn, while providing enough challenge to keep competent racers involved in the sport. Juniors are grouped by ability and there is a place for everyone including 8 year old beginners, older 13 or 14 year old beginners, right on up to the seasoned racer. Our racing programs offer experienced sailors the opportunity to travel locally and regionally, competing against other sailors their own age.
In addition to wonderful sailing opportunities, Sandy Bay Yacht Club offers excellent social opportunities. All students become members of the Club (although parents are not required to become members, we encourage them to join). We encourage you to take advantage of junior cookouts, Sunday Morning Coffees, Chowder Day, and numerous other dinners and events. Sailing is a social sport, and there’s no better place to get started than Sandy Bay Yacht Club.
NewsFlash: Sandy Bay Yacht Club is Hiring a Jr. Sailing Program Director
HISTORY OF SBYC
Founded in 1885, SBYC is located in the scenic and historic coastal town of Rockport, Massachusetts. As an active sailing club, SBYC has numerous one-design and cruising sailboats racing in regular Wednesday evening and weekend races, as well as annual Club regattas and frequent club sponsored District and National Regattas. An active social program complements these events.
Our sailing program provides basic through advanced training for both juniors and adults. Its purpose is to give our students a broad exposure to the sport of sailing, develop safe, independent sailors, offer exposure to racing, and to instill a love of the sport of sailing.
Open from mid-April through mid-October, Sandy Bay Yacht Club is located north of http://www.boston.com/ on http://www.cape-ann.com/, at the end of T Wharf in Rockport Harbor where our current Clubhouse was built in 1930. A newspaper clipping from the May 22, 1885 “Advertiser” states:
“The Sandy Bay Yacht Club held its initial meeting for permanent organization last Monday evening. There was a good attendance, and the following gentlemen were chosen officers: Leander M. Haskins, Commodore; Howard H. Haul, Fleet Captain; Lemuel Clark, Measurer; Chas. Mills, Secretary and Treasurer. Regatta Committee – Chas. Cunningham, G.T. Margeson, Grafton Butman, Wm. Hale, H.H. Paul. A meeting will be held next Monday evening at the Club Room, Haskins’ Block.”
Since that time we have been actively involved in sailboat racing and training, for both juniors and adults.
Over the years both our one-design fleets and cruising boats have changed and kept up with the times. Our current one-design fleets are: Bullseyes, Club 420s, Flying Scots, Lasers, Optimists, Rhodes 19s and Stars. Racing under PHRF rules, our cruising fleet includes numerous designs from 23 to 44 feet. Along with our regular series racing, SBYC has hosted numerous one-design Championships, including District as well as National Events.
Begun in the 1930s, our Sailing Program has grown rapidly over the last several years. We now accommodate approximately 175 different kids sailing in Optimists, Club 420s and Lasers and 35 adults learning to sail in Rhodes 19s and Bullseyes. Many of our students have become accomplished sailors and racers.
Not all of our activity is sailing around the buoys, pleasure sailing or even chasing down that prized http://www.sandybay.org/stripers.shtml. There are numerous social activities to enjoy while ashore, ranging from potluck or catered dinners to our well attended Sunday morning coffees. Juniors also have numerous social events to choose from, including cookouts and movie nights.
With thanks to James Runkle and Harry Whalen, the following history is excerpted from their book “100 Years of Sailing at Sandy Bay”, published in 1985:
Cleopatra had her barge. But it was not until recent times that many pleasure sailors had their “barges” and had a need or desire to pool forces with other pleasure sailors. “Where did you get that aluminum mast? Is it strong enough?” And the next day, “Hey, someone tow me back to the dock – my aluminum mast broke!” Or to see which boat is faster – how can you race without someone to race with? How can the race be fair without rules? And so the need grows for some kind of organization.
“Summer cottages with an ocean view” were all the rage in 1885 along the North Shore of Massachusetts Bay. White-collar workers of Boston, New York and the Midwest had incomes sufficient to support their dreams of a second home by the sea. And from these they went forth to summer fun on boats, competing in local and inter-area regattas. Active fleets emerged in Marblehead, Manchester, Gloucester, Rockport and Newburyport.
In 1885 Annisquam challenged Rockport to a race around Thacher’s. Annisquam must have had an organization to issue the challenge; Rockport must have had one to accept it. So we say a sailing club, from which ours is descended, existed here in 1885.
Like so many legends of the sea, the Sandy Bay Yacht Club seems just to have appeared. Marshall Swan’s “TOWN ON SANDY BAY” says on page 221 that, riding on the crest of interest in yachting during the 1870s and 1880s, it was founded in 1885. There is the legend mentioned above that refers to the challenge from Annisquam. By 1887 there was a public announcement of a Regatta, “Open to all Boats entered in the Sandy Bay Yacht Club”, to be sailed off Rockport Saturday, July 9th, 1887. The Second Grand Annual Regatta, “Open to all Yachts of 30 feet and under, Sailing Length” was “To be Sailed off Rockport Monday August 1st, 1887, Commencing at 1 o’clock, sharp.”
The Regatta of July 9, 1887, listed two classes, with the proviso that “Two boats must compete in each class or no race. Three boats must compete or no second prize.” The first class consisted of yachts measuring 20 and less than 30 feet, with the first prize the Harwood Cup valued at $40, and a second prize of $10. In the second class were “Yachts measuring less than 20 feet,” with the first prize $15 cash and the second $10 (presumably also cash). The club course was about six miles, with both classes going over the course twice. There is a note that PROTESTS “must be made to the Judges within one hour after the races. Judges’ decisions will be final.”
According to Swan, in August 1883 four yachts had raced around Tha(t)cher’s Island. By July 1886 “The club had 35 boats with new ones to be added.” And in 1887 a Sailing Dory club was formed. The ADVERTISER commented that “Few clubs along the coast can or will show a better lot of prizes than Sandy Bay has now on exhibition.”Robinson’s HISTORY OF MARBLEHEAD mentions a regatta in Rockport in 1885; a framed placard at the Yacht Club advertises a special regatta from Sandy Bay to Newburyport for the Cunningham Cup in 1886. Fliers similar to this have been found in Yacht Club archives announcing regattas in Rockport.
1885 is the same year they began work on the outer breakwater that was to provide a “Harbor of Refuge” large enough to contain the entire Atlantic Fleet. Some years later, Teddy Roosevelt’s ‘Great White Fleet’ would indeed anchor there. Photographs of that time show all the sailboats gaff rigged, with a bowsprit and a straight stem. So we have a good idea what our earlier club members’ boats looked like.
Since the nineteenth century, of course, fashions have changed in hulls and rigging. As various types of racing craft have been developed, pleasure sailors of Rockport have kept up with them. The Club has provided classes to keep all the racing compatible and according to rules. And, in testimony to the interest and vigor with which Rockporters pursued their boating, we note that in 1905 the “Law and Order League” was vexed that Sunday yacht racing was increasingly common.
We have this degree of documentation as to the founding and existence of our club. But until 1930 details of sailing at Sandy Bay are incomplete and unreliable. the yacht club organization lacked formality; interest seems to have ebbed and flowed like the tide. The result is that few written records have been found, and that even the remarkable memories of our ninety-year-olds cannot be expected to stretch back farther than 1910.
We must rely on what information can be gleaned from a study of these other yachting club histories and a close examination of the old photographs of Rockport Harbor, which gives us a fair picture of racing sloops of the time. Few of these boats were exactly alike, as we would expect today of the boats in a racing “class”. “Official measurers” and “handicaps” were the lingo of standard operating procedures. Just as with racing horses, racing sailboats were really the hobbies of the well-to-do. And naval architects emerged as the creators of these “rich man’s toys”, Herreshoff and Crowninshield being two of the famous.
In the original regattas sponsored by Sandy Bay in 1887, entries were limited to boats under 30 feet in length, usually in two or three classes. The first class included boats of 24 to 30 feet; the second, 21 to 24 feet, and the third, boats under 21 feet. When the owner of a boat found that he and his paid skipper consistently came in last, it behooved him to get a new skipper or a newly designed boat.
After 1915 boats of a given design were being built according to the same specifications, so that the results of races would be based on the skill of the skipper and crew in sailing a standardized craft over a clearly marked course and under the same prevailing conditions of wind and weather. As the Star class and Bird class proliferated in Sandy Bay, the club measurer had to concentrate only on the measurement of sails. The very early Star boats had a gaff rig, which soon gave way to a marconi, which still had a short mast and a long boom. It is generally thought that Homer Clark’s ‘Sans Souci’ introduced the new modern design which has proved very successful through the years.
Massachusetts Bay 18-footers were the early “I” class boats. According to Myron Brown, after a substantial fleet of these boats had been commissioned at Manchester by well-to-do owners belonging to the Manchester Yacht Club, the boats took on the Manchester “I” title. Although yacht racing with paid skippers and crew seemed to be the vogue in Manchester at that time, we have no record that this substitute for horse racing occurred at Sandy Bay.
Our Sandy Bay sailors were not entirely leisure time sporting sailors, so to speak. Retired Captain Frank Pierce, for instance, Star boat skipper and noted cribbage player, had sailed stone sloops up and down the coast carrying granite products from the Pigeon Cove quarries. Stories have been passed down of how those craft were loaded until the decks were awash, with only the bow, hatch and stern showing above water, leading to the moniker of “floating ledges”. Old Salts claim that there are still piles of granite cobblestones occasionally found on the bottom along the East Coast, as all that is left of overladen stone sloops from Rockport. And, of course, there is the story of the stone sloop overdue and given up for lost after the 1898 storm in which the steamer PORTLAND went down with all hands off Race Point, when, a couple days late, she made her port: “Mighty big blow”, said her skipper.
As far as a club house is concerned, Hosea Pierce says that Yacht Club members kept their boats year around in the corner of the harbor where the breakwater meets the end of Bearskin Neck, and behind “Gum Drop” or “Haystack” rock. He says a wooden staircase went down to the water’s edge at the granite wall. Another legend says that the “United Nations” house at the end of Bearskin Neck was possibly the first Club House. In light of the story of the wooden stairs, this might be possible. The Historical Marker says it was a survey site for the outer breakwater. Although photographs prove that it existed by 1910, June York, 92 years of age, says she doubts it was a club house for the yacht club. We shall see later that 1931 was the critical year concerning our present club house.
Our Certificate of Incorporation is dated in 1930. Old-timers remember that the club was “re-organized” in 1931 and went into the business of a new clubhouse with a mortgage which was largely underwritten by Lindley Dean and paid off in two years by club members. The spring after the reorganization the first race was held in March, to Thacher’s and back. The wind freshened so that skippers were reluctant to jibe, and one boat went skidding ashore at Pigeon Cove.A lighter side of the history of our clubhouse refers to what some of the sailors did all winter, every winter, after the building had been constructed in 1931. From that time on a devoted group of members played cribbage there until 1961, when Steward Arthur Swanson retired and the building was shut down to save fuel. After that they continued their cribbage competition in Hosea Pierce’s basement on Atlantic Avenue for the next five years.And with rugged names like Hosea Pierce, Musty Somers, Fooey Davis, Polo Cooney, Spooksy Grover, Fuzzy Hawley, Dyke Brown, and Duffy Blatchford on the roster, how could this yacht club fail to succeed?
Leadership of the club, again, has not been too clearly spelled out in the records. Myron Brown tells us that our first Commodore, Marion Cooney, elected in 1931, was a great promoter of boating safety. The “pun’kin seed” boats, such as the Fish and the Bird classes, supposedly stable, with a centerboard for adaptability to the shallows of the Annisquam River, for instance, and sailed at Rockport in 1930, he considered to be unsafe for our conditions on the open Atlantic, and under his leadership members approached John Alden, the prolific yacht designer of Massachusetts Bay, to draft up two rugged and seaworthy boats especially for Cape Ann Atlantic waters. These emerged as the Sandy Bay class and the Pilot class. It is said that when Bent Story was sailing his new “Sandy Bay” from the Marblehead boatyard to Rockport, by happenstance he was overtaken by John Alden in one of his schooners. After sailing a circle around the slower Story, Alden was heard to comment, “I guess I should have made the mast three feet longer”.
Commodore Cooney urged that every boat be entered in every race. If an owner or a skipper had to be absent, a substitute was found to bring the boat to the starting line, which was always off Bearskin Neck. During the race, the mooring area was empty of boats. And during Marblehead Race Week, the harbor was empty for the entire week, with the “fleet” all in Marblehead for the “big” regatta of the summer.
By 1935 we know that the Sandy Bay Yacht Club had been formalized, with incorporation in 1930, Constitution and Bylaws and an energetic year of building and putting out floats etc. in 1931, and a lease taken out for the property where the Club still is today. In fact, in 1931 a daily log was kept for the entire year, with details of the rapid development of the facilities, the weather, and many seaside events, as can be read in excerpts printed in the body of this book. From 1935 onward, our Club was an organized, recognized yacht club with its own clubhouse and floats.
By 1940 we know from the records that there were 38 registered boat owners. In 1941 Rockport fishermen and yachtsmen formed a local United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. In 1976 a Boat Parade was organized in honor of the 200th anniversary of our United States of America.
But the story of the more recent years is best told through the many illustrations, lists, and descriptions of One Design boats that have made up our “fleets” over the past half century. Many Sandy Bay Yacht Clubbers will remember the names, the boats, the scenes. And they will find so much of what they know firmly rooted in the past that other photographs record. They will see the usable harbor grow and many buildings around it change; marconi replaces gaff; hull shapes change to enhance speed; even the “correct” racing attire is different. This compilation is to please you, to interest you, to inform you – and to leave a record for those in 2035 to see us and our forebears.
