Filename: Prelude to VSC

EARLY LAKE CHAMPLAIN YACHT CLUBS

PREFACE

Although this is a story of people, the boats they sailed, and the Clubs that served their mutual interests, the main character is Lake Champlain. It has been the silent character in many stories.

In the mythology of the Iroquois, it appears as "a beautiful lake, where gray rocks are crowded with ... trees" in the story of the Seven Dancers. It was known to Donnacona, the Algonquin chief who, in 1535 from the heights behind Hochelaga (now Montreal), pointed out to Jacques Cartier the country toward the South, speaking of rivers, seas, lakes, and the route by which one could penetrate as far as the lands of the Iroquois.

In Samuel de Champlain's diary entry for July 4th, 1609, it makes its first appearance as a character in the white man's story of discovery.

The Lake was the silent actor in many of man's squabbles, battles at Valcour and Plattsburgh, which today lend names to sailboat races. In the reverie of those who have sailed her waters, in several boats, with many friends, in countless races, the final memories must be of the Lake.

For just a brief tick in time it plays yet another silent scene.

PRELUDE

Sailboating, particularly competitive sailboat activities, is a fairly recent sport on Lake Champlain in the Plattsburgh, New York area. Although yachting for sport has its roots in the early 1800s in America, it was not until after the Second World War that sails became common in Cumberland Bay. There had certainly been a variety of working and fighting sailing vessels in these waters and every local history buff can tell a version of the Battle of Valcour during the Revolutionary War, or of the Battle of Plattsburgh four decades latter.

Given the size and beauty of Lake Champlain, and its suitability for recreational sailing, it is an oddity that yachting activities did not sooner move north from the New York City area where competitive sailing started in the early 1800s and was a common sport early in the last century.

On the Vermont side of the Lake, however, the Lake Champlain Yacht Club celebrated its centennial in 1987 and the Mallett's Bay Boat Club its fiftieth anniversary a year earlier.

LAKE CHAMPLAIN YACHT CLUB

Organized in May of 1887, the Lake Champlain Yacht Club (LCYC) was an outgrowth of the Burlington Sharpie Yacht Club which had formed the previous year. Its first club house was at the foot of College Street in Burlington and was the scene of many colorful regattas over the next forty-eight years. Motor and sailing yachts from all over New England, New York, and the St. Lawrence River region enjoyed the LCYC facilities there. One of Lake Champlain's earliest sailing trophies, the Ladies' Cup, was first awarded at the LCYC regatta in September of 1888.

In 1936, the LCYC, faced with a deteriorated water-side foundation to its club house, sold its property to the ferry company and sought a new location. Many members at that time wanted to locate to Mallett's Bay but most members wished to remain close to Burlington. Subsequently, the LCYC bought the Allenwood Inn property on Shelburne Bay, almost directly across from the Shelburne Shipyard. In 1938, the LCYC sold that property and rented a camp and the steamer Chateaugay, moored at the foot of King Street.

In 1940, the membership voted to continue the organization, which had been incorporated in 1892, but not to operate a club house. During the forties and fifties, the LCYC was in a period of dormancy but state corporation taxes were paid in order to keep the Lake Champlain Yacht Club alive as a corporate entity.

In December, 1961, the LCYC was given new life when its members bought the parcel of land on Shelburne Bay where it is located today. In 1963, a club house was erected and the Club subsequently saw a tremendous increase in membership and boating activities. [The foregoing is adapted from a brief history of the LCYC appearing in its 1974 Yearbook and written by Anne S. Brown, Log Chairman.]

MALLETT'S BAY BOAT CLUB

When, in 1936, the Lake Champlain Yacht Club of Burlington sold its old club house property, many members wanted to relocate to Malletts Bay north of Winooski, Vermont. At that time, Mallett's Bay opened to a larger outer bay but not to the main part of Lake Champlain. Blocking sailboats with tall masts was the Rutland Railroad causeway from Colchester Point to Allen Point. Today, this only partially remains a barrier since the rail tracks and trestle have long been removed. Formed in 1936 as an offshoot of the LCYC, the Mallett's Bay Boat Club (MBBC) today enjoys one of the most protected moorings on Lake Champlain. Their club house is one of the finest yacht club facilities on the Lake. Ken Wolvington of the MBBC wrote a history of that club during their fiftieth anniversary year.

THE PLATTSBURGH BAY SCENE ca. 1940

In the period just prior to the Second World War, according to the memory of Dr. David B. McDowell, there were only three sailboats in the Plattsburgh area. In the early 1940's he remembers that Doctor Brown had a fairly large cruising sailboat. The Dunn family owned a Comet, a sixteen foot centerboard sloop which design went back to 1932. The third was his own first boat, a homemade sloop that he had purchased in 1941 for seventy-five dollars. It was rare to see a sailboat on Lake Champlain in the vicinity of Plattsburgh at that time. It is probable that there was sailboat racing to the south at the Split Rock Yacht Club at the Crater Club in Essex, New York where there was a fairly active program. And, of course, many traditions involving sailing regattas had been established on the Vermont side of the Lake.

THE PLATTSBURGH YACHT CLUB

Organized shortly after the Second World War, the Plattsburgh Yacht Club (PYC) was based at the Dock and Coal Marina. The clubhouse was located on the south end of the boat yard and provided a focal point for PYC social activities for over a decade. In fact, some former members state that it was "the note", essentially a mortgage to the National Commercial Bank for the clubhouse building, which provided a central theme for the club in its last years. In 1969, the last $225 of that note were paid and the canceled note was burned during a ceremony at the Champagne Rendezvous at Burton Island on July 13th. In latter years, the clubhouse was leased to a commercial proprietor which operated it as a tavern until the end of the 1977 season. Subsequently, according to Dan Riley, former manager of Plattsburgh Harbor Marina, the clubhouse was demolished in the summer of 1981.

William Rowe was the last commodore of the PYC in 1969 and recalls the earlier period just before the Valcour Sailing Club was formed. He remembers starting sailing regattas with a 10-gauge shotgun using live loads because blanks, apparently, were not available. "Maybe that's why the sailors chose to form their own club," he mused, "we shot that gun straight up into the air and the shot would just rain down all around the fleet. I was Commodore of the PYC at that time and when they (sailors) formed a new club, out of loyalty to the PYC, I didn't join at that time." Bill went on to add that some of the most active members in the PYC were sailors and when they formed the Sailing Club, the PYC lost some of its most enthusiastic members. "I guess this has proven out," Bill added, "because today the Valcour Sailing Club is going strong but the PYC has been inactive for quite some time."

In its last active year, the PYC was a group of power boaters with few sailing members. A roster of that year shows these names:

William L. Rowe III, Commodore; William Prescott, Vice Commodore; James O'Connor, Treasurer; Catherine Coolidge, Secretary; and the following members: A. Wallace Buck, Louis Wolf, Robert Glenn, George Teichman, Howard Westcott, Rex Lamb, Pepe LeMoko, E.T. Harris, Leonard Epstein, Frank Pabst, Myron Caplan, Charles Payson, Thomas Quinn, Stanley Tuller, Leonard Schlesinger, Dave Tune, John Coolidge, Dr. Francis Baker, Charles Thomas, Archie Burdeau, Robert Ladue, William Caddick, Harvey Yarmus, Maurice Devereaux, Dana Weeks, Charles Thompson, John Kelly, Melvin Titus, David Caplan, H.W. Arthur, Lawrence Carpenter, Francis O'Brien, Anthony Blair, Kenneth Ducatte, Bert Copeland, Louis Kaifetz, Charlie Paepon, Francis O'Brien, and Dr. B. Sheldon Hagar.

THE VALCOUR SAILING CLUB EVOLVES FROM PYC

Recreational organizations most often find their beginnings in a core of individuals who long had an interest in doing whatever it was that ultimately brought them together. The Valcour Sailing Club is not unique in this respect. The Club traces its roots to a group of sailors of the Plattsburgh Yacht Club that had long enjoyed the pleasures of hoisting sails to catch the warm summer winds on Lake Champlain.

A few sailboats, started to appear on Lake Champlain in the Plattsburgh area in the decade following World War II. Power boats vastly outnumbered these small, wet, and unstable wood boats. Most of the members of the Plattsburgh Yacht Club of that period were power-boaters but there was a small core of sailors who inevitably started to pit their skills against each other.

Prominent among these early sailors was David B. McDowell, a gynecologist who practiced for many years in Plattsburgh, New York. Although well known as a dedicated physician, many people of the Champlain Valley, as well as Quebec, know him primarily for his life-long pursuit of excellence as a sailboat racer on Lake Champlain. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Dave McDowell brought a level of experience and dedication to yachting on Lake Champlain that has rarely been seen in these parts. Having lived much of his life on the shores of Lake Champlain, both as a boy in the late thirties and early forties, and in latter years at his home on Day Point overlooking Valcour Island, he harbors many memories of the scene. He summarizes the early sixties:

"Competitive sailing first came to the Plattsburgh area under the auspices of the Plattsburgh Yacht Club in about 1960. Since the majority of members were power boat owners, the PYC sponsored only one major sailing regatta each year and it involved not only PYC boats but also sailboats from the Essex area. There was also an Essex regatta sponsored yearly by the Village of Essex that included both sail and power events. The Split Rock Yacht Club at the Crater Club south of Essex also conducted sailing events for a number of years and their members also participated in the PYC events as well as in the Essex Regatta. The sailboat racing fleet, at that time, included Snipes, Cape Cod Knockabouts, an Ariel, and two or three other designs mostly under twenty feet."

David McDowell was sailing Valcour III at that time, a wood Cape Cod Knockabout. Other sailors in Plattsburgh included Harry Walcoff sailing an Electra, Dr. H. Leonard Schlesinger in an Ariel, Bob Glenn with a double-ender, George Copeland in a Star, Ed Redcay a Corsaire, and John Washbourne in a Raven. Jim Morse of Essex had built a boat he called the Champlainer which had the same characteristics of the Knockabout. John Grant bought a Champlainer in Port Henry and John Tanner found a Knockabout in Shelburne, Vermont. Derek Allan showed up with his Winabout. With the fleet of Champlainers in Essex, it looked like racing one-design was possible on the New York side of the lake.

The PYC was not very active in terms of sailing events in the early sixties since most of its members were primarily power boaters. With the rise of interest in sailboat racing, and a fleet of boats which would permit a modicum of one-design racing, it was inevitable that a club devoted primarily to sail activities would seem appealing. Although many of the early sailors were willing to organize a sail division under the PYC, the other members did not seem disposed towards the small relatively slow sailboats. As Dr. McDowell recalls, "they did not seem to be very interested in the sailing program, and pretty much it turned out that it was easier to form a separate organization from the standpoint of (sailboat) racing."

In the spring of 1966, the intention of Plattsburgh area sailors to organize the Valcour Sailing Club went out. John Grant sent out questionnaires to prospective members and a piece was placed in the Plattsburgh Air Force Base Daily Bulletin (April 14, 1966) announcing that the "Valcour Sailing Club is being organized for the purpose of setting up a regular racing schedule of appropriate classes."

The relationship of the Club with the PYC was subsequently made clear in a VSC bulletin which stated that "several members of the Valcour Sailing Club, including John Grant, Dave McDowell, and John Tanner, are members of the Plattsburgh Yacht Club and the two organizations will operate in close harmony. While membership in the Yacht Club is not a prerequisite to being a member of the Valcour Sailing Club, members are invited to join the Yacht Club."

Thus the very name of the new organization was chosen to emphasize that sailing was to be the thrust of the club and early records made clear that racing was to be the predominate form of sailing activity. The invitation to join the Plattsburgh Yacht Club seemed to imply that the PYC would provide the broader marine activities not directly related to racing sailboats on Lake Champlain. Unlike its sister clubs across the Lake, the Valcour Sailing Club adopted a name which was unambiguous regarding power versus sail propulsion. Judging from the bulk of its activities over the years, the Club, without contradiction, could have been named the Valcour Sailboat Racing Club.

RdF 15/2001