A New Yacht Club Is Born
It was in this atmosphere of the late 19th century America that a group of men started talking about a new yacht club dedicated to the advancement of small boat yachting.
The place was the beautiful San Francisco Bay, already the site of two yacht clubs. The clubs at the time-the San Francisco Yacht Club and the Pacific Yacht Club -dominated Bay racing with their large yachts.
As early as 1881 the San Francisco Yacht Club had organized its first annual small boat regatta, which later became known as the Mosquito Regatta. It was open to anyone on the Bay and there were four classes of entries divided by length - 15-to-20 feet, 20-to-25 feet, 25-to-30 feet and 30-to-35 feet.
Thirty-three entries were counted in that first race with prizes going to the sloops Thetis, Bessie and Fleetwing. The slowest time on the course went to Lively. The Thetis and Lively were managed by H.A. Gandy and John Berg, respectively, both of whom became early Corinthian Yacht Club members.
An early account in "The Yachts and Yachtsmen of America" stated, "Yachting had been at a standstill among the small boats, not owing to the scarcity of boats, but principally to the way their owners were treated on a club cruise. This treatment consisted principally in the issue of elaborate invitations to accompany the large boats on their club cruises, etc., and before the trip was half over the larger boats had returned home and left the smaller boats to reach their destination as best they could."
According to a story in the San Francisco Evening Post in 1886, "the boats dominating the Bay at the time were the Aggie, Halycon, Luriline, Casco, Nettle, Virginia and others and that the interest in all their cruises and regattas centered on these larger vessels to the detriment of the smaller ones; also that their cruises were usually arranged as to time and place to suit the large boats, while the so-called mosquito fleet was practically ignored."
Such spirit and camaraderie developed among these early small boat sailors that talk of forming a yacht club dedicated to small boat owners surfaced. The year was 1886 and some of the small boat owners who had participated in the Mosquito Regatta Fleet called for a meeting of interested small boat yachtsmen for the purpose of organizing a new yacht club.
'The Yachts and Yachtsmen of America" states: “About this time TF Tracy, L.B. Chapman, K.H. Cotton, C.W. Stangroom, S.H. Williams, Ward Battles, WC. Moody, George E. Billings, TH. Pennell, all interested in the advancement of small boat yachting, agreed to organize a yacht club for small boats and a communication was addressed to those who might be interested in the advancement of the sport."
Early newspaper accounts reported the first meeting date of the club's founders on March 16, 1886.
Several articles exist of that first meeting. The San Francisco Morning Call of March 16, 1886, gave the following account:
"Tonight there will be a meeting of the owners of small yachts at Arion Hall. The object is to form a club of yachtsmen whose boats do not exceed 45 feet in length. The owners of the Thetis, Spray and Ripple have led the way in this movement. They say they have found cruising in company with the fleets of the present clubs very unsatisfactory. When the signal was given, the whole fleet got under way, the six or seven large boats at once drew away, and usually within the hour, were out of sight, leaving the smaller craft hopelessly astern. In regattas it has been the same story in another form. The small yachts have never had a chance to win prizes against their larger competitors.
"Hence, they have resolved to have a club of their own, the main object of which will be to promote cruising and racing among the fleet that are nearly all on equal terms. In addition to the Ripple, Spray and Thetis there are several others, including the Lolita, Startled, Fawn, Clara, Magic and Idle Hour, all chartered for the season by small clubs, consisting of young men who like sailing. The promoters of the new club hope to have these eight yachts enrolled to start with, and add to the number as rapidly as new boats are built. The purpose is to make the club inexpensive and to do the largest amount of sailing at the smallest cost."
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