The coming of the New York Yacht Club cruising fleet stirs never-to-be-forgotten memories. It is bewildering to realize how many persons cannot recall this scene, not having been born at the time, and thus cannot without difficulty follow a description by one whose emotions were deeply stirred by the sight sixty-five years ago.
The fleet did not always rendezvous at Vineyard Haven, yet that harbor was favored and the club’s own shore base was erected on the Eastville shore maintained by a club steward who was a year-round resident of Oak Bluffs.
Boat watchers, prepare yourselves! The New York Yacht Club’s annual cruise will arrive in Edgartown today. The yearly progress, which touches at several southeastern New England ports, has been an eye-catching summer spectacle for at least 116 years. This year’s fleet includes 106 sailboats and a collection of more than 60 power craft.
There was a feeling of excitement and expectation in the air as one arrived at the shipyard of Harvey F. Gamage in South Bristol, Me., Saturday morning.
Arriving at the same time were MacPherson’s Pipers, a seventeen-piece bagpipe band handsomely attired in full dress kilt regimentals of colorful tartan, their immaculate gaiters gleaming white in the water sun.
The extreme clipper schooner, Shenandoah, Capt. Robert S. Douglas, master, arrived at her home port, Vineyard Haven, during the weekend, and is due to sail this week for the Atlantic Ocean with her first passenger list. Named for a U. S. revenue cutter built in 1849, whose hull design and rig have been closely followed, the Shenandoah symbolizes all that was beautiful, judicious and distinct in the sailing craft that made America famous on the seven seas.
Quietly and without any fanfare or other demonstration, the old schooner Alice S. Wentworth slipped out of Vineyard Haven last weekend, bound on the first leg of her long trip to Sandy Point, Me. Capt. Parker Hall, who purchased the vessel early last spring, had been waiting for a couple of young Quincy yachtsmen who had volunteered some time ago to “ship for the run,” and assist in taking the vessel to her new hailing port.
A dream which many Vineyard Haven people have cherished for years is about to be realized in the establishment of a yacht club in that town. Between fifteen and twenty boats have already been ordered and about fifty persons are ready to sign the club articles as members as soon as the organization is incorporated.
Quarters on the waterfront are to be obtained and put in condition for the use of the club before next season and all lovers of water sports, ships and salt water are filled with enthusiasm.
The forty-foot dragger Viking, which blew up and burned in Menemsha Creek Basin this summer, has been sold by her former owner, M.S. Duarte of Vineyard Haven, to Capt. John Coutinho of the same town. The Viking has been hauled out at the Martha’s Vineyard Shipbuilding Company yards, and will be completely rebuilt. Albert Allen, yard superintendent, and his regular crew, will perform the work. When she is once more in condition, Captain Coutinho will replace his present small fishing boat with the Viking.
The forty-foot dragger, Viking, Capt. John Coutinho of Vineyard Haven, was launched from the ways of the Martha’s Vineyard Shipbuilding Company, at that port, on Tuesday afternoon, and was towed into the harbor and docked, preparatory to her being towed to New Bedford, for her engine installation.
It is inherent in the human soul to be thrilled by the sight of wind-hardend canvas, even if it is only a picture. There are tales and traditions of men who have been highly successful master mariners, yet who were born and spent boyhood and youth far, far from salt water or even lakes where boats might have been seen, but who had studied a picture from early childhood of a ship in a seaway and carrying sail.
