North Shore Yacht Club (Port Washington, Long Island, New York)

Formerly the New York Canoe Club. The New York Canoe Club was organized in 1871 and despite its change in name and residences has been in continuous existence since that year, sharing with the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club the distinction of being one of the two oldest yacht clubs with headquarters now on Long Island Sound. The New York Canoe Club put canoe sailing ,cruising and racing on the yachting map and under its new and old names has had a large part in keeping them there ever since. The change in name to the North Shore Yacht Club came in 1951.

"About 1951, the members tried to change the name to the New York Canoe and Yacht Club, but the Secretary of State advised that this name conflicted with a name quite similar which was already being used by another organization. Thereupon, the members incorporated the North Shore Yacht Club (1951). The members of the New York Canoe Club resolved very briefly that the By-Laws of the New York Canoe Club would constitute the By-Laws of the North Shore Yacht Club and that the officers and trustees of the New York Canoe Club would constitute the officers and trustees of the North Shore Yacht Club. The North Shore Yacht Club has therefore continued the New York Canoe Club or vice versa."

The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club (Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York)

One of the two oldest clubs with its headquarters now on Long Island Sound, the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club. At the time of its organization, the group who left the handling of their yachts to professional skippers and crews, the wealthier members, were in control of the New York Yacht Club as pointed out in the section on that club. Some of the other group, the Do-it-Yourself exponents, who skippered and sailed their own boats, decided to form a new club in which the principles of amateur or "Corinthian" racing would prevail.

In 1871, a dozen yachtsmen gathered aboard the sloop Glance, W. L. Swan, owner, anchored in Oyster Bay and organized the Seawanhaka Yacht Club in 1882, and was incorporated under the latter name on February 1, 1887. To perpetuate the memory of the 12 founders, the club's triangular blue burgee has 12 White stars, eight in a horizontal direction and four others crossing vertically. William L. Swan was the first Commodore, Charles E. Willis the Vice Commodore, Frederic de P. Foster the first Secretary, Gerard Beekman the Treasurer and William Foulke the Measurer. All took office in 1871.

By the rules of Corinthian racing each competing vessel must be commanded by her own owner, not by a paid skipper and sailed by amateurs. The stated purpose was to encourage the members "in becoming proficient in navigation, in the personal management, control and handling of their yachts and in all matters pertaining to seamanship."

The peculiarity of the Corinthian race is that each yacht-owner sails his own boat, not even advice from the professionals being allowed. In 1876 the club membership roster included nine Roosevelt's (it was ten in 1877), one of them, "T.R., was later to become President of the United States.

In the early days the club had a station on Staten Island and from 1887 to 1899 town houses in New York City in three successive locations. But in 1892, first as a station and later as its headquarters, the club established itself on Centre Island, Oyster Bay. The new clubhouse, still going strong on its splendid site overlooking Oyster Bay Harbor, was opened on May 28, 1892. It was organized in 1871 by Bayard Foulke, Gerard Beekman, J.W. Beekman, Alfred Roosevelt, William Foulke and Frederic de P. Foster.

The Shelter Island Yacht Club (Shelter Island Heights, Long Island, New York)

The genuine yachting spirit of the Shelter Island Yacht Club may be said to have had its real birth in 1890. By 1892, the Club had its own clubhouse and the membership limit was raised to 200 and annual dues to $10. In August, 1894, a revolutionary event occurred, featured in headlines from New York to Montauk Point. A race took place in which women were at the helm. Let the Brooklyn Eagle tell the story, beginning with a few headlines.

"Fair Women at the Helm, Shelter Island's Season Closed with a Novel Boat Race. There was Plenty of Excitement, and the Gentle Sailors Proved Themselves Adepts on the Water. They Sailed the Catboats with Bewitching Skill. "The last race of the season in these waters was given a spice of novelty by the condition which required that each boat entered should be steered by a woman. The yacht club determined on this, as it was well known that the women hereabouts are as brave and daring as they are beautiful."

The Manhasset Bay Yacht Club (Port Washington, New York)

In 1887, W. J. Newman of Bayside and a group of about twenty kindred spirits organized the Douglaston Yacht Club. During the following year these men met at the Hotel Brunswick in New York, with some more enthusiasts added, and raised enough money to buy an old scow, and put a house on it with a piano and a bar. The dues were modest: $5.00 a year. The scow was berthed along the shore of Little Neck Bay, where members held races, ran aground frequently and, as Commodore Newman put it, "with renewed recklessness and daring crossed the start and finish lines in mud and water (according to the state of the tide)."

The Manhasset Bay Yacht Club was the outgrowth of this club on Little Neck Bay, for before long some of its most earnest sailors decided to break away and seek better sailing conditions elsewhere. They found them on Manhasset Bay to the eastward, and leased land at Port Washington on the eastern shore of the Bay somewhat to the south of their present site. From an old Scow with a house on it to the present luxurious headquarters of the M.B.Y.C. is a long way. But that is the way with some of the leading Sound yacht clubs as we are seeing in this chapter. The Manhasset Bay Yacht Club was organized under that name in 1891 and
incorporated in 1892. William J. Newman, who had headed up the Douglaston Yacht Club, became the first Commodore of the new organization.