Sleek Beauties

by

Culture

In 1978, a 39-foot Concordia yawl named Babe won the 635-mile ocean race from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda. She was the smallest vessel in the race and a classic wooden boat, owned and captained by Arnold C. Gay, the father of the Annapolis sailing industry. Gay commented on the win, “Goes to show that a well sailed old boat will go through the water just about as well as a well sailed new boat.”

By all measures, Babe wasn’t expected to be a threat. She was the smallest boat in the grueling ocean race—not a new fiberglass speedster but, rather, a wooden boat built in 1955 in Germany from a 1939 design intended for family cruising.

No one, however, underestimated Arnie Gay. Gay was born in Massachusetts and started sailing on Cape Cod at the age of four and was captivated by the thrill of being on the ocean. He had his share of wins in the region’s regattas. During WWII, he was also captivated by flying while serving in the Army Air Corp. Searching for German U boats, Gay once flew under the Bourne Bridge over the Cape Cod Canal…a shrinking violet he was not. In 1946, at age 26, he set out in his boat Delilah for points south. With a boat in need of service, he arrived in Annapolis with $1.27 in his pocket. He saw a city rich in water access that had no idea of its assets to a sailing industry. Gay stayed put, purchased land on Spa Creek, built a marina, and led the city into becoming a vibrant maritime center. When he died in 1994, Annapolis was on its way to being the Sailing Capital of America.

The St. David’s Lighthouse trophy that Gay won in 1978 is considered “the most coveted trophy in distance racing,” according to Gary Jobson, noted Annapolitan champion sailor. The Bermuda Race, which began in 1906 over a controversy that small boats could not manage the tough ocean, was, in fact, won by a 38-foot yawl Tamerlane that defied the establishment preference for 80-foot boats only on the high seas. As for Gay’s wooden Babe, it continued on, purchased in 2012 by Chuck Thompson of Columbia, South Carolina, and restored to her original glory. The new Babe was renamed Mary Ellen.

Of course, in 1906 and the early-20th century, all boats entered in ocean races were wooden. Then, as now, “seeing the classic lines and beauty of these boats on the water is like poetry in motion,” says Maria Museler, one of the organizers of the Classic Wooden Sailboat Rendezvous & Race, held in Annapolis annually each September since 2009. Spectators are able to watch the “woodens,” which range from eight feet long to the 74-foot-long Woodwind, follow a six-mile course in the Severn River and Annapolis Harbor.

Several years ago, three boats from the Sydney Flying Squadron (Australia) ventured to Annapolis to race in the wooden boat regatta, in a challenge with the Bull and Bear vessels. The Bull and Bear are replicas of an 1860 sandbagger sloop developed by watermen for sport racing on their days off from oystering—they are regularly seen at Annapolis’ City Dock. The shallow-draft, 28-foot boats, commissioned by businessman Peter Kellogg from Philadelphia’s Independent Seaport Museum, were launched in 1995 and later loaned to the National Sailing Hall of Fame (once headquartered in the Burtis House, where Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources police had their beginning as the Oyster Navy). But in 2017, and in less serious times, the Aussies and the Annapolitans faced off in a three-race competition—Australia took two.

Tom Gahs, another organizer of the regatta event, says, “We don’t take the race competition that seriously. We are laid back folks who just enjoy the camaraderie and fun of the event.” Gahs is the proud owner of one of the first Star-class boats on the Chesapeake. Designed in 1911 for speed and high maneuverability, the 23-foot Star is still an Olympic-class boat. In 1924, the Gibson Island Yacht Club owned a fleet of 12 Stars, each named for a species of fish. Gahs owns Trout, which has been in his family since the 1930s and restored several times in her almost-100-year history.

In 1978, the same year Babe and Gay were winning the Bermuda Race, the Wooden Boat Foundation was founded on the West Coast in Port Townsend, Washington. The first festival, supposedly started on a lark by a group of live-aboard hippies, drew so much attention that an ongoing event was required. Now in its 45th year, the North West Wooden Boat Center & Wooden Boat Foundation is a premier education organization, showcasing over 300 classic wooden boats at each year’s event. Wooden boat organizations have sprung up all around the country, modeling the programs initiated in Puget Sound.

Back on the East Coast, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum (CBMM) was founded in 1965 on Navy Point in St. Michaels. Today, it holds the largest collection of Chesapeake Bay boats. It’s also a wooden boat restoration center. In 1975, the museum began the restoration of the Edna Lockwood, the last working oyster boat and only Bugeye in the world. The Lockwood, built by 24-year-old John B. Harrison, was originally launched on October 5, 1889, in a big flag-waving ceremony on Tilghman Island. Oystering on the bay was at its peak in the 1880s. Bugeyes were patterned after the Log Canoe boats that had been great for tongers, but were too small to handle the newer oyster dredge allowed in Maryland after 1865. The Bugeye was a two-mast sailing vessel and nicknamed the Queen of the Bay, but had a lifetime of about 20 years. The Lockwood was a rare survivor. Her hull was built from nine pine logs that, even, survived the restoration. The 130-year old Edna Lockwood toured the bay in 2019 during a heritage tour, stopping in waterfront towns along its way.

As the oyster industry declined, the less expensive Skipjack became the most popular oyster- and produce-boat plying the Chesapeake. Designated the official State Boat of Maryland in 1985, of the 2,000 Skipjacks built, approximately 35 remain today. CBMM houses the restored Rosie Parks, while the Wilma Lee is housed and owned by the Annapolis Maritime Museum in Eastport, Annapolis.

As for the Log Canoe, at one time the premier fishing boat of the Chesapeake Bay…when they were no longer viable as a work boat, they launched a new life as a sailing race boat. In 1927, the Miles River Yacht Club established a perpetual trophy for the 100-year-old racing canoes. A silver bowl embossed with the famed Log Canoe, the Island Bird, was sponsored by Governor Albert Ritchie—hence, what’s become known as the annual Governor’s Cup. The Island Bird was built in 1882 by William Covington and is privately owned by his descendants. Island Bird is the smallest boat in the active racing fleet, yet has raced every year since 1949. The Flying Cloud, built in 1932 by John B. Harrison, once won the Governor’s Cup and now resides at the CBMM. It is one of the last of the 22 racing canoes still surviving. This Miles River Log Canoe racing event is now in its 94th year and scheduled for July 31–August 1, carrying on a tradition that began on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the 1840s. 

More than 25 wooden boat restoration businesses have existed in Anne Arundel County and the Eastern Shore—an area rich with maritime artisans and traditions handed down through generations. Recognizing this talent, President Roosevelt sent the famous boat America, which won the first America’s Cup in1851, to Annapolis to be restored. Another famed America’s Cup wooden boat, the 12-meter, mahogany-hulled Eastener built in 1958 on the West Coast, now makes its home in Annapolis and partners with the education programs of the new Annapolis Waterfront and Sailing Center on Spa Creek.

This month, the 33rd Annual Antique & Classic Boat Festival at CBMM—tentatively scheduled for June 18–20—will showcase reproduction and restored boats in St. Michaels. And in September, the Eastport Yacht Club will host the Classic Wooden Sailboat Rendezvous & Race–wooden boats will, once again, strut their stuff in Annapolis Harbor. You won’t want to miss this showcase of maritime history, elegance in design, and on the water “poetry in motion.”