Photography courtesy Annapolis Maritime Museum
“Originally when I came here, you had a guy tonging for oysters in the winter, and in the summertime would paint bottoms on boats.” —Arnie Gay
Photography courtesy Annapolis Maritime Museum
Delilah under full sail—the boat that brought Arnie Gay to Annapolis for the first time, in 1946.
Reflections of the ascension of legendary mariner, Arnie Gay, and his influence on the sport
Arnold Channing Gay, champion yachtsman, steered into Annapolis Harbor in his wooden schooner Delilah in 1946 with $1.26 in his pocket. An experienced ocean sailboat racer who had grown up in famous Massachusetts boatyards since age four, Gay had taken a year off after World War II to sail the East Coast before planning to go into the boat-crafting business.
As fate would have it, he ended his journey with near-empty pockets in Chesapeake Bay waters. Gay landed in Oxford, Maryland, for a short while before obtaining a job building Indian Landing 20s (boats) in the Severn River.
“I knew how to run a boat yard and when space became available on Spa Creek in Eastport, I used my GI loan to buy it,” Gay once recounted in an interview. “When the bank president asked what I had as collateral, I said, ‘I’ve got a lot of sandpaper.’ And we shook hands. That was 1946 and times were different then.”
Maritime sailing competition was non-existent in Annapolis at the time. It was a town of rotting, workingman’s docks. Spa Creek, in particular, was described as a ratty location...quite literally. From Gay’s new boat yard, one could shoot rats all day. It was a dump of a site with beat-up, old buildings. And Eastport was a tough place with rough guys who would “just as soon haul off and whack you.”
Gay was not a quiet guy or one to be intimidated—a risk taker, he was once reported to have flown under a bridge in Cape Cod while on submarine surveillance. He gave back as good as he got and earned the respect of Eastport rough necks.
In quick order, Gay stabilized his new boat yard, upgraded the facilities, and hired good carpenters, cabinet makers, and painters. To maintain payroll in the early years, Gay painted houses, repaired station wagons, and built up the ocean racing cliental by harnessing the Newport to Annapolis Race.
And the boat business started to grow just as Gay felt it would. A natural leader, within 10 years Gay would find himself Chair of the Annapolis Chamber of Commerce testifying before Congress on boat safety. The reason for which, was ominous.
1954 and ’55 were bad weather years on the Chesapeake Bay. Hurricane Hazel had dumped rain and sustained high winds and flooding that destroyed boats and marinas in its path. But it was Hurricane Connie, in August ’55, that grabbed the attention of U.S. Congress. Connie’s destructive impact across multiple states and into Canada resulted in 77 deaths. So catastrophic, its name was retired from future use.
Photography courtesy Annapolis Maritime Museum
The Arnold C. Gay Yacht Yard was an Annapolis mainstay along the banks of Spa Creek during the 1960s and ’70s.
In Maryland, the capsizing of the vacation schooner Levin J Marvel just off North Beach during Connie resulted in 14 deaths of its 27 passengers. As a result, local Congressman Dick Lankford introduced federal legislation to require safety inspections of any vessel with six or more passengers. Gay testified in quasi-support of the legislation, urging an amendment of three passengers instead of six. Gay’s amendment request, which could have impacted small fishing boat charters, failed but Congress did pass the legislation authorizing the Coast Guard to inspect any boat carrying six or more passengers.
Gay remained committed to building up the maritime industry in and around Annapolis. Early on he challenged the United States Naval Academy to change the sea wall that was deflecting waves back across Spa Creek and damaging boats anchored in the harbor. After a tough struggle, but with the help of Congressman Lankford, funds were secured to build the rock jetty we see today to absorb the wave action. And by Gay’s account, having mooring anchorage driven into the harbor’s riverbed, which prevented moored boats from dragging anchors and crashing into each other, was his longest fought battle. Twenty-five years until successful, stable mooring prevailed.
Unhappy with residential opposition to the boating industry, particularly Ward One’s, Gay paid his employees with $2 bills to illustrate the economic impact of the then-growing industry. Journalist Frank Young reflected on the value of the industry. If the shopping center in Parole closed, he opined, you would notice it. The maritime industry, he asserted, had just as many employees. If it failed, you would notice the diminished quality of life. In time and thanks to Gay’s commitment, the maritime industry became one of the City’s most lucrative…and, in large part, responsible for Annapolis’ government funding.
Gay also found ways to mix fun with work. The Newport Bermuda Race was the premier “World Series” of sailing races. Except for 1978, Gay never missed a race. Winning the race and the prestigious St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy with his wooden boat Babe—long after boat building had shifted to sleek fiber glass—was his greatest thrill.
As a boat builder, he understood the change fiberglass would bring to the industry—radically altering the skilled carpentry workman into slap and dash painters. Gay, however, held a long fondness for the ambiance, grace, and comfort of classic wooden boats. His Shipwright Street boatyard, a site that had been a boatyard since 1695 and the only wooden one remaining on the Western Shore of Spa Creek, reflected his interest in history.
Always willing to give back to the city that had given so much to him, Gay volunteered his time on numerous boards and commissions. He chaired the City Clean and Beautiful committee, bringing flower planters to Main Street, chaired the city liquor board, and the elections board. He coached the USNA offshore racing team, and gifted boats to the St. John’s College boating program. As Commodore of the Annapolis Yacht Club, he helped open the doors for Jewish and African American members. He fostered a sailing program for disadvantaged youth. He advised the leadership of the Whitbread Around the World Race and Maryland’s entry Chessie. Sadly, he would not see the impact this race would have on the City of Annapolis, the Chesapeake Bay region, and the State Treasury. Having devoted so much to the industry, he would have been pleased when our state capital was designated as the site for the National Sailing Hall of Fame and equally devastated when it departed to Newport, Rhode Island—a city that grew to honor its ocean racing roots.
Photography courtesy Annapolis Maritime Museum
Arnie Gay in his beloved wooden racing sailboat, Babe, in which he won the 1978 Newport Bermuda Race and with it the coveted St. David’s Lighthouse Trophy.
Photography courtesy Annapolis Maritime Museum
A lifelong sailor, yachtsman, and ship builder, Arnie Gay helped usher the Annapolis and Chesapeake maritime industry into the modern era.
The sailing industry honored Gay in a big surprise February 14th birthday bash, attended by fellow sailors from around the country and abroad when it became obvious that his racing years were over. On January 26, 1994, Arnold Channing Gay, championship winning yachtsman and industry leader, died at age 74 from complications of the rare arthritic disease Scleroderma.
Through his advocacy, leadership, risk-taking, volunteerism, self-confidence, and the vision of what a ratty waterfront could become, Gay built an industry and became “the father” of the Annapolis and Chesapeake maritime industry.
A plaque at Waterfront Park on Fourth Street and Spa Creek describes him as one of the city’s visionaries that brought a new quality of life to Annapolis:
“A New England native, born on February 14, 1919, sailor Arnie Gay steered into Annapolis Harbor in 1945 with a few dollars in his pocket and an enthusiasm to bring a sailing empire to the City’s neglected and abandoned waterfront…Through his leadership, the ‘father of our maritime industry’ paved the way for Annapolis to become the Sailing Capital City that is so much a part of our Annapolis Quality of Life.”
