Feb. 6, 1904.]] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
lis 
New Rochelle Y. C. 
BY EX-COMMODORE CHARLES FRYER, NEW ROCHELLE Y. C. 
The birth of the New Rochelle Y. C. may be said to 
have taken place in the cabin of the little sloop Curlew, 
early in the summer of 1885, where a few gentlemen 
of the place had collected to talk over the advisability 
of forming a local yachting organization. A few days 
after that discussion a notice was sent out to all the 
desirable people in the town supposed to be interested 
in the subject of the formation of such a club, and a 
place and time of meeting specified. At this meeting 
the organization was perfected by the election of the 
following officers: Com., Chas. Pryer; Vice-Corn., J. 
H. Ryley, Rear Com., E. C. Sterling (their respective 
yachts were the sloops Curlew and Madeline, and the 
schooner Leona) ; Sec'y, Ph. J. Krackel, and Treas., 
Eugene Lambden. Committees were also appointed 
to draft a constitution and by-laws, and select a desir- 
able location for a home for the new club. At the 
next meeting these gentlemen reported, and the result 
was that the constitution and by-laws were adopted 
with some modifications and alterations suggested in 
the discussion that followed the report; and that Echo 
Island, at the entrance of Echo Bay Harbor, New 
Rochelle, was leased by the club for a term of years, 
on which it was proposed to erect a house, and a 
building committee was appointed. No regatta was 
sailed under the auspices of the club during the summer 
of 1885; but the membership grew very rapidly, and a 
substantial house was started. The first board of trus- 
tees was composed of the flag officers, and Messrs N. 
D. Lawton, C. P. Buchannan, and G. H. Barker. 
At the opening of the yachting season, 1886, the 
club house was completed, and there were about two 
hundred names on the roll of membership, while the 
fleet consisted of a little over. fifty boats, of all sizes 
and rigs. The officers were the same, with the ex- 
ception of the addition of several committees. In 
June of this year, the first annual regatta of the new 
organization was sailed, and was most successful. As 
it was an open race, the yachts of many other clubs 
were entered, the day perfect, a strong S.W. wind was 
blowing and the boats crossed the line well bunched 
when the signal was given. The race was particularly 
close in the schooner, and one of the cabin sloop 
classes, so that the spectators were very much inter- 
ested during the entire contest. The wind was per- 
haps a little too heavy for comfort or even safety for 
the smaller craft, as several of the catboats capsized, 
and many an amateur sailor got a ducking, though no- 
body was materially the worse for that day's sport, and 
the members of the young club were much encouraged 
by the successful issue of the day. 
During the year there were a number of entertain- 
ments held at the club house, and the Atlantic Y. C. 
rendezvoused off our club house upon the occasion of 
their annual cruise. The house and grounds were much 
beautified during the season, and the club made very 
material progress. It is not, of course, my purpose 
to follow each year of the club's existence in detail, as 
it would be uninteresting to most of the readers, and 
also take entirely too much space. But we may now 
be said to have fairly launched the organization in its 
career, having given it a home, and witnessed the re- 
sults of its first regatta. 
The season of 1887 opened very prosperously for us, 
and we were early in the field, but nothing of a very 
interesting character occurred to relate out of the inner 
club circle, the only important change in the board of 
officers was that the- fate' W. H. Wilmarth was elected 
secretary, in place of Ph. J. Krackel, who declined to 
serve longer. The year may be said to have been a 
fairly successful one, though there were no particularly 
marked events, the annual regatta was good. In 1888 
the commodore's flag was changed from the Curlew 
to the new Eurybia, then just of? the ways. During 
the next few years the club managed to keep itself 
afloat in a fairly creditable manner, though, like all 
organizations of its nature, it had its vicissitudes, of 
which its finances was not the least. At times the 
membership would drop off considerably, and again it 
would pick up, but at no time was there any serious 
trouble. The officers during these years changed fre- 
quently, and the club has had numerous commodores, 
vice and rear commodores and, of course, the other 
officers .were subject to many changes also. 
We now come to the most crucial time in the organ- 
ization's existence. The lease was about to expire, and 
the owner of Echo Island declined a renewal; but very 
kindly offered to give the club the house it had con- 
structed, provided they could move it away within a 
specified time. After much discussion in the com- 
mittee, appointed to look into the matter, they pro- 
cured a very advantageous site from the town on the 
mainland adjacent, for a comparatively low rent. The 
next question was how to transfer the house from 
Echo Island to Hudson Park. This problem was solved 
after much difficulty, by making a contract with a com- 
pany to float it over the bay on large wreckmg scows, 
and place it on a foundation constructed for the pur- 
pose on the newly acquired leasehold in the Park. 
The house was slid upon the floats with compara- 
tively, little injury, and prepared for its voyage across 
a sheet of water about half a mile wide, and now the real 
trouble began; the weather, which for some days had 
been fair, became cloudy and threatening, the wind 
shifted to the east and started to blow. The waves of 
the- sound responded almost immediately, and began to 
roll in in such a menacing manner, that it commenced 
to look as though the house would be deposited in 
fragments along the rocks and beaches of the adjacent 
shore. The scows, though buoyant enough to float the 
building, over under ordinary conditions, were not con- 
structed for such billows as were now breaking over them 
nor was the house sufficiently strongly belayed to them 
to stand such pitching and tossing; in fact, it was a 
shore^.hpuse and not an arc. For a time the members 
of the. club looked on in great dismay at the struggling 
tug boat,, the rocking floats and the cracking aii'd strain- 
nig tmibers of the bi-.i!ding^ At last a happy thought 
struck "some of the party, "Why not' pull her into a 
small cove under a lee. and anchor her there until the 
gale blew itself out/' The tug, gf epHfle, cpild ^Qt 
Echo Bay. — A view of the harbor taken from Harrison Island. 
Some of the New Rochelle Y. C. Fleet, taken from the Club House. Reliance at anchor in the distance. 
One View of the New Rochelle Yacht Club House. 
