MarcH 10, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

The Hingham Y. C. 
Were I to tell you that the Hingham Y. C. is 
pre-eminent among all of its kind in Massachu- 
~ setts Bay you would undoubtedly raise your eye- 
brows and graciously remark, not, I hope, until 
I had turned away, “He lies.” But first remove 
the main beam from thine own eye ere thou at- 
temptest to cast out the mote from mine. 
The club was first organized in the fall of 1805 
by a number of young college men, chiefly sum- 
mer residents of Hingham. They elected the 
usual officers with great solemnity, adopted an 
elaborate constitution and by-laws (which they 
speedily lost but managed to do without) and 
gave every member a place on one committee or 
another. Only, I say unto you, that the member 
who was not on at least two committees was a 
scurvy chap. The chief object of the club was to 
provide racing for the members’ small boats 
which were not fitted either by age, race or pre- 
vious condition of servitude for competition in 
open events. These races were sporty little af- 
fairs, the only reward of the winner being h’s 
own satisfaction and a club pennant—these had 
been purchased in large quantities for that pur- 
pose. I believe the secretary’s records disclose 
the following formal entry on that point: 
“Met George on the street to-day and we voted 
to appropriate $25 to purchase club pennants for 
prizes. Memo.—Be sure and borrow $5 from 
George for this, as the funds are low.” 
Whenever a member desired a new pennant he 
called a race and thus justified the club’s exist- 
ence. . 
There was no club house, no grounds and no 
float, merely a handful of enthusiasts who re- 
vived the sport summer after summer for some 
seven years. And then—the flags gave out. Ah, 
those were perilous times, indeed. The club, 
however, continues to exist in the various yacht 
registers, but only an eagle-eyed sleuth would 
have been able to prove it. 
The spring of 1905 saw a great change for the 
better. There suddenly dawned upon Hingham’s 
boating population the need of a general rendez- 
vous, a place for lockers, a float with proper 
landing facilities and the other paraphernalia of 
the club house. Willing hands thrust pens to 
paper to pledge support and a band of thirty 
yachtsmen calmly elected themselves to member- 
ship in the old club, informing the prior mem- 
bers that they might continue as such upon sur- 
rendering their assets—the club name, its recog- 
nized pennant and such money as the secretary- 
treasurer had borrowed of George and neglected 
to return. This bold action was highly success- 
ful and the club was straightaway incorporated 
with a membership limit of 75. This grew rapidly, 
by the exemption of boat owners, to 85, and at 
the annual meeting in January last it was voted 
to raise the limit to roo. At the present writing 
the membership is full and a waiting list of 12 
burns fiercely in the pocket of the chairman of 
the Committee on Admissions. 
The club is, I reassert, pre-eminent among its 
neighbors. This is due to several of its by-laws, 
chief among which is the provision as to dues. 
The entrance fee is but $5, the annual dues are 
$5. Despite this scanty pittance the club is pros- 
perous, it has no debt and has already acquired 
ownership of a third interest in its building, with 
every prospect that each succeeding year will see 
the purchase of another fractional interest until 
the whole is paid for without incurring a dollar 
of debt or passing the hat for donations. Add 
to this financial record the by-law that provides 
that “no malt, alcoholic or other intoxicating 
liquors shall be sold, drunk or kept upon the 
premises,” and you will understand why I ac- 
cord the Hingham Y. C. pre-eminence among its 
fellow organizations. This last by-law is not an 
expression of ‘“goody-goody-goodness,” but con- 
forms with the sentiment of the community and 
recognizes the fact that the club house, again 
unlike many others, is constantly open to the 
wives and children of the members. Not even my 
excessive natural modesty can deter me from 
remarking that the club offers a generous hospi- 
tality to all comers, and you will observe that 
‘the by-law does not extend to the boats. 
The first season of regalvanized interest was 
a marked success, three regattas being well at- 
391 

TtHk HOME OF THE HINGHAM Y¥. ¢C. 
Photo by E. Woodside. 
tended, although only club events, and_ the 
shores of the harbor were fringed with specta- 
tors for the distance of a mile. On the occasions 
of these events the club kept open house, where 
the little boys, while their elders watched the 
races, devoured. the cakes and made way with 
the fruit punch, thus proving the existence of 
good material for a future rocking-chair fleet. 
The new club house, a modest affair, entirely 
given over to locker and toilet accommodations, 
is located on the beach at Bare Cove, at the head 
of the harbor. Here are the local boat shops, the 
yacht railway and the open land where the 
boats haul out for the winter. A broad piazza 
fronts the harbor and the floats reach the channel 
so that tenders can get in and out at all stages 
of the tide, something heretofore unknown in 
Hingham, as the harbor goes completely dry at 
low water, save for this channel. It is a favorite 
jest in the club that at low tide the harbor mas- 
ter does not know whether he is harbor master 
or street commissioner. This condition of affairs 
will always prevent Hingham from becoming a 
yachting center, and, despite its relative proxim- 
ity to Hull and Quincy, renders it in a sense 
isolated. 
This isolation makes it an ideal spot for a 
one-design class, which of a type suitable to local 
conditions, would be hopelessly lost in open com- 
petitions. Through the activity of the vice-com- 
modore, A. L, Lincoln, such a class was organ- 
ized last fall and fourteen monotype 15ft. knock- 
abouts are now being built for the club members 
by the O. Sheldon Company at Neponset, Mass. 
The design, by Messrs. Small Brothers, shows a 
carefully planned hull with moderate overhangs, 
moderate beam, very shoal draft and good free- 
board. The sheer is strikingly like that of the 
Herreshoff 15-footers for the Beverly Y. C., but 
they have no outside ballast and but 250ft. of sail. 

MILDRED II. WINS. 
The Bay on a race day from the Hingham Y. C. Landing, 
Photo by E. Woodside. 
