Now Win This

by Prentice Cushing

1991

Having been appointed Chief Old Goat by the Commodore, it was a pleasure to participate in the last Gam and point out some of the facts, non-facts and history connected with various memorabilia in the Yacht Squadron Room (occasionally referred to in the DC Current as the "Main Bar"- maybe the "Bounding Main Bar" ?).

One of the items I didn't cover, although I was asked about it later, was the word gam. A gain is an old fashioned word for a herd or school of whales. When whaling ships met by chance on those long voyages, they would often close each other to obtain news, discuss where whales had been seen, etc. Often one captain would transfer to the other ship and meet with its captain, and if the weather was good, so might some of the other officers. So they became a garn of whaling ships, rather than whales. 'Me verb to gam was derived later and is accepted as meaning to gather for social reasons. If you visit Mystic Seaport you can see "gammiing chairs" which were rigged with appropriate tackle to transfer the captain by high-line, if the weather was too bad for small boat transfer.

Neither did I cover the stories behind most of the permanent DYS trophies, so I will record a few of them here.

S.W. ALLRED PRIZE for the member who has contributed to the welfare of the Squadron. In 1961 Vice Commodore Sanford William (Bill) Alfred donated it in recognition of the hard work Commodore Ed Fleming had done. Bill, an executive with Montgomery Ward, was an outstanding sailor and was greatly missed when a promotion caused him to leave town before becoming Commodore.

BIOLLY ATKIN MEMORIAL AWARD was donated by John Atkin, noted yacht designer and surveyor in memory of his father, William Atkin, a designer of many noted yachts, including Doug Fleming's handsome black schooner, Chantey, which graced our fleet for many years. John's intention was to recognize not only traditional design, but also construction, by the winner of our Annual Windjammers Race. He was infuriated when a fiberglass-reinforced plastic catboat, Beer Bubble , won the Windjammers Trophy in his presence one year. It would be a pleasure to many of us Old Goats if the DYS would revive this race, at one time one of the prime events on the Sound and the only race of its type in the area.  

Junior trophies will be covered in a future article, but the DALZELL TROPHY should be mentioned, as it is our oldest, having been donated by the famous tugboat family in 1942; a review of past winners would bring many memories to those who have lived in Douglaston long enough, including Olympic medal winners- the aforementioned Doug Fleming, and numerous Paulsens from both Douglaston families.

The DYS CRUISE TROPHY was given by Dr.Jim Lione in 1962 for the winner of the race to the rendezvous (Gam?) on the Annual Cruise. Let us hope that future cruises will attract enough participants to make a good race. If our new Commodore wants to stir up a batch of Commodore's punch to pass around at the raft-up I will be glad to pass on the milk can and set of punch cups I acquired from my Commodore predecessors and which unfortunately fell into disuse.

DAVID C. MORRISON TROPHY was given by him when he was Commodore as a prize for predicted-log race winners. As power yachts departed our fleet for plug-in-the-power type marinas and predicted4og racing fell out of favor after navigation/piloting were replaced by Loran waypoint buoy-hopping, the trophy went into twenty-seven years hibernation until we needed a trophy for another division in our Captain Island Race.  

The ROEBLING TROPHY, given by Isobel Kelly, who had Roebling family connections, is for the winner of the race home from the Cruise, which was to be skippered by a female. More lady skippers, please!  

The SAPPHO TROPHY was donated by Commodore F. Dodd McHugh for the winner of our own DYS Day Race. William Douglas's grand- son also gave a Sappho Trophy (something like the Billy Atkin Trophy) for traditional yachts racing in Newport, where he lived at the time.

T'he COMMODORE SLJTHERLAND MEMORLA,L TROPHY was donated by Fred Paulsen and your writer in honor of the man most responsible for taming a bare roorn. with a table and ice bucket into the Yacht Squadron Room. In addition to being DYS Conunodore, Ken was Marine Superintendent (the Boss!) of the United States Lines and had been captain of a number of their ships. The S.V.H. WARING MEMORIAL TROPHY was given by Commodore S.V.H. "Van" Waring in memory of his father, who was noted for sportsmanlike conduct. In addition to being a sportsman, the deed of gift requires that the winner must have participated in a YRA-LIS Race (not necessarily as skipper) as a DYS representative during the season.

The WINDJAMMERS TROPHY was donated by Van Waring and David James, who cooked up the idea oft he DYS sponsoring a race for yachts of traditional American design. Staysail schooners were excluded, but catboats were OK. Nothing was said about materials of construction, which led to some surprises. At one time we would have as many as thirty participants, including a Chesapeake Bay skipjack, catboats, gaff-headed sloops and a Herreshoff ketch. It made quite a sight and when the spectator fleet got big enough, the CCNLB established their own race, to follow the same course and start after the old-timers-the Schooner-Chaser Race which seems to have survived even though the schooners are invisible.

Last, but by no means least, the COMMODORE DOUGLAS TROPHY, a sterling silver pitcher donated by Commodore Ed Bowen, goes to the winner of the Captain Island Race in a division for yachts at least 30'OAL. It has many prestigious yachts and owners engraved on it, worthy of inspection on your next visit to the "Main Bar." Ironically, William Douglas was never a Commodore. Apparently, he disliked the job enough to decline it twice at the New York Yacht Club and perennially in the Douglaston Yacht Club, which he founded. He was Vice-Commodore of both for repeated ten-ns. I don't blame him.