After nearly a century-and-a-half since sailing enthusiasts first began harnessing the wind on Bay of Quinte in a young modern-day Canada, the love of plying local waters by ardent sailors is still very much alive and well in Belleville.
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Members of the Bay of Quinte Yacht Club gathered last Friday on the southern tip of Victoria Park to usher in the 148th anniversary of their storied institution which ranks as one of the oldest such clubs in Canada and beyond.
Susan Smith, past commodore and club historian, welcomed a spirited crowd to mark the nautical milestone which included the oldest living BQYC past commodore Dirk de Boer, 96, who helmed BQYC in 1979.
Historian since the early 1980s, Smith began researching the club’s colourful yarns of the past at the time after rescuing dusty old boxes full of papers and photographs from the BQYC attic.
“We are a 148 years old tonight and the 150th is coming in 2026. We are the second oldest yacht club in the province of Ontario, the fourth oldest yacht club in Canada. And through research this week, I’ve discovered that we are the 71st yacht club out of 2,793 worldwide registered yacht clubs,” Smith told members.
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The evening offered a huge birthday cake to mark the occasion.
The gathering was also treated to the official premiere of a new documentary by filmmaker Sean Scally who, with Smith’s methodical research and member Gary Magwood’s extensive club knowledge, chronicled the BQYC’s unlikely challenge for the famed America’s Cup race in New York in late fall of 1881.
With limited funds of $2,100 at the time, single-masted sailboat Atalanta was constructed on the west side of the mouth of the Moira River “at 78 feet with a beam of 19 feet 6 inches and a draft of 6 feet 5 inches with the center board up and at 16 feet 6 inches with the board down,” Scally recounted in his 23-minute documentary.
The Atalanta was designed by Cobourg Capt. Alexander Cuthbert and built with the backing of Bell Villa yachtsman.
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Despite her hasty construction and roughly hewn hull, Atalanta made it to New York City to challenge the American defender vessel Mischief in a best-of-three competition which the Canadian crew lost in the first two appearances Nov. 9 and 10.
The skipper hired to compete was a no-show and Cuthbert stepped in to helm the Atalanta for the races.
Magwood pondered why, given Cuthbert’s heroic energy and skills behind making the BQYC entry a reality, he has never been inducted into the Belleville Sports Hall of Fame to this day.
Meanwhile, America’s Cup rules known as the Deed of Gift were changed after the 1881 challenge by Atalanta dictating that any defeated challengers could not compete again for the Cup for at least two years.
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“In spite of her poor sails, rough finish in poor handling, the Atalanta impressed many Americans with her speed under such handicaps,” the documentary recounted.
“But after what the Americans termed as a fiasco challenge, they would not let her try again. Among other changes of challenging clubs now had to be located on salt water, Lake Ontario clubs were out, even the optimistic Cuthbert couldn’t overcome the new conditions.”
The BQYC’s relationship with America’s Cup didn’t end there.
In 2001, for the 150th anniversary Jubilee of America’s Cup in the UK, a reunion invited all prior yacht-clubs who had ever challenged for the cup to participate.
BQYC longstanding member Hazel Lloyst told the anniversary gathering that she and 13 other club members spent $8,000 each to finance a collective visit by the club in the UK to take part in the invitation, the only Canadian club to do so that year.
Crewing a rented 50-foot sailboat, the Belleville sailors competed for 10 days and finished in the top third in the American class, she said.
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Publish date : 2024-09-16 01:14:00
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