up close and personal Spending Time with Sunny Smith, Commodore 1972–73 Photos courtesy of the Smith Family.
Gary Jobson Interviews AYC’s Past Commodore In addition to his tremendous service to AYC, P/C Charles R. (Sunny) Smith, Jr. has also served as Commodore, Sailing <strong>Club</strong> of the Chesapeake; Fleet Captain, Chesapeake Station, Storm Trysail <strong>Club</strong>, and member, Board of Governors, Storm Trysail <strong>Club</strong>; Rear Commodore, Chesapeake Station, Cruising <strong>Club</strong> of America; former volunteer coach of offshore varsity sailing team, USNA; and continues to be a long-time member of the AYC Race Committee. He is a member of the <strong>Annapolis</strong> Maritime Hall of Fame and currently serves on the Board of Directors, <strong>Annapolis</strong> Maritime Museum. Sailing his various Uh Oh’s, he has been an overall winner twice of CBYRA Race Week and of the AYC Disharoon trophy for overall AYC performance; an overall winner of the <strong>Annapolis</strong> to Hampton Race; an overall winner of Atlantic City Race Week; and overall IOR winner, Cowes Cup, Block Island Race Week. Jobson: How does it feel to be a past commodore of the <strong>Annapolis</strong> <strong>Yacht</strong> <strong>Club</strong>? Smith: I’m very proud. The club has come a long way and has done an excellent job of putting our image out through our race committee and we’re a very well respected club in the country. The thing I was proudest of at the end of my two-year term is that American Boating magazine selected AYC as one of the ten top yacht clubs in the country. During my tenure as Commodore, we had a lot of things to do and we tried to accomplish a number of things. We tried to have fun in the club. And that’s what we did. We had nice parties. We had events that were well attended. Everyone liked everyone. Between races, we used to come in and socialize in the club and then go back out and do another race. It’s not like bang, bang, bang as it is now. Jobson: You’ve been a member here for how long? Smith: Since ’44. I get my 65-year pin this year. Jobson: Wow. Did you have any inkling in 1944 that you would be a member this long? Smith: Never. Because we were getting ready to go overseas at that time, too. Jobson: What was it that inspired everybody to say, “Okay we need a new clubhouse” in 1961–62? Smith: Well, the old clubhouse, it was falling down. We would dance in the ballroom and everyone invariably wound up in one corner by the bar because the ballroom floor had such a slant to it. We were growing and we needed a larger space. One of the things that sold us on it was dancing on the third floor where the bar was located. We were able to move around a little bit better and it was better laid out. The dining room in the old club was on the lower deck and that’s where they had shuffleboard and a television. We had dance classes there. Up on the second deck, that’s where the slanted ballroom was. Jobson: I was looking at some past films that we found here in the club. Everyone is wearing a uniform. Has there been a long association between the <strong>Annapolis</strong> <strong>Yacht</strong> <strong>Club</strong> and the U.S. Naval Academy? Smith: Yes. Several of our commodores were officers and one was a Commodore of the Navy. My uniform goes back to ’66 and amazingly enough, it still fits. This was a very formal club at that time. It required coat and tie to come in. The dining rooms were formal with coat and tie. Jobson: So you’ve done lots of racing here, ocean racing, round the buoys, big boats, small boats. How has racing changed during your tenure here at AYC? Smith: We were a small boat club. Then, we went to the larger boats and now we’re an ocean racing club as well as small boats. Jobson: How did frostbite racing get going? Smith: Six of us started. I was in a syndicate with Arnie Gay and Ollie Grahn. We chartered Rainbows from Jerry Wood who had <strong>Annapolis</strong> Sailing School. We raced six races in an afternoon. If we sailed out past Severn Sailing, we really thought we were doing something. So we used to sail in the harbor here. Start at the club, finish at the club. In between races, we’d come up and have something warm and then go back out and do it again. It was a lot of fun. continued on page 22 VOLUME 1, NO. 2 AYC BEACON 21