Beacon - Annapolis Yacht Club

Jobson: What kind of sailor was Arnie Gay?
Smith: Arnie was fun to be with. Arnie was an entirely
different person on the boat than he was ashore. Great
cook. I said many times I’ll eat behind Arnie anytime.
We had a good time on the boat and I sailed a lot of
races with Arnie.
Jobson: So how was he different on shore than he was
on the boat? Was he cantankerous?
Smith: Well, yes. He was a lot tougher on shore than he
was on the boat. He was really generous to a fault when
he was on the boat. There was nothing that he couldn’t
do for you. I was racing with Arnie down the Bay and
someone stuck their head up and said how many scoops
do you want? One or two scoops of ice cream. It was
one of the hot summer days. Lo and behold, we had ice
cream on the boat. He stocked the boat well.
Jobson: He’s the guy that has been missed most, I
think.
Smith: He was great to sail with.
Jobson: Were you in the 1967 Annapolis to Newport
race when it blew so hard?
Smith: Absolutely. I was with Arnie. We lost the rig at
sea. Of course, when we lost our mast, our antenna went.
That was before you had to have the antenna down on
deck, too. Sonny Neff and some of the boats came over.
They radioed. We had fired flares. We put drag out. I
guess we had 25-foot seas out there and blowing 55 or
60. That’s what the Coast Guard estimated.
We went to Cape May and they radioed that a Coast
Guard boat would be out at 6 p.m. to pick up us. Lo and
behold, at 6 p.m. the boat was out there. They put a line
all the way around the cabin top, bent it back on, tied the
knot up front, and towed us.
We got into Cape May. Had something to eat. Got
fuel. Then, came on up the Delaware, down the Bay and
home. There was a story then that we didn’t have enough
fuel to get from where we lost our rig into Cape May.
But that’s not true. The last thing we did before we left
Annapolis was fill our fuel tank.
Jobson: I think all of us have kind of mentors that we
look up to when we’re young people. You’re an elder
statesman here at Annapolis Yacht Club but when you
were a younger person here at the club, who were some
of the people that you admired and looked up to and
what inspired you?
Smith: Charlie Dell was one. Arnie was one. Ted Hoster
was good on the boat. He had his own yachts. We had
a number of folks that we thought were our mentors
that really helped us. Arnie helped me immensely when
I went from small boats to big boats.
Jack Martin. He was commodore when they built
the club. He taught me a lot about sailing. My crew
on Uh Oh had people like Peter Cerelis, Bill McMann,
Corey Penwell, any number of people that were with me
for 30 years sailing on different Uh Ohs. Wayne Bretsch
was with me for 20 some years. We had good sailors.
Everyone had a good time on the boat. No professionals
on the boat. I guess we won our share of awards.
Jobson: If you were talking to a young person out of
college, young family, why would you encourage them to
become a member of the Annapolis Yacht Club?
Smith: Well, sailing for one thing. We have a great sailing
program here. I think the sailing people, you notice
I dwell on sailing people, they’re great people. We’ve got
a great chairman. We have committees that they can
get indoctrinated with. We just have a nice time. Good
group of people.
Jobson: How would you describe Annapolis Harbor
right after World War II for people today?
Smith: I learned to sail on Spa Creek. I really just learned
to sail with lee boards and a rudder I used as an oar; an
oar was my rudder. Annapolis Harbor is not anything
like it used to be. We had no moorings out in the harbor.
We didn’t have a lot of the big boats that we have here
now. We could go sailing. We could sail at night, use just
a flashlight. Nobody was going to come out and give us
a ticket because we didn’t have running lights and all on
the boat.
Jobson: Were there a couple of years there where you
could say this was the big change period?
22 AYC BEACON VOLUME 1, NO. 2