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Smith: I guess it was late 60s, early 70s. When I was<br />
commodore, I had so many people say the pressure was<br />
too much. So I tried scoring each race individually and<br />
we would present flags at the bar after each race for first,<br />
second, and third. A lot of the boats would fly their flags<br />
at different regattas just as part of the decorations for<br />
the boat. But, they wanted the high pressure stuff. So we<br />
went back to scoring it as a fleet.<br />
Jobson: The harbor. I’m just thinking about how has the<br />
harbor changed?<br />
Smith: Well, of course, most of them were there. There<br />
was Trumpy and Masons, who, by the way, built the first<br />
boats for the junior fleet. And Sarles was there. Tommy<br />
Langon’s boat yard... it was Tommy Langon’s boat yard<br />
before it was Arnie’s boat yard.<br />
Jobson: So if you were to look into the crystal ball, how<br />
would you see AYC 30, 40 or 50 years from today?<br />
Smith: We’re growing. We certainly have the facility<br />
here now. It may mean another yacht club between now<br />
and then. We looked at property early on. We had a couple<br />
of promises that didn’t pan out. Maybe we’ll build a<br />
yacht club sometime at the annex.<br />
Jobson: In more recent years, you’ve been racing in<br />
Etchells.<br />
Smith: Our sails are old but we go out and we have a<br />
good time. That’s the name of the game as far as I’m<br />
concerned.<br />
Jobson: I see you out there. You look like you’re doing<br />
okay to me.<br />
Smith: We get the starts but then they grind us down.<br />
Our sails are old, we’re old. The boat’s old. But we have<br />
a good time.<br />
Jobson: So is it fair to say that the <strong>Annapolis</strong> <strong>Yacht</strong> <strong>Club</strong><br />
is a lifetime experience?<br />
Smith: Absolutely. I’ve enjoyed my time at the yacht<br />
club. There were times when we didn’t see eye to eye with<br />
what was going on but time passes.<br />
Jobson: Anything else<br />
you’d like to say?<br />
Smith: Our junior<br />
fleet, I think, is second<br />
to none. I started my<br />
first position as chairman<br />
of the junior fleet<br />
here back in the 50s,—<br />
I guess it was 60s. We<br />
had Penguins and we<br />
had Dolphins. Later<br />
on, we got 420s. The<br />
junior fleet has always<br />
been a pet of mine.<br />
Jobson: I look at pictures.<br />
I’ve seen pictures<br />
of our junior fleet in<br />
1955, 56. Are the kids<br />
any different today than<br />
they were 50 years ago?<br />
Photos courtesy of the Smith Family.<br />
Smith: No. I think that once we got them into the boats<br />
and got them to like sailing that they carried on with it.<br />
Jobson: It’s kind of fun. I saw some pictures of racing<br />
Hamptons out here and the Penguins was a big fleet.<br />
Smith: You know the Hamptons were really the first<br />
small-boat, one-design fleet that we had here. And we<br />
used to race 35 Hamptons out here. We had people from<br />
all over racing them and we took our Hampton from<br />
Florida on up north. We sailed it all over.<br />
Jobson: You’ve done a lot of sailing, Sunny.<br />
Smith: We’ve enjoyed it. My whole family has been<br />
involved in it. Anne, she’s been crewing with me since<br />
before we were married. That’s since the early 50s. Great<br />
crew. If you twitched your nose, she would know. She<br />
kept me apprised of everything that was happening<br />
around us. We knew what the competitors were doing.<br />
We knew where they were. Then on the Farr boat, it got a<br />
little powerful for her. Wednesday nights, she would run<br />
the backstays for us and do the runners and what not.<br />
She’s a great sailor. She helped me win many a race.<br />
VOLUME 1, NO. 2<br />
AYC BEACON<br />
23
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