Beacon - Annapolis Yacht Club

Photos from AYC Archives
The Annapolis Yacht Club Story
An Overview
Sanford Morse, Club Historian
Part II in a series of two articles
The Growth Years, 1937–1960
The Nation. On the world stage, a trio of dictators had
Europe in turmoil: Franco was done in Spain, at a cost of
one million dead; Mussolini grabbed Albania; and Hitler
had marched into Prague unopposed. The Blitzkrieg
and Poland came next, followed by Denmark, Norway,
Holland, Dunkirk, France, and the London blitz.
America tried not to notice. The World’s Fair in
Flushing Meadows offered a glimpse of the future
1960s: everyone fit and tan after two-month vacations,
driving cars fueled by liquid air, and living in collapsible
houses. Gone with the Wind, the most anticipated event
in Hollywood history, came to the big screen. A teenaged
Mickey Rooney, as Andy Hardy, was the country’s
box office champion.
The City. Annapolis was still a small town: barely 10,000
folks, excluding the Naval Academy. The Navy and miles
of shoreline had saved Annapolis from the full fury of
the Great Depression. The Academy’s staggering Bancroft
Hall expansion project, for example, provided many
jobs for locals.
By war’s end, Annapolis was set for growth. In 1947,
the 1907 bridge across Spa Creek was replaced with
today’s structure. In 1949, the city celebrated its 300th
year. And in 1951, the annexation of West Annapolis,
Wardour, Cedar Park, Germantown, Homewood,
Eastport, Tyler Avenue, Forest Hills, Fairfax, Truxton
Heights, and Parole made Annapolis the fourth largest
city in Maryland with a population of 25,000. The next
year, 1952, the Chesapeake Bay bridge opened, and ferry
service to the eastern shore ended. In 1957, the John
Hanson Highway was dedicated, which by 1962, as U.S.
50, linked Annapolis with Washington, D.C.
The Annapolis Yacht Club. In 1937, the Severn Boat Club,
in an effort to rejuvenate its members, reorganized and
incorporated as the Annapolis Yacht Club, and held the
first AYC Annual Regatta Aug. 28 and 29, 1937, open
to “any Corinthian yachtsman.” Around the same time,
January of 1938, a group of Annapolis businessmen, all
AYC members, incorporated the Annapolis Yacht Basin
Company, with the goal of making Annapolis the yachting
capital of the inland waterways system.
In 1939, AYC sponsored its first ocean race, from
New London to Annapolis, and “all the skippers declared
that it was the best arranged and best conducted
race they had ever sailed.” In October of 1940, the first
Fall Series took place, with five boats competing. Then
World War II interrupted organized racing.
continued on page 8
VOLUME 1, NO. 2
AYC BEACON
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