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Sunday, January 9, 2005
Yacht club blends past with future
By JOHN BOZZO | News-Journal Staff Writer
DAYTONA BEACH — Ivory soap inventor James Gamble was one of its first members.
Warren G. Harding visited after he was elected president, but before he took office.
Steeped and aged in tradition, the Halifax River Yacht Club is reaching out to the future with plans to build a new clubhouse and hopes to recruit younger members. More than a few of its current members were alive when Harding took office in 1921.
Despite the construction, members will continue to take pride in asserting their club is the oldest on the East Coast in continuous operation at its original site.
The original clubhouse, built on pilings in the Halifax River, opened in 1897, one year after the club was chartered. New construction will take place on dry land next to the old building.
After members gathered in white uniforms for their annual "Change of Watch" on Saturday , they broke ground to build a new club.
A $3 million, two-story, 19,000-square-foot club will be built along the riverside on Beach Street at the south end of the city's downtown. The historic clubhouse will remain open until the new structure is finished in about 10 months.
"Our intention all along has been to retain the history and bring it into the new building," said Jim O'Shaughnessy, who was installed Saturday as the new commodore to serve as the club's chief operating officer.
History is preserved at the club in displays of pictures, documents and articles over the years. Trophies are also on display, along with two small cannons sometimes used to signal the start of events. Burgees — the triangular pennants used on ships for identification — hang on the walls.
Those items will be moved into the new club, which will have a hall of history, meeting room and boaters lounge downstairs. The second floor will include a tiki bar, dining rooms, meeting rooms, bar-lounge, fireplace and boardroom.
Construction of a new club has been a disputed topic among members for at least 50 years.
"Over the years, as the building got older, people eventually saw the need," O'Shaughnessy said. "As the building got older, maintenance increased."
Some members remain opposed to a new club.
"I'm against it," said Patricia Bennett, whose grandfather, Laurence Thompson, donated the riverside construction rights for the original building. "I like the old one."
Clark Properties plans to take over and preserve the historic club. Andy Clark said plans include floating the building on the Halifax River for renovation and reuse, possibly as a banquet hall. A site has yet to be found.
The historic building is more notable for its sturdy construction from Southern yellow pine than its architecture, said Larry Robinson, a club member and architect working on the new building.
"It's going to excite people and get new families interested," Robinson said. "It will be built for the next 108 years."
Funding for construction will come through contributions, gifts, loans, pledges and assessments of the members.
Yacht club members hope the new building, which will include a pool, will attract younger members. The average age of the 600 members is 74.
"Younger people want a more upper-scale facility," said Bob Ford, outgoing commodore.
One of the most significant highlights of the yacht club's long history is the TransAt, a yacht race from Daytona Beach to Bermuda, said Don Gaby, club historian. In his book, "Heaven on the Halifax," Gaby said the race "nautically put Daytona Beach on the map."
The first TransAt sailed in 1978 and after 1979 the event returned every two years until 1999.
"Lots of members flew over there or took cruise ships and had a party over there (in Bermuda)," Gaby said.
Teddy Turner, son of the cable television magnate, skippered the yacht Challenge America in the 1991 TransAt race. He finished first, but was declared third after times were corrected for differences in boats.
The TransAt eventually ended due to the cost to prepare a boat and time commitment required for a crew.
"It's hard to get people in their 20s to 30s who can be off work three weeks," said Jack Moran, a past commodore who crewed in TransAt races.
"A long ocean race is like major surgery," he quipped. "It's not much fun going through it, but it's something you can talk about the rest of your life."
Mary Wallace, a club member since 1971, wants to plan an Irish wake for the historic clubhouse. She'll be sad to see the old building go. But what she values most will transfer to the new building — the friendships among club members.
"We're a family, first and foremost," she said.
Sailing Into History
* The Halifax River Yacht Club was chartered April 19, 1896.
* Initiation fee for 31 charter members in 1896 was $10 and dues were 50 cents a month.
* Today’s initiation fee ranges from $500 to $2,500 and annual dues vary from $340 to $525, depending on the type of membership.
* A clubhouse was built on pilings in the Halifax River for $1,367 and expanded over the years. Doors opened for the first meeting in the clubhouse on Feb. 12, 1897.
* The first regatta was held on Feb. 22, 1897.
* Motorboat races began in 1900.
* Maj. Henry Segrave, who set a land speed record at the time of 231 mph on the beach, unloaded a newly designed speedboat, the Miss England.
* Membership declined in the 1920s, including four resignations in December 1929 after the stock market crash in October 1929.
* During World War II, club membership declined by half.
* A congressional baseball team took a trip to Daytona Beach in April 1953. The club hosted 11 congressmen and their families. The group returned again in 1956.
SOURCE: “Heaven on the Halifax, A Short History of the Halifax River Yacht Club, 1896 to 2003,” by Donald Gaby.
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