Click to see Past Commodores Wall Plate

Wednesday April 29, 1970

For the last 37 years, the Shediac Bay Yacht Club has been standing proudly, overlooking the waters of Shediac Bay and the beautiful white hulls of its members' yachts.

How did all this start? Well, it was the year 1933, from a dream and idea of Donald H. Cowl from New York and his friend Haliburton Weldon of Shediac, to form and build a yacht club. From the hard work and shares that they sold, a club house was built at the end of what is now called Pleasant St., and they called it the Shediac Bay Yacht Club. Mr. Cowl had the honour of being the founder and first Commodore, serving from 1933 to 1938, and Mr. Weldon, the second Commodore, serving from 1939 to 1945.

The share holders at this time were local people of Shediac and from Moncton, who had summer homes in the area. They were such notable families as, Hon E.A. Smith and his son Donald, Dr.Webster, Avard White, Hon. Judge Allison Dysart, G.W.I. Smith, the Peters and the Summer family to name a few. From this group of people, sailing and competitive sailboat racing began being recognized in the area. The Club started to challenge other yacht clubs to have regattas. Charlottetown, Summerside, Borden and Pictou were among the clubs that were represented in these meets and every year, they would have the regatta at different places. From these meets, they formed what was called the Northumberland Strait Yacht Association, which went on until some years after the war. The boats they were sailing varied from different sizes, called Class 1, 2 and 3 to Class 5. Some of the most notable sailors from that period from the Shediac Club were the Storey Family, Ernie Boudreau, Bill Atkinson, Dr. Lee Allanach and George Cunningham.

Wartime Slowdown

These races were held and carried on until the war started, then when a lot of these people were called for duty, things began to slow down, with only a handful of sailors left behind. Special thanks should go to people like Donald Smith, Averard White, Bill Douglas and other faithful sailors for keeping the club alive during these unforgettable hard years.

As soon as the war was over, activity started to pick up, with the men coming back from the war. There were new and younger members, some of them sons of the original shareholders and some of them just interested in sailing.

Racing was back to normal, Racing was held more often as there were more boats, mostly class 3, which were 22 feet and the famous 16 foot Snipe that was becoming popular all over the world. Meanwhile, the club house social activity was at its best; dancing to the beat of jazz bands, special suppers and special events such as a cruise on a motor-cruiser for members who did not have their own boats.

This period of time gave the club its best years of sailboat racing and developed its best sailors, with the majority of them, such as Gene Boudreau, Fred Fraser, Bill Crandall, Jake Fisher, Clifford Price, Tommy Wather, Dr. Ackman, Don Storey, George Cunningham, John Rick, Dr. Peter lyons, Dr. Dysart and many more still racing and sailing boats.

By the end of 1950, more boats and members were getting into the action, and the club house was getting older and smaller every day. Dancing and other activities were often held and the club could not handle it because of its size, so talk began of building a new club house. In 1960-1961, a long sleek, nautical looking structure was erected under the commodorship of R. Lloyd Parsons.

Races Outside

By this time, the Class 3 boats had almost vanished. Larger and bigger boats of a different class, made of a better material and faster moving through the water were introduced. But the Snipe, by this time, had become nationalized and many Class 3 sailors were now sailing these in national competition across Canada. Skippers and crew from the Shediac Club went as far as Ontario, Halifax, Sydney, Newfoundland and the New England States and in 1962 the Shediac Club had the honour of having the Dominion of Canada Snipe Championships held in Shediac. These were the best sailors in the Dominion of Canada and the event was a great success and repeated in 1968.

During this time of Snipe popularity, the Yacht Club had increased membership and boats of all classes were filling the Bay in front of the Club. By 1964, the bigger boats, which had never ceased to have their own races, wanted to have longer races, so they organized a race with the Charlottetown Yacht Club. This was to be held at night, starting from Shediac and finishing in Charlotteotwn the next day. There were 12 boats in this event, the first year, varying in size from 25ft to 35ft. Last year (1969) there were 40 that registered from as far as the United States, Halifax, Mahone Bay, Summerside, shediac and Charlottetown.

Sailing School

Since the new yacht club was built, a sailing school for junior sailors has been formed from the interest and hard work of John Storey, who was the main person involved in organizing the school (I would like to mention that john is the grandson of Frank W. Storey who was the third Commodore and one of the original sailors of this Club). John has gone a long way in sailing with the school and he is now president of the National snipe Organization of Canada.

The sailing school has proven itself that it is going to be the back-bone for the future of the Yacht Club by teaching the new techniques in sailing and boat handling to the young members. So far it has sent young boys like Scotty Fraser to western Canada to sail in national regattas with various types of boats. It has also sent William DeNeiverville to represent New Brunswick in the Canada Games and to come home with the only gold medal for New Brunswick. Also in the same event, three of our best senior sailors, Gene Boudreau, Fred Fraser and Norman Thurrott were representing New Brunswick in the 3 man Soling. This only proves that in the last 36 years, the Shediac Bay Yacht Club has produced some of the best sailors in the province.

Now there are about 55 boats moored in the water. These boats range from 16 foot sail boats to 50 foot motor cruisers and there is also a great number of small sailboats and outboard motor boats that are pulled out of the water after every race or pleasure cruise. We have seen that in the last 5 years there has been 10 per cent increase of new boats per year coming to the yacht club to make it their home.

Better Mooring

With this increase in boats every year, and new members, the Yacht Club is being forced to plan for the future, and information from last year's Commodore, W.H. Crandall was that the club would have to provide, better mooring facilities so that the boats could stay in the water for a longer period of time, better launching facilities, more security in stormy weather and make it more pleasant for the boat owners to enjoy our already too short summer.