Articles
The DPMYC was conceived at a major boat show in 1997. A few active sailors saw Greg Worth’s booth selling CR-914’s and thought that this might be a great addition to the Essex Yacht Club in Essex, Connecticut. The club started with between 10 and 20 boats this is based on old rosters that have been handed down. The Clubs first adventure was to race the boats in front of the club, this was less than perfect due to the strong current in the Connecticut River.
They spent more time retrieving than racing. The club then tried the cove behind the club, but found that the average 3 feet of tide dropped the water level to less than the draft of the CR-914 at low tide. Scheduling was made difficult by Mother Nature. Finally the club moved the sailing site to a small pond in Essex fairly close to the Yacht Club and raced Sunday mornings from 10:30- 12:00. The timing was scheduled around frostbiting. For those in more moderate climates frostbiting is racing small sail boats like Blue Jays, Lasers and IC dinghies during the fall and early spring in New England. The starts for frost biting were at 1:30, this was time enough to race the models, then run to the club and launch your boat and make the starting line on time. The Dry Pants Model Yacht club maintained this same schedule until 2005.
By moving away from the Yacht Club property, the DPMYC stimulated interest in model sailing with in the town or those who visit the town on the weekend. By the time I joined the DPMYC in 2002 the club was starting to lose interest from a number of the founding members. The club was now made up of members and non-members of the Essex Yacht Club. The schedule remained the same until 2006, when we moved the club to a larger pond in Deep River Connecticut, by this time the club was almost completely non members of the Essex Yacht Club and those that were members were not part of the founders.
The move to Deep River was critical to keep the club alive. The new site offered much better sailing conditions and extended periods of breeze into the evening. Adding a Tuesday evening race schedule to the calendar doubles the amount of racing time for the club and has bee very successful.
The changing membership away from a formal yacht club was never intentional, some times things just happen. Within our membership, grew a group who enjoyed traveling to regattas around the country. Since 2002 we have had no less than 2 boats representing the club in every NCR event including two held in San Diego. This added insight as to how others were hosting and organizing their events. These members were becoming the foundation for the DPMYC.
In the early fall of 2006 Larchmont Yacht Club was scheduled to host both their “Spring Invitational Regatta” and the NCR. Their commodore and chief organizer Button Padin was informed by both of his daughters their intention to get married, one in the Spring and the other in the fall of 2007. Poor Buttons panicked and called Chuck Luscomb a member of the DPMYC and asked if we would be interested in hosting the two events. We accepted and changed overnight from a club non-registered club with the AMYA that raced from 10:00-12:00 on Sundays to one that was now committed to hosting not one but two major regattas on the CR-914 schedule. Both Regattas were well done and attended by more than 30 boats from across the country.
2007 ended with an additional interest in adding a second class to the DPMYC fleet. The 2008 season saw the addition of eleven, EC-12’s, ten of the new owners also sail CR-914’s. This added Wednesday evening sailing for the EC-12's.
The club will be hosting two regattas this year. The 2011 New England Spring Regatta for CR-914’s and the Thunder Mug Regatta in early September for EC-12’s as part of the new “New England Cup”. The Club is alive and trying new thing with the basic goals of having fun while racing hard.
Brian Jobson
Former DPMYC Commodore
