Tuesday, March 19th  2024
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THE HISTORY OF DPMYC

1997-2008

The Dry Pants Model Yacht Club was conceived at a major boat show in 1997. A few active sailors saw Greg Worth’s booth selling CR-914s and thought this might be a great addition to the Essex Yacht Club fleet in Essex, Ct. The club started with 10 - 15 boats based on old rosters that have been handed down. The Club’s 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 sailing.

The club then tried the cove behind the club, but found the average 3 feet of tide dropped the water level to less than the draft of a CR-914 at low tide. Scheduling was made difficult by Mother Nature. Finally, the Club moved to Sunset Pond in Essex and raced Sunday mornings from 1030-1200. The timing was scheduled around frost-biting. For those in more moderate climates, frostbiting is racing small boats like Blue Jays, Dyer Dows and IC dinghies during the Fall, Winter and Spring in New England. The starts for frostbiting were 130PM so this allowed for enough time to race the models, then run to the club, launch your boat and make the starting line on time. The Dry Pants Yacht Club maintained this schedule until 2005.

By moving away from the Yacht Club property, the DPMYC stimulated interest in model sailing among both non-EYC members and those visiting the town on weekends. This venue lasted until 2006 when a decision was made to move the Club to a larger pond in Deep River. By this time the club was almost completely non-members of EYC and those that were members were not founders.

The move to Deep River was critical to keeping 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 doubled the amount of racing for the club and has been very successful.

The changing membership away from the formal yacht club was never intentional. Sometimes things just happen! Within our membership, a group grew that enjoyed traveling to regattas around the country. Since 2002, the DPMYC has become a very visible and successful model sailing club. Visiting other clubs also provided insight into how others were hosting and organizing their events. This group of sailors became the new foundation of the Club.

In the early Fall of 2006, Larchmont Yacht Club was scheduled to host the “Spring Invitational Regatta” and the NCR. Their Commodore and chief organizer, Button Padin, was informed by both of his daughters that they planned on getting married in the same year. Buttons panicked and asked Chuck Luscomb, a DPMYC member, if we would be interested in hosting the two events. We accepted and changed overnight from a non-registered AMYA club to a registered club. Both regattas were well-done and attended by more than 30 boats from across the country.

2007 ended with interest in adding a second class to the DPMYC fleet. The 2008 season saw the addition of eleven EC-12s, ten of the owners also sailing CR-914s. This added Wednesday evening sailing for the EC-12s.

 

2009-Present

Since it’s inception at Essex Yacht Club the Dry Pants Model Yacht Club has grown and remains very active. Our focus remains on developing the CR-914 class in Deep River at Plattwood Pond. Today, our primary racing time is Sunday 10:30-1:30. The “Plattwood Series”, an 8 week racing series, includes the CR-914’s sailing from 10:30 till 12:00 and the newly added Dragon Flite 95’s sailing from 12:15 till 1:30. There is also less formal sailing on Wednesday’s from 2-3 pm any type of boat and 3-4:30 for CR-914’s only. This is a good time to come get your boat wet and try your hand at sailing with some veterans around to help out!