The Beverly Yacht Club

By Judith Westlund Rosbe

The Beverly Yacht Club, one of the oldest yacht clubs in America, was founded in 1872 by young men who summered in Beverly. They were upset that the newly formed Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead refused to recognize yachts under 30 feet in length on the waterline for the races that they held. Thus, Edward and Walter Burgess (the famous yacht designer), at a supper party at their home in Boston on February 24, 1872, formally launched the Beverly Yacht Club. The first regatta was held by the club on June 22, 1872, in which 11 boats, 10 catboats, and a sloop started in three classes. For the first 23 years, the Beverly Yacht Club had no fixed abode; they held races and regattas at ports most convenient to the members. By the mid-1880s, regattas were held in Monument Beach and Marblehead, but as the Buzzards Bay membership increased, the Beverly Yacht Club leased its first clubhouse on Wing's Neck in 1895. In 1913, the club moved to Marion, where it has been located ever since.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Jul 5, 2006
• ISBN: 9781439617892

Judith Westlund Rosbe

Judith Westlund Rosbe, a resident of Marion for almost three decades, is an avid historian and author of Marion and Maritime Marion. She is an active member of the Marion Historical Society, where she served as president for nine years, and is the club historian of the Beverly Yacht Club.

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INTRODUCTION

According to an account left by Walter Burgess, a younger brother of the famous yacht designer Edward Burgess, the idea of forming the Beverly Yacht Club began when he and two of his summer neighbors, Franklin Dexter and William F. Whitney, were riding their horses in Beverly in the fall of 1871. The three commiserated that the Eastern Yacht Club, which had been founded in 1870 in Marblehead, had refused to permit smaller yachts under 26 feet in length on the waterline (this number was subsequently raised to 30 feet) to enter its yacht races. At the suggestion of Walter’s father, Benjamin F. Burgess, they invited their young friends on the north shore to a supper party at their home at 62 Beacon Street in Boston on the evening of February 24, 1872, and the Beverly Yacht Club was formally launched for the racing of smaller yachts. Dues were set at $5 a year.

Besides Edward, Sidney, Arthur, and Walter Burgess, there were present at this initial meeting Count Nicola Altrochi, John F. Andrew, William Appleton, Perry Belmont, T. Dennie Boardman, Arthur W. Cabot, Abbott W. Cobb, Edward W. Codman, Franklin Dexter, Edward Everett, George Fiske, George A. Gibson, William A. Jeffries, Walter Lloyd Jeffries, Henry W. Lamb, William Lawrence, Lewis Cass Ledyard, William Caleb Loring, Harrison Gray Otis, William F. Otis, Dudley M. Pickman, Edward B. Russell, David Sears Jr., Alanson Tucker, Frank M. Weld, George West, Edward F. Whitney, William F. Whitney, and Charles H. Williams. Edward Burgess, who was closely connected with the Eastern Yacht Club, consented to act as commodore of the newly formed Beverly Yacht Club for two years.

The first regatta was held at Beverly on June 22, 1872, where 11 boats, 10 catboats, and a sloop started in three classes. Only yachts under 30 feet on the waterline were eligible to enter the Beverly Yacht Club races. The first class was for boats between 21 and 30 feet in length on the waterline, the second class was for boats between 17 and 20 feet, and the third class was for boats under 17 feet. Most of the boats were catboats, which were of various custom designs, so a formula was devised to handicap the yachts, adding or subtracting time to the actual racing time of each boat to determine the winners of each race on corrected time. Pennants were also given for best actual times in addition to corrected time winners.

Because of the problems connected with handicap racing, some of the members decided to investigate commissioning a one-design boat for the members to race against each other. In 1898, Nathanael Herreshoff designed a gaff-rigged sloop called the one-design 15 footer, or the Herreshoff 15 (also the E class or Es), especially for members of the Beverly Yacht Club. The class became very popular, and approximately 70 boats were eventually built. The most popular of all classes to be raced at Beverly Yacht Club has been the Herreshoff 12.5 footer (commonly called H12), which was designed by Nathanael Herreshoff in 1914.

Over the years, many additional one-design classes have been included in the fleet of boats racing at the Beverly Yacht Club. The club motto written on the club seal in Latin, litus ama altum alii teneant (Others seek the deep, I like the shallow water), still reflects the club’s strong tradition in small-boat racing.

One

BEGINNINGS 1872

Edward Burgess was the first commodore of the Beverly Yacht Club, serving from 1872 to 1874. At the suggestion of his father, Benjamin F. Burgess, Edward and his brother Walter invited their young friends to launch a new club for racing small yachts that were under 26 (later raised to 30) feet on the waterline. Another brother, Arthur Burgess, was commodore from 1877 to 1879.