In the beginning…
In mid 1962, a group of sailors met in Middle Bay to race whatever craft they owned, under the enthusiastic leadership of Donald Bailey. Bailey, an architect from Long Beach, now living in Florida, was an avid sailor and the owner of many interesting and odd-ball sailing craft, often at the same time.
When two sailboaters met on the water, they test their skills, one against the other. When three meet, they have a regatta. Donald Bailey recognized this primal maritime urge and began to organize these chance occurrences, hailing skippers to meet with him and to hold structured races. By the end of the summer, they exchanged addresses and Don was sending Postcards with race results and future race dates.
The majority of the sailors were berthed at the Lido Marina, now the HBSC. The rest had their own dockage, usually where they lived. They raced Highlanders, Thistles, Lightnings, a trimaran, a Rebel, a Day sailor, and others under handicap scoring system.
Later in the Year, they met at Jerry Berg’s house (one of the original members), to form a club with all the appurtenances thereto, They continued to meet at somewhat regular intervals throughout the winter, at various members, homes to iron out their egos, Problems, and differences, to formulate rules and to give out trophies. Bailey sent out a newsletter and was the motivating force. In order to give the club a patina of antiquity, he developed a mythology, that the club was organized in the mid 19th century by an old seafarer named Garret Lead, Don had a sign painted with an elderly gentlemen, greybearded, seated holding an oar and inscribed "HBSC 1860". Even the members began to believe this.
‘63
By April, we had a Race Committee and a schedule for the year. The Race Committee set up the first rules and regulations for racing, Handicaps were made, rules adopted and other committees formed.
The charter members were: Jerry Berg, Frank Licari, David Herrick, Seymour Herman, Bob Rich, Bud Schoen, Jim McMahon, Sam Rosenfeld, Art Rothenberg, Phil Packard, Jerry Sachnoff, Jack Van Name, and Hartley Grim, The firs trace committee consisted of Herrick, McMahon, Rich, Sachnoff, and Van Name. Donald designed the club Burgee. Every incoming member was given a burgee to fly on his boat.
The members owned the following boats: Highlander; Rosenfeld, Rothenberg, Schoen, Rich, Bailey, Herrick, and Berg. Handicap Class; Packard (Firefly), Grim (Osprey), Vicky Bernstein (Lightning), Schoen (Rhodes 19), Herman (Rebel), McMahon (Trimaran), Licari (Shinnecock).
A trophy dinner was at Lenny’s Steakhouse the night J.F.K. was killed. Donald Bailey led us all in a moment of Prayer for him and our country.
‘64
A houseboat on a barge was obtained, Probably by Bailey, and anchored in Middle Bay during the racing season. This was the, clubhouse, Race Committee boat, starting line, and whatever. It had a head that never worked. It was regularly vandalized, graphitized, and, on non-racing days probably used by the locals as a place of assignation. At the end of the season, it was brought in to be repaired. Ultimately, a few Years later, the barge was de-housed and used for a time as a landing dock at the club. Its final resting place was on the shores of the dump across the channel.
Our first sailing course was announced in March, 1964. It cost $5.00 for the husband or wife, $3.00 for a child. Four lectures on sailing were given by Ms. Pamela Prime of the Sea Cliff Yacht Club.
The first commodore was Jack Van Name. Of the founding fathers, only Bob Jaffee, Jim McMahon, Dave Herrick, Seymour Herman and Bob Rich remain. In 1965, the current general structure of the club was put in place.
Lido Marine, which occupied the north half of our property, was owned and serviced by Pete Gallagher, . He lived in four small rooms upstairs, had a garage, workshop and small supply store downstairs. The current paint house had an electric winch to haul ashore boats onto the railway for service, maintenance and storage, Our members docked, worked on, and stored their boats here as well. The dock and ramp formed an "L" on the north and a straight section (our center dock) on the south, with the slips inside and an opening in the southeast corner for exit. There was no way of getting out in a Northeaster. You were pinned in. There were other boaters, as well, docked here, including one who had a beautiful classic wood boat, and every weekend, a new girlfriend. We all envied the high polish on both each weekend.
The club started as, and still remains, a cooperative; committee chores, work end labor being done by the members. Then, as now, there were workers and the onlookers. Work parties were a communal event with friendly overtones and accompanying camaraderie. As the club grew, it became an extended family. The joy of each member became the joy of all, the sorrow of each was also felt by all.
In 1964-66, the current elders joined, Ed Stein and Paul Katz among them. In 1963, the membership was 23 and increased to 39 in 1964.There were those who favored a small membership because of the friendliness and intimacy and those who favored a larger membership because it meant more to race and greater income.
Ed Stein, because of his expertise, was a major factor in the construction of the club; joined in later years by Joe Alter, Shelly Bryman, Hugh Malone, and others. Our original architect, of course was Donald Bailey.
In 1964, after examining the constitutions of other clubs, committee set up a constitution formalizing the club and its structure. This remained in Place until 1981, when a new one was formulated by Sid Hackell, Harry Moser and others. Women then became recognized members of the club and had a vote. Membership changed from family head, to family or, if no family, to whomsoever of either sex.
The 1964 club champions were Bob Rich and Seymour Herman. Bob Jaffee scored in the handicaps. Paul Katz had a firm hold on last, then and thereafter. An assessment in August was $10, 00 for old members and $5.00 for new.
The club meeting format, then as now consisted of minutes read, committee reports, old business and new business. The Race Committee was most important, this being the "raison d’être" of the club. We had education classes about sailing race rules and other related subjects, Spring sailing classes were started a few years later and continued each spring for many Years. This was to foster the sport of sailing, attract new members, and Provide some income. Race Committee assignments were weekly, for which failure to attend merited a penalty worse than death. Work Parties were frequent and set up each meeting, particularly in spring and fall. There were the usual complaints about there being the same attendees and non-attendees. A nominating committee was set up in September, new officers elected in October, and a budget passed in November. Trophy dinners were held annually, late November, to collect the hardware, on the previous season. These were dress-up affairs and always well attended.
In late 1964, at the insistence of Donald Bailey, it was voted that HBSC should race "one-design". Highlanders were first suggested, but these were too large and required too much crew. So the club voted for the Flying Scot, since it was fast and responsive but still a good family boat.
‘65
In January, the constitution was amended to set up a Board of Trustees to run the daily activities of the club. Also, the club received the Fleet charter, for the Flying Scots group.
This Year, Pete Gallagher, owner of the Lido Marine, married a young socialite and brought her to live at the marina. She immediately took a dim view of her new residence and its ambience (the garbage dump), She prevailed on her husband to move elsewhere. In October, the proposition to rent the marina by club was put on the floor, At this time, Connie and Jerry Freirich came aboard. A cocktail party was held at the Holiday Inn as the social event of the fall season.
By December, a committee including Dave Herrick and Bob Rich negotiated a four Year lease of the premises with option to buy under very favorable terms. There was a price of $63,000 for the building which had a $43,000 mortgage on it, The arrangement was that we would apply our rent check which covered the mortgage, against the option to buy the property for $43,000 plus one dollar. HBSC now had a home! We also found that the 38 feet in from the bulkhead belonged to the town of Hempstead and we Paid rent on this for a long time at $50 a Year, The club was formally incorporated in1965.
‘66
We now had a Place to live and many plans for this place. After much discussion, plans were accepted and the architect and the builder, Bailey and Stein, supervised the realization, using the labor of the whole club. The conversion of the building began. The whole upper floor was gutted and redone to assume the present status. Partitions were put in, tables and the bar we reconstructed and chairs we repurchased. The place was livable, All the debris, in the Process was thrown out the windows on the north side. Suddenly, we found a hill of enormous proportions reaching to the second floor. This became the cause of much discussion and amusement, Ultimately it was cleared. The homes across the street were being built and in return for the use of our electricity and facilities, the developers helped us with the clearing and trucking. In the process of demolition and construction, roof supporting elements were removed. Bailey said that this was O.K. but later Bryman supported the sagging roof with the steel wires You see today. Also we had no time to insulate the roof so we froze during club meetings the following winter until insulation was put in place.
The downstairs shop was changed to an entry way and toilet, Our current locker room was a garage and was used for storage.
All this took Place fall to spring, 1965-66. May 16, 1966 was painting day and we were all there, man, woman, and child with brush in hand. I think we did it all, inside and outside in one day! The docks were repaired somewhat and we had two ramps from before and makeshift floats (including the cut-down barge)going straight out. Across the channel were some old Piles and walks. We discussed the use of these but vetoed the idea. The members without slips were later Put on moorings.
‘67
Early in the Year, Bailey, designed pontoon floats to be used for slips, walkways, and docks. These were long oblong, fibreglassed plywood floats with boards going lengthwise as walkways. We differed from all those who used simple, low maintenance structures. Ours had to be taken out each winter, repaired, bottom painted and Put back each spring. Those were work Parties! And the Chinese armies required were enormous. This, of course resulted in collegiality, brotherly love and a tainu of insanity, Also much cursing, splinters, and wrenched shoulders, Ii was rumored that the club would trade two doctors for a good carpenter.
We had a hoist made of two "I" beams and an angle support with a motor that always needed repair, Someone was always screwing it up.
In spring, summer, and fall, we raced and enjoyed ourselves, Rules were instituted both for racing and for house and grounds. On July 7, 1967, it was decided that we would not have any new Projects. We had run out of money.
‘68
In January, the Purchase of a committee boat was discussed. A Spring sailing class was organized. We had been using borrowed or makeshift boats for the R.C. The use of moorings across the channel for the excess boats was sanctioned, Lockers were put in. The election of officers was moved to November, It was not noted when the custom of re-electing officers for a second term began. At this time, the Ladies of the club were objecting to the assigned chores of keeping the place clean and straight. A cleaning service was hired and the ladies were mollified.
Next door to the south of us the land was owned by a Party fishing boat owner. The Survivor II was docked and sailed out of there. The small house was a coffee shop plus bait and fishing supplies. There was a walk-in refrigerator at the bulkhead (over the middle concrete apron). The owner was retiring and the land would be Put up for sale. On September 9, the Board voted this down but approved a new hoist motor for $42.40. They also discussed a concrete roadway from the, hoist to the street, but never implemented it.