All for the love of sailing...
Our Own Damn Yacht Club's history
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All for the love of sailing...
Our Own Damn Yacht Club's history
All for the love of sailing
This page is a recollection of our history, a living page that is constantly changing.
We will be adding to this, making it more complete as we go.
If you have something to add, whether it is photography, videos, or stories...
1929
The first unofficial regatta was held on Labor Day Weekend, marking the start of club.
This even would later be considered the First Annual Regatta.
1930 - PREWAR
WW2 + AFTER
A Junior Fleet and Cruising Division were formed and the first newsletter was published in 1955.
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
In 2009, WRSC expanded into Adult Learn to Sail classes thanks to the huge effort of Peter Duncan, who collected the Albacores and brought the program to the club.
In 2019, West River Sailing Club started celebrating its 90th year at our 90th Billy Heintz (Labor Day Weekend) Annual Regatta. Whether it is the new logo celebrating OODYC's burgee (pictured below), or the new website in 2019, our 90th year will be a year of improvement and celebration. 2019 saw our club look furthur outward with the start up of the West River Sailing Foundation and our partnership as the local Sea Scout troop's host organization.
With support from the community and friends, West River Sailing Club has continued to prosper. Programs like our youth ctivities, our one-design program, our big boat racing activities, and our cruising fleet, along with high profile regattas like the Star North American Championships, 505 championships, or Albacore nationals make WRSC a highly visible part of the Chesapeake sailing scene.
Continued modernization of the facilities and an active volunteer spirit with the membership has lead WRSC into a new era of success — insuring our ability to support the sailor and sport for many years to come.
World War II kept racing and activities to a minimum. War bonds were often given as trophies. After the war, interest and participation in the club grew rapidly. In 1953, under the leadership of Commodore Walter Windsor, WRSC leased clubhouse space at Zang's Pier (located where Pirates Cove is today).
1930 Billy W. Heintz 1931 Billy W. Heintz 1932 Billy W. Heintz 1933 E.H. Hartge 1934 E.H. Hartge 1935 Delmus Stutler 1936 Billy W. Heintz 1937 Billy W. Heintz 1938 Osbourne Owings 1939 Osbourne Owings 1940 Caroll Smith 1941 Caroll Smith 1942 Edmund W. Hartge 1943 Richard McNew 1944 E.H. Hartge 1945 E.H. Hartge 1946 C.E. Kline Jr. 1947 Oscar E. Hartge 1948 Vernon (Buddy) Hartge 1949 Louis Zang 1950 John M. Thomas 1951 John M. Thomas 1952 Douglas A. Kolb 1953 Walter Windsor 1954 Delbert Zang 1955 Laurence W. Hartge 1956 Robert A. Watson 1957 W. Hartge Fifer 1958 Nelson H. Smith 1959 Harold A. Blood 1960 Kenneth Smith 1961 Herbert R. Strong 1962 Thomas L.K. Smull 1963 Alger B. Doland and Stanley Pangborn 1964 Stanley Pangborn 1965 Eric Steinlein 1966 David Shaw 1967 Ralph Darley 1968 Fulton Cooke 1969 Milton L. Henry 1970 Vernon Weihe 1971 Fred Byrum 1972 King Marshburn 1973 Jack Lynch 1974 Walter H. Rogers 1975 Fred Mewhinney 1976 John Nairn 1977 Win Berg 1978 Peter Heidenberger 1979 James H. Pugsley 1980 William F. Moore 1981 Charles A. Baker 1982 John K. Crummey 1983 Totch Hartge 1984 James Mann 1985 Hallie Thomas (Honorary) 1985 James Mann 1986 Stanton K Calhoun 1987 Harry Kling 1988 Elsie Wallis 1989 Thomas Mooney 1990 John Coyle 1991 John Boyd 1992 David Irey 1993 Steven Pollard 1994 Carlton Fitz 1995 Meredith Horan 1996 Joseph Chuchla 1997 Peter Jones 1998 Peter Mignerey 1999 Melville Converse 2000 Rob Nilsen 2001 Bunky Hines 2002 Charley Trammell 2003 Pete Emens 2004 Roger Schermerhorn 2005 Nancy Irey 2006 Teri Nilsen 2007 Dave Dawson 2008 Chris Ford 2009 Lloyd Kinch 2010 Bruce Ogden 2011 Carol McCullough 2012 Al Lohman 2013 Bernie Doyle 2014 Greg Whalen 2015 John Cece (Honorary) 2015 John von Senden 2016 Constantine Seremetis 2017 John Shea 2018 Larry Schneider
2019 Nolan Stokes
In 1960 land was purchased and our present clubhouse, designed by WRSC member David Shaw, was erected. The land it was built on was donated by our five time commodore, Billy Heintz. It was dedicated in a gala ceremony in July 1963. The original drawings of it are shown in the clubhouse. That same year the club distributed its first Membership Roster.
