1906 to 1968

Thanks to the staff of VillageSoup and Knox County Times and Jim Bowditch for the following history.

The Camden Yacht Club was organized in 1906, and twenty years later Cyrus H.K. Curtis donated the club’s harbor-front property to the town. The property encompassed 1.5 acres at the time of the gift and included a clubhouse built by Curtis in 1911-1912. In 1922, he replaced the club’s wooden bulkhead with granite, and by 1926, when he gifted the property to the town, the land and building were valued at $100,000.

At its inception, there were two types of members of the Camden Yacht Club—those who owned a yacht and those who did not. Members with yachts were in the minority, according to documents from the collection of Albert Bennett, now housed at the Camden Area History Center.

In 1929, the Camden Yacht Club arranged its first motor boat regatta. According to the minutes: “The Chairman of the Regatta Committee gave a report of the activities of his committee and of the very successful and spectacular affair they pulled off. He reported total receipts to be $4372.66 and total expenditures of $3,772, thus leaving a balance of $600.66.  

(Source: The Rudder magazine)  (Image courtesy of Jim Bowditch)

The first motor boat Regatta of the Camden Yacht Club in 1929. Note the open design of the outboard, and the clothing and the hair styles. This was before the stock market crash which followed two months later.

Regattas continued in 1930 and 1931, and were also profitable. By 1931 the membership had peaked at 150 and the minutes note that, “the Club is proving to be an important factor in the summer social and sporting life of the community, which is very gratifying to Commodore Curtis, through whose generosity these benefits have been made possible.”

By 1932, however, the full weight of the depression began to be felt. “Economic conditions bore rather heavily on our membership as we had 20 resignations.” There were 32 more resignations in 1933. The Chairman of the Regatta Committee reported that on account of the economic conditions, no activities in that line had taken place.

In 1933, both Commodore Curtis and Vice Commodore Law passed on. It was a passing from an era focusing on motorboats to one focusing on sail, as it was also the first year of the HAJ boat fleet. At the 1933 annual meeting, “The Chairman of the House Committee...remarked on the enthusiasm created by the new one class boats, and the keen competition in the races… There were no events in the Power Boat and Outboard Motor sections. All racing was confined to the ‘Shark’ [HAJ is shark in Swedish] boats, which has created marked interest in younger members.”

(Image courtesy of Jim Bowditch)

Racers sailing HAJ (Shark) boats round R2 bell outside the entrance to Camden Harbor

In about the mid-1960s, boat construction had shifted from mostly wood to largely fiberglass. This meant that used wooden boats could be purchased rather inexpensively, if the owners didn't mind coping with upkeep.

These changes also created more opportunities for boating. By 1965, active membership, excluding children, had risen to 315, including 85 boat owners. Parking had become a real issue by that time.

(Source: Vaughan Lee) (Image courtesy of Jim Bowditch)

The Family Fun Race, conceived by Stuart Ferris in 1976, brought out a mixture of wood and fiberglass watercraft. Whisper, owned by Jim Marshall, is in the foreground and Habakkuk B. is slightly obscuring the buoy that the skipper unfortunately slid into. It was a dead calm.

(Image courtesy of Jim Bowditch)

Use of fiberglass also allowed for some unique boat designs, including this shoe boat that sailed into Camden Harbor courtesy of Sebago Docksides shoes.

In 1966, in addition to inter-club team racing with Christmas Cove, North Haven and Northport, the club competed for the O’Day Single-Handed Championship, the Prince of Wales Bowl, the Mallory Cup, the Sears Cup, and the Adams Cup. This was a year of racing triumph with CYC being first in Maine and second in New England.

(Source: Stephen Byrus) (Image courtesy of Jim Bowditch)

Not all Camden Yacht Club boats were large. This lovely day sailor is piloted by Chris Conover, who is taking his daughters for an afternoon sail on the bay.

With the Vietnam War well under way, the demographics were such that people did not come to the area for the entire summer, but rather came for a month at the most, or just weekends.

In 1967 the addition of a fleet of 420s was considered and recommended, based on a large number of such boats at other clubs. This took the club in a different direction than it would have gone with heavy keel boats; 420s are lightweight “go fast” craft which have been very competitive. It was noted that these would only be suitable for racing in protected waters, and not for sailing in the Bay.

By 1968, the first four 420s were purchased by the club and were subsequently sold to members. A “Junior Yacht Club” was established within the larger yacht club, consisting mostly of children in the sailing class. The Junior Yacht Club had its own officers, committees and activities, and even issued a set of rules governing conduct at dances: All people under 21 years of age, coats and tie, four sets of chaperones, no smoking inside, no drinking, no loitering, notify police to include dance in their patrol.