When Commodore Colgan asked me "How did the fleets get started?", I wasn't ready to answer, as my research on club history had only reached 1884, and at my pace I won't reach 1964 (when you joined, Frank) till 2020. So this article is an incomplete look at some fleet related history before I get back to the good old days. The short answer is that boats are designed and built, and when people buy them and sail together in a group, that's how a fleet is started.

In the 114 years of our club history, members have generally concentrated on "same type" small boats for racing purposes. The first fleets of same type boats at RCC were sailing and paddling canoes loosely classified by The American Canoe Association into five racing classes determined by whether their design was intended primarily for paddling, sailing, cruising, or a combination of these, plus other nominal specifications. Because of the loose specifications, different builders became favored as their boats were proved faster. The International 10 Square Meter Decked Sailing Canoe class evolved from this beginning and exists today as the fastest solo monohull sailboat in the world. By coincidence, Sandy Douglass, Thistle designer, won his first race at age 9 in a decked sailing canoe.

Club members already had various paddle and sail cruising canoes but were impressed by this new competitive sport when they visited the third annual meet of ACA at Stony Lake, Canada, in 1883. From its start in 1880 on Lake George, the ACA had grown to 224 members, and at Stony Lake there were 400 campers and 300 canoes. Frank Andrews then persuaded George Ruggles to start building competitive racing canoes, and members bought them, as many as seven at once. Accounts of RCC races from that era indicate that no more than 10 boats of one class usually started a race and there were at least 2 classes. Membership was limited to 50 by club laws adopted 1886; it probably ranged from 25-40, with about the same number of boats and half of those actively racing in two classes. These boats required youthful energy and agility to sail well, or even stay upright, and physical strength and endurance to paddle competitively. But nobody in the club was over 40 then (average 30), and life expectancy was 49 years.

One design racing as we know it today really began in the 1930's with the design of the Snipe (1931) Comet (1932) and Lightning (1938), all trailerable competitive boats with strong national associations. On the Bay in the 1930's, the Irondequoit Canoe Club sailed Larks, Algonquin Y.C. sailed Comets and Newport Y.C. sailed Snipes, adding Lightnings in 1946 and merging with AYC in 1953. In 1938-41, there were 4 fleets with awards at RCC: Comet, Sailing Dinghy, K-Boat, and Lark. The latter two were local area boats with no significant class association. Membership was 35, with about 31 boats, which the board felt was "optimum for facilities" at the old clubhouse acquired in 1914 with our present site, and replaced in 1957. RCC held joint races before WWII with the Larks of ICC, and the Comets of AYC.

In 1945 the club started looking into the "possibilities of a one class boat", but nothing happened until Canandaigua, Seneca, Fairhaven, and Coneseus all started Thistle fleets first. Canandaigua (Fleet 10) held The Third Thistle Nationals in 1948, 4 years before RCC got its charter as Fleet 46 in 1952. There were already 500 Thistles built by 1950, its fifth year. In 1951, RCC had 26 members, the same four pre-war fleets, at least 3 Thistles, and a few other boats for a total of about 21 boats. According to news accounts, the Thistle was adopted as official club boat in 1951. The first 3 Thistles were bought by Dave Allyn (212), Charles Angle (320), and Marsden Tuthill (477), fleet charter founders.

Allyn, vice-commodore, was a pre-war member, secretary in 1943, and commodore 1945-50, who remained at least an associate member till he died in 1992. Angle was the club's sailing technician; he sold his Thistle to another member in 1954, joining RYC to sail a big boat, but remained an RCC member. His brother George was another top Thistle sailor at RCC. Tuthill was a new member and lawyer at Harris, Beach who would later negotiate the purchase of a vital piece of property for RCC in 1957 from Wards Natural Science Establishment.

At the first Brown Jug Race in 1952, all 7 Thistles finished ahead of 24 Snipes, Comets, Lightnings, and K-Boats from NYC and AYC, all starting at the same time. After that, the Thistle fleet boomed and the old fleets gradually faded at RCC; they had no awards after 1952. The Penguin fleet started about 1959 as a junior (under 18) program fostered by Marshall Gates II, Doc's dad, and Wayne McKusik and had a peak of about 12 boats in 1962. That gave way to the Sailfish/Sunfish fleet in a few years, as the Penguin was not self-rescuing as the Sunfish was. McKusik completely switched, becoming first Sunfish Fleet Captain. The overall trend of boats and full members after the Thistle from 1952-91 is shown in the chart taken from Club directories, excluding associate and honorary listings. "Other" boats include all other boats listed in a directory but not named on this chart; generally no two alike.

A restrictive policy against other boats, other fleets, and even other potential members was defined by the board per the attached Jib Sheet article in Sept. 1974.

Leo Balandis December 10, 1995