Marking 125th year, Ocean City Yacht Club honors past, celebrates present, sailing into the future
OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City Yacht Club’s history is measured not only as the locus for sailing on the island, but in the generations of families who have brought the club to its 125th anniversary this year and who will take it well into the future.
The Yacht Club is celebrating 125 years “anchored in tradition: honoring the past, celebrating the present, sailing into the future.”
This Saturday night, July 11, the club will be mark the anniversary with a gala. Among those joining in the bayfront party will be members whose family histories are measured in generations, including Commodore Russell M. Hanscom III and Past Commodore Matthew S. Vollmer, the club’s historian.
Vollmer was 8 years old when his family joined the club around 1950. Hanscom’s great-grandfather and both of his grandfathers were members.
Both consider the Ocean City Yacht Club (OCYC) a mainstay of the community.
“I sailed with my grandfather and I have a granddaughter that I expect to sail with,” Hanscom said in an interview. “You see different generations all across the club, grandparents and grandchildren participating in the same events. The club facilitates bringing families together with activities that we can all enjoy.”
“The club has been around for quite a while, so we’re obviously doing something right because we’re close to full membership all the time, and (members) just seem to really enjoy themselves,” Vollmer said. “We have a strong core of people who … love the club and are there often. It’s a nice fraternity of friends.”
A familiar name moves up the ranks
As commodore, Hanscom oversees committees that report to him including budget, finance, bylaws, dues and assessments. There is a rear commodore who handles the on-the-water activities and a vice commodore in charge of inside-the-club activities.
If Hanscom’s name is familiar to those with no connection to the Yacht Club, his grandparents ran Ocean City’s Baby Parade for 22 years. A prestigious annual award at the parade is the Hanscom Award.
As a kid, Hanscom would tag along with his grandfathers; one lived at 2 Battersea Road, right across the street. “It was always a part of my life,” he said.
He worked his way up through the ranks. When he first joined the OCYC board, he was in charge of the Baby Parade.
Hanscom explained how the ranks work.
He was on the board of governors three times for three-year terms. “You basically serve … and then you’re off. You really evolve and learn more and more,” he explained. “Typically you work your way to what they call the front table, which is the financial secretary, the recording secretary, and then you move into the commodores or the flag officers positions.”
That goes from rear commodore to vice commodore and finally commodore.
Sailing, boating:
Guy Lombardo
and Dennis Conner
As the name implies, sailing and boating are key to the club.
Hanscom’s love for the OCYC derives from that.
“My father was a powerboat person. He raced speedboats and my mother’s family raced sailboats. So both sides of it,” he said of that love. “That’s why I joined because I was into on the water activities. I love to sail and that’s what really got me involved in the club.
“I would hope it’s a mainstay of the city,” he said of the Yacht Club. “It’s an enterprise that offers activities for anybody going to the shore, going to Ocean City. It provides entry to sailing, to learn how to sail, to become involved in sailing.
“In the old days, it was really boating, and … it’s evolved to a lot more activities. What’s really important is that it’s family. You look at generations participating in sailing together,” he said.
“We’ve been a staple in the city for many years for people who enjoy boating and the social aspects that go along with it,” Vollmer said. “You don’t have to be a boater. We still have plenty of other social activities that people can enjoy.
“I think it’s a good outlet for the city to provide a place where people can feel comfortably social, get a good meal and see their friends,” he said.
In 2020, the OCYC created a 501(C)(3) charitable foundation. “Through that we are able to support the community in an even more personal way, in that we’re allowed to give grants to support junior sailing for underprivileged kids and other maritime education,” Vollmer said.
Junior sailing is the backbone of the club, he added, but the club used to have a robust speedboat racing program.
Guy Lombardo (1902-1977), a bandleader of national prominence who died a half-century ago, “had a racing hydroplane that he brought down here and put in our race,” Vollmer said. “It was pretty neat to have somebody with that kind of celebrity status. He was just one of several world-class race boats that came to those regattas in those days. That was kind of neat.”
The speedboat racing ended because of safety factors and potential litigation. Boats are much faster now than they were in the 1950s and 1960s when the club had a marathon race that went all the way up to Mays Landing.
On the sailing front, there are prominent moments with history traced back to the club.
“In more recent years, we’ve had winners in the Annapolis-to-Bermuda race. One of our members was a crew member of America’s Cup Yacht that raced back in the ’80s,” Vollmer said. “It was pretty neat to see him on board when Dennis Conner accepted the (America’s) Cup.
“We recently had a couple members who have qualified for the Olympics, so we have a very strong sailing program and the instructors are all accredited by U.S. Sailing, so it’s a very safe program,” he said.
Hanscom sees the Yacht Club continuing by evolving and building.
“I go back and look at the activities that were in place when I was a kid and what is happening now, what is available to members young and old alike,” he said.
“They have a robust older group, but we have activities for everyone. And it’s important to look out into the future and see where we’re going,” Hanscom said.
“Right now, the emphasis and the focus is to try to help our intermediates, whether junior sailors at this point, as they grow up and then when they age out and go to college. We see that drop off, they pick up different activities through college, and then hopefully come back to Ocean City and back to the club,” he said.
“What I want to do is breach the gap with more intermediate activities or young adult activities. We keep those families and their children active,” Hanscom said. “My daughter just had a child and I want to see that family remain active in the club so that my grandchild stays active and sailing because it’s a wonderful activity.
“Sailing is just so empowering for anybody, whether you’re young or old. Anybody can do it. I really want to encourage and be a catalyst for change as we need to evolve, for our children to remain active in the club all through and into their senior years.”
A hurricane and war
caused interruption
The historian said the club began in 1901 and has been at three locations over the years.
It started at 11th Street, but that was washed away. Then it moved to Fifth Street, “which coincidentally was across the street from the mayor’s house at the time. He also became commodore of the club,” Vollmer said.
In 1912, it moved to its present location at the intersection of Bay Avenue and Battersea Road.
The club had a rough patch in the 1940s.
“First of all, there was the war going on. And the hurricane came through in 1944, which was one of the worst ever to hit Ocean City,” Vollmer said. “It tore the roof off the building at that time, which we called the Grande Dame Yacht Club, because it was very elegant — Persian rugs and chandeliers. It was top-drawer.
“That clubhouse was put up in 1912. But the ’20s was kind of a grandiose period and they treated themselves well. That was a beautiful clubhouse,” he said.
“The hurricane came, tore the roof off it and did a lot of damage, not only interior wise, but exterior, and there was a shortage of manpower because all these eligible men were out fighting the war,” Vollmer said. “They decided to tear that clubhouse down. So from that period, which was 1944 until 1947, we did not have a clubhouse that we had to rebuild from the ground up. Other than that three-year span, we’ve been continuously operating and doing well.”
Vollmer said now there are about 400 memberships, which includes families, so there “is probably” about 1,000 people who belong to the club at this point.
Sailboat classes evolve,
love for sailing constant
Vollmer explained the different classes of OCYC sailboats that have evolved over the years.
“In the early 1900s, they had a class of boat called the Mosquito that was 16 feet long and was kind of called the junior trainer. That was a pretty big boat for an 8- or 10-year-old to try to handle, so most of the kids in those days learned how to sail by crewing for older people. Eventually, when they got into their mid teens, they could handle a boat.
“Now the emphasis is to get the kids in their own boats earlier, and the Optimus Pram is only 8 feet long. It’s a worldwide class and the kids can start in that at 8 years old, which is pretty neat. Then they develop a love of sailing and make good friends along the way,” he continued.
“Right now, we have the Optimus Pram, we have Sunfish, Lasers, 420s, Lightnings and J22 classes. And then we have various other boats that are involved in our offshore racing program.”
Asked about his own favorite, it felt like Vollmer’s eyes lit up.
“My favorite sailboat was a Finn, which is an Olympic class, single-handed boat. It was just so responsive and fun to sail, and you could just feel its personality when you had it in the groove, when everything is trimmed right and it’s sailing just as it should at its best speed,” he said.
“For a motorboat, I had my professional captain’s license and for a while I did private training and boat deliveries, so I got to see a lot of different kinds of boats. I decided that the perfect boat to have is either a 28-foot, twin engine boat, or, if you want to go cruising, a 42-foot boat. They’re the most manageable and fun-sized boats to have. They can handle anything, and still you have enough room to move around without feeling cramped.”
When Vollmer’s family joined around 1950, his parents got involved with the sailing program. He followed along behind them and his older brother and sister.
His father was eventually elected commodore.
“I stayed there and sailed all through my high school and college days, and then came back later and sailed in the Olympic Finn class. I’ve been associated with the club ever since, either through motorboats or sailing or cruising.
“The main thing I love is that you make friends when you’re sailing. You see fellow kids at their most vulnerable part, like when they turn over and they’re desperate,” Vollmer said. “They either come to help you, or they don’t. They show their true colors. Through that, you make your friends selection. Many of my friends have been members, not quite as long as I, but they’ve been around for a long time.
“That’s what I love most about the club, the camaraderie and the friends I’ve made over the years that have been longtime friends.”
Vollmer got involved because of his parents and that legacy continues.
“My two daughters both race sailboats there. And their children, my grandchildren, also raced sailboats and were very competitive in their respective classes, having won the fleet championship in whatever class they were sailing at that time,” he said.
Vollmer said he aged out of sailing when he was about 75 years old (he’s 84 now), but still enjoys the water with a wave runner and a runabout.
“I had to give up sailing because if I couldn’t be in the top three anymore, I didn’t want to do it,” he said.
A strong future
for the OCYC
When Hanscom was growing up, there were times he took the Yacht Club for granted. He lived next door so he could walk over and have lunch to take part in the events.
When he recently invited his next-door neighbors in Philadelphia to the club for dinner, it brought him a new appreciation.
“They said, ‘You mean we can just sit here and enjoy the club?’ We are members and I always took it for granted that you could go in and out of the club as you wanted to, because that’s what I always did,” he explained. “Being a member affords you all the opportunities that the club has. From a scenic standpoint, there’s no better view than from our waterfront — the sunsets, the bay is absolutely beautiful.
“I never appreciated it because I grew up there, but from the eyes of a new member, I have a new appreciation for the club. You can launch a kayak or launch a boat from the club and go paddle up and down the bay or sail up and down the bay. The club really opens up for people,” he said.
To become a member, a current member has to propose them to the membership committee, then someone seconds them and basically does a write-up on the application. They interview with the membership committee then it’s taken to the board.
“The board learns about those proposed members and we vote on accepting them. If there’s any reason why we wouldn’t, then that vote happens as well,” Hanscom said. “It starts with an application, with sponsorship, and then a membership application and interview with our membership committee.”
“I can only say we’ve been doing things right for 125 years, so if we keep up with the times, making necessary changes to meet the evolving times that we live in, we will continue for another good, long time,” Vollmer said.
Learn more at ocyc.org.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
Photos courtesy of the Ocean City Yacht Club. At top, the flag officers of the Ocean City Yacht Club. From left, Eleanor Parker, VC/PC John Parker,
Cynthia Hanscom, Commodore Russell Hanscom, Tracie Hurst and RC Max Hurst.
