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How the Arizona Yacht Club Got Started
By Dave Shapiro
AYC was the child of Ruth Beals (now Inscho), the first sailboat
dealer in Arizona. In the summer of 1958 she set up a fenced
in area on the north side of East Indian School Road at about 22nd Street
and sold her wares.  She was the dealer for W. D. Schock and was instrumental
in selling enough Lido 14's to create the first bona fide one design class.
In the process she recorded the names and critical information of those
who expressed interest in a new yacht club, as yet unnamed.
There were three meetings of the group she collected during the fall of
1958. In December 1958, the group selected a name and a burgee and officers
were elected. The original burgee was designed by Tom Preuss and looked
pretty much like it does today - except that it bore the initials "AYC"
in addition to the Saguaro cactus. The "AYC" was later removed
because, according to Chapman on Seamanship, the design represented poor
flag etiquette. Dr. Richard (Dick) Short, a dentist with the Veteran's
Administration Hospital, was selected as the first Commodore of the newly
formed Arizona Yacht Club.
There were 17 Charter Members of the Club owning a grand total of three
boats: two home-built Bluejays (Bud Hughes and Charles "Chop"
Estes) and a home-designed and built catamaran (Dave Shapiro). The ranks
filled out rapidly and we had 125 members in just a few years. Many of
the additional memberships were signed up at a card table on the shore
of Saguaro Lake in those early days. The fee was $1.00.
Because of the lack of sailboats, most of the early on-the-water activities
were designed to take non-boat owners for a ride (to prove it could be
done in Arizona). When fleets were finally formed, Lido 14's were the
first real one design class and the rest of us raced in a handicap fleet.
The watchword of the day was "Handicap racing is better than no racing
at all." Sam Oldham, then local Director of Red Cross activities,
brought out the first Thistle (a beautiful molded plywood job which rapidly
delaminated in the desert climate) early in the game. Super Satellites
(a 14-footer by Frank Butler of Catalina Yachts) were an early favorite
with about 20 boats racing at one point. Later, in 1960 or 1961, there
was a six boat Interlake fleet which grew to about 18 boats in time and
lasted into the middle 1980's as a viable fleet. As early as about 1960-61
we had a Schock 22 MORC (from W. D. Schock) which was "raced"
in the handicap fleet by Dick Short. Lehman 12's (another W. D. Schock
product) were an early one-design class. It was a cat-rigged open dinghy
that looked and sailed like a miniature Thistle hull carrying about 70
square fleet in the main sail. In time we developed an active and competitive
M-16 Scow fleet in which the Chapman brothers were active.
In the early and middle 60's there was controversy revolving about the
need for more sailing or more social events. It was eventually resolved
without bloodshed by providing both. In all of the years of the club,
there was only one contested election, that of 1963. However, there was
a fist fight at one protest hearing in the early days; the territorial
mind set prevailing over a more civilized approach. (Luckily, no one had
a six-gun at the time.) It was a one punch affair and the combatants are
long forgotten (at least for this rendition of the facts).
While the AYC was formed in 1958, there was no Birthday Regatta that year
(in fact, no regatta at all). The 31st Birthday Regatta did not celebrate
the 31st birthday of the AYC, but rather, the 31st of those Regattas.
In 1963, the club acquired a site from the water district at the east
end of the dam at Lake Pleasant. There was storage for about 45 boats
on shore and about 20 more boats in the water on a "permanent"
mooring line. AYC members built a ramada and "improved" the
dirt launching ramp at that site. There will always be some argument as
to whether or not the WW II metal aircraft landing mats really represented
an improvement. (Woe to the sailor who left a hook dangling from a trailer
and attempted to tow one of those things up hill!)
Some of the braver (foolhardy?) members once attempted to bury a power
line in the ground on the ramp access "road." The problem was
these "experts" used dynamite to blast into the rocks. When
the dust settled, no one was hurt, just bent a little, but there was no
appreciable hole, either. The problem was finally resolved with the installation
of telephone poles that were high enough to clear most of the masts. Early
homemade docks were assembled from a combination of telephone poles and
styrofoam blocks installed in a steel framework over which fiberglassed
plywood served as a deck. Our first real committee boat was a frame of
2x8 lumber, measuring 8 by 20 fleet, covered with plywood top and bottom
(a la the docks). Many 55 gallon oil drums were assembled for twin floats
and the old 25-horse Johnson was used for motive power. The flat front
on each pontoon did nothing for speed, but the essence of a club-owned
Race Committee Boat was there and was useful. It even had a roof, much
like the one we use today but very top heavy. The latter characteristic
led to the ultimate demise of the craft. Vandals managed to rock the thing
at anchor enough to flip it drum over deck (upside down). The Board of
Directors went shopping for something that was more manageable and ended
up with the pontoon boat we now use.
Much of the construction of the stuff mentioned above was done at Don
Defreze's welding shop on West Encanto Boulevard. That crazy guy nearly
killed your author one day when he was dragging a telephone pole about
the work yard (speed: at least 20 MPH) with an ancient Chevrolet pickup
and tow chain.
Another interesting event at the welding yard was also almost disastrous.
We were lifting a steel dock section in an effort to turn it over when
the hoisting chain broke. (There were four telephone poles encased in
that rig, each weighing about 800 pounds.) Result: it turned
over prematurely and missed Frank Bigelow only because it flopped away
from him rather than into him. (I wonder if Joe Rowe, our insurance guru,
knew about that one.) You see, Frank has given his all to this club -
well, almost.
Except for the periods of drought when there was insufficient water in
which to launch or sail, and the periods of flood when access was denied
because of washed out roads, the club has sailed at Lake Pleasant ever
since 1963. We have temporarily moved to Saguaro Lake, Bartlett Lake,
Canyon Lake, and to Lake Havasu from time to time as necessity required.
We have even sailed at Lake Roosevelt in recent years under the two-lake
venue system. But we always come back to Pleasant And it is, for the most
part.
I leave the rest of the story to the youngsters amongst us. Alzheimer's
must be setting in.
Two months after penning this history Dave Shapiro died. He was a charter
member of the Arizona Yacht Club and we honor him with Honorary
Life Membership.
Dave Shapiro 1926-1991
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