Last modified: 2022-10-08 by rick wyatt
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image by Rob Raeside, 6 April 2019
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Estb: 1896. Location: 276 Middlesex Turnpike, Chester, CT.
Burgee: Pennant
circa 5: 8 (print image). Red and blue vertically divided by a white chevron
with apex to hoist.
Source: Lloyd’s Register of American Yachts. New York,
1966.
"The Mattabesett Canoe Club was organized January 7, 1896 by a group of
canoe enthusiasts and what became of that is now The Middlesex Yacht Club (MYC).
The first location was on land owned by the Davis family at the foot of College
Street on the Connecticut River in Middletown. . . . On February 1905 the Club’s
name was changed to “The Middletown Yacht Club.” A year later the Club bought
the club-house with a sizeable piece of land for $5,700. . . . The Rudder
Magazine sponsored the first long distance race to Huntington, L.I. starting at
our club on September 16, 1911. We were fast outgrowing our club facilities and
after much planning, we commissioned a new clubhouse (now Mattabesett Canoe Club
Restaurant) on May 30, 1916. . . . In May of 1945, T.M. Russell Jr. found a
piece of property in Maromas for our third clubhouse. We built a smaller
clubhouse here. It was nearer to the sound, more private, and the flooding did
not bother us as much. . . . The club was planning boat slips in 1954 when we
were notified that our property was taken over by the government for a new
atomic laboratory. By 1957 we made a settlement with the government in which
they bought the property for $32,125 and we bought back the building at the
salvage value of $400. We then floated the material we needed down the river to
our new location [Chester] and used it in our present club which we bought for
$31,000. . . . In 1998, a vote was taken to change [back] to "The Middlesex
Yacht Club," a change that more accurately identifies the club's community it
serves."
John Stellenwerf, Club Historian 2016.
Source: accessed 30 March
2019,
http://middlesexyc.com/The-Club/History
Peter Edwards, 4 April
2019
Lloyd’s Register of American Yachts. New York, 1905 already shows this burgee under the club name Middletown, and the 1977 edition shows that burgee under that name too.
I doubt that a vote was taken to change back to Middlesex YC, as it appears
it hadn't, so far, ever been the Middlesex YC. The Middlesex Yacht Club had as
its burgee a white 2:3 pennant with a narrow blue flywise stripe through the
middle, charged with a centred white disk with a diameter of 1/3rd of the height
of the hoist, fimbriated in blue, 1/12th of the height of the hoist, the
combination being half the height of the hoist in diameter, the white disk
charged with a red five-pointed star, one point upward.
This club was organised in 1911 in New
Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, and incorporated in 1916. Originally,
this had been the New Brunswick Motor Boat Club. (According to the 1917
edition. According to The Daily Home News of 18 July 1916 the club was known
in the past as the New Brunswick Boat Club.
http://www.digifind-it.com/matawan/DATA/homenews/1916/1916-07-18.pdf)
I
don't know whether the original club had a burgee. The next edition I was
able to check the existence with was 1931, at which time the Middlesex Yacht
Club had disappeared from the pages.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg,
6 April 2019
image by Rob Raeside, 6 April 2019
This image is based on the club's website,
http://middlesexyc.com/. The blue is much lighter, and the burgee appears
considerably longer.
Rob Raeside, 6 April 2019