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Old 12-15-2012, 03:35 PM   #93
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
The boating club we belong to is the oldest one in Bellingham, going back to the early 1920s. There are a number of photos on the walls of the clubhouse that were taken on club cruises in the 20s and 30s. These cruises didn't go long distances, usually just across Bellngham bay to the anchorages on Lummi and Eliza islands. So six to eight miles.

In all cases the boats--- sometimes twenty or thirty--- cruised as a group. Not exactly in formation but all together in a bunch, which is what is depicted in the photos on the walls.

The historian of club has given several presentations on its history. The reason for the "all together" grouping on cruises was two-fold. Most of the boats, he said, were home made or locally made by individual boat builders. They were all powered by the gasoline motors of the day. And apparently, reliability was a somewhat iffy proposition. With all the boats running together there was plenty of help in the event of a breakdown, which according to Paul, were fairly frequent.

The second reason was navigation. You wouldn't think this would be an issue on an eight mile run across a bay, but apparently it could be challenging if the visibility came down. So the lead boat was always one equipped with the "latest" navigation equipment, which judging by the photos was an RDF.

A few of the photos show a USCG boat as part of the flotilla heading across the bay. We were told that the Coast Guard would sometimes accompany cruises like this in the event that a boat developed a major problem.

Different era, that's for sure. But perhaps in some ways more adventurous and more fun.........
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