WOODEN BOAT WEDNESDAY: SPRING REGATTA OPENS TRYC SEASON, 1872

Boats moored at the Island Heights riverfront as two young girls and a man look on, c. 1890s.

Welcome to another Wooden Boat Wednesday!

This week we look back 150 years to the second operating year of the Toms River Yacht Club, and its first race of the season.

The New York Herald
May 18, 1872

The Tom's River Regatta.
The Tom's River Yacht Club held its first regatta of the season of 1872 on Wednesday. This is one of the most popular clubs in New Jersey, and although the club owns only small boats the members are all thorough yachtsmen, and have a good time at their annual gatherings. The weather was beautiful, and a large number of ladies weer present, watching with interest the doings of the different competing yachts. The course was from a stakeboat anchored at the mouth of Tom's River to a stakeboat in Barnegat Bay and return, a distance of about twenty miles.

The following yachts competed in the race:--

Name—Captain—Length Ft. In.
Chary Hooper—John Grant—28.8
Legal Tender—S.N. Gibenon [possibly misspelled Giberson]—26.4
Maggie—C.W. Potter—25.6 ½
Lulie—Amos Birdsall—24.8
Lizzie Hopkins—Joe Townsend—24.8
Oscar Robinson—H.C. Gulick—24.7
Vapor—J.H. Valkenburgh [possibly misspelled Falkenburg]—23.9 ½
Sarah and May—Isaac P. Fraser—20.6

The boats were all started together at eleven A.M., and got away well together. The race was a very pretty one, as nearly the whole of the course was visible to the spectators at the starting point. The Chary Hooper, however, appeared to have the best of it from the first, as she soon took the lead and kept it.

The yachts arrived as follows:--

Name—Arrived
Chary Hooper—2:10:15
Lulie—2:10:49
Oscar Robinson—2:19:58
Maggie—2:20:34
Vapor—2:21:56
Lizzie Hopkins—2:34:20
Legal Tender—2:48:00

The first prize, a handsome silver cup, was won by the Chary Hooper. A dozen silver spoons were awarded to the second boat and a ten-dollar bill [about $230 in 2022 dollars] to the third. The next regatta of this club will take place in the month of August.