Foreword to the Original Descriptions
To The Members Of The RCYC,
The model collection of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club is extensive and varied, remarkably so in view of the major losses sustained in the Clubhouse fires of 1896, 1904 and 1918.
Our total collection now numbers over 150 models. Almost half are displayed in this Model Room and described in this binder. The Commodore's yachts through the years number almost three dozen and can be viewed in the Flagship Room in the Island Clubhouse. The remainder of our models are dispersed throughout the two Clubhouses, with only a few in storage or undergoing refurbishing at any given moment.
This first binder contains a photograph of each model together with a "biography", sometimes scanty. All Members and friends of RCYC are requested to add to our knowledge so that, a year or two from now, the work can take a more permanent form with much greater colour and accuracy, a project made possible by a generous gift to the RCYC from Karin Larson, publisher of Gam magazine.
The second binder seeks to place our collection in historical context by using the models to illustrate the evolution of yacht design and identify some of the major influences which have shaped development through the years.
The foundation for this work was laid years ago by C.H.J. Snider, long-time Club Historian, and author of the Annals of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club together with his patron, Commodore George H. Gooderham, who made the Annals possible. These volumes are available and are recommended reading – informative and entertaining.
Major assists by Bruce Corley, Rowan MacDonald, Helen Cuthbertson and others are gratefully acknowledged. The photography and the production of these binders are the careful work of our Staff Archivist, Sebastian Bordonaro.
Your input, comments, criticism, corrections are invited and can be directed to me, or to the Club Archivist, or written directly on these pages. With your help we hope to develop a panorama of the fleet of Royal Canadian, unique among Yacht Clubs.
G.H. Cuthbertson, Honorary Historian RCYC
Postscript: Descriptions have been updated (2012) when more current information is available; several vessels have been added to the original list.