Oshkosh Yacht Club
 
- -The Oshkosh Yacht Club was organized in 1869 when lake schooners and cutters sought to add formality to what had been up to that point informal competition between commercial vessels on the lake. Rules were adopted and a system to handicap yachts was agreed to. Summer regattas were organized with yachts invited to compete from other cities on the lake or other inland lakes. The regattas became the social events of the summer. Much civic pride was demonstrated by area newspapers and those who crowded onto steamboats to witness the competition on Lake Winnebago.
 
- -The clubhouse was built in 1903 after the ILYA designated OYC as the permanent home for the Annual Championship Regatta. It was built in three months and opened two days before the start of the 1903 Inland Championship. It was regarded as the finest clubhouse to be found in the Midwest. It was lost to the city of Oshkosh twice for failure to pay property taxes during periods of waning interest and hard financial times. The city sold it to American Legion Post 70 who has owned and maintained the property as their clubhouse. The Legion has allowed the Oshkosh Yacht Club to rent the protected harbor as the center of its sailing and social activities over the years. In 1997, the clubhouse was used as the center for all nighttime entertainment during the ILYA Centennial Regatta. A tent erected on the lawn rocked as sailors and their families danced the night away to the tunes of Vince Vance and the Valiants among other bands. The members of the Oshkosh Yacht Club enjoyed hosting the visiting scow sailors and yearned for the time that they could again call this facility their own clubhouse.
 
Inland Lake Yachting Association- -Frank Gates and other members played a part in the development of the racing scow in the late 1890's and into the early 1900's. The OYC is a founding and charter member of the Inland Lake Yachting Association established in August of 1897. The club has continued to sail scows to the present. The classes currently sailing in OYC sanctioned races include Class E, M-16, X, MC, IOD, and Laser. In August of 1997 OYC hosted the Inland Lake Yachting Association Centennial Regatta.
 
- -The home of Edger Sawyer, an early member and Commodore of the Oshkosh Yacht Club, is now the Oshkosh Public Museum. The Oshkosh Public Museum is the official repository of all Inland Lake Yachting Association material. The collection contains meeting minutes from the inception of the association, many photographs, scrap books from the Gates family, many silver yachting trophies, 2 gauge yacht race starting cannon, and the last white cedar A scow built by Melges Boat Works previously owned and sailed by Herman Nunemacher.
Oshkosh Public Museum

- -If you are interested in what is in the collection or would like to donate an item to the Oshkosh Public Museum, please contact David Sitter at dmsitter@sbcglobal.net

 
"Sailboat Once Important In Lake Transportation"
Wind Propelled Craft Had Role In Developing Area
Credit, Oshkosh Northwestern, June, 1953
 
- -That steam boating on the waterways in this area once was a thriving industry and an important phase of the city's development is generally well known. That sailing craft also formed an important mode of transportation, not simply for pleasure but more particularly for commercial purposes, few today realize.
 
- -In the files of the Oshkosh Public Museum, however, is a story written by Capt. Sam Neff dated 4 January 1899, more than half a century ago. (Now over a century)
 
This is the story as Capt. Neff wrote it.
 
"Early in the season of 1848", he wrote, "a small schooner rigged vessel, built at Neenah named the Governor Doty made her appearance, the pioneer sailor of these waters. She was the size of one of our largest fishing boats and did not amount to much. Soon after another small craft was built at Oshkosh by James Harris and called Harris Sloop.

"About that time a Mackinaw boat was brought up from Green Bay. She was rebuilt and furnished with spares and sails and named Dr. Henning. During this season a Durham boat was rigged for sailing or rowing and was principally used between Oshkosh and Shawano while the others were used in carrying passengers and light freight to and from various points about our lake.

"With the exception of the steamer Manchester, this was about the only mode of communication at this date. Bridges were unknown. The roads were almost impassable except where frozen up. Oshkosh and Fond du Lac were the principal points of supply for the entire coast.

"In 1849 a small hooker, named Hero of Post Ulas (a small post on Lake Michigan) came up the lower Fox to Kaukola (Kaukauna)

There she was loaded on a truck and taken to Menasha. After running here most of the season, she was taken to the Mississippi River, by portaging from Fort Winnebago to the Wisconsin River.

"During this summer, Capt. Peter and Willaim Hotaling built at Menasha, the schooner Queen of the West, which was the largest and finest boat up to the time. I might well say she was the first schooner that ever sailed our lake that amounted to anything. She came out under the command of Capt. William Hotaling, and she became very popular.

"In 1851 a young man by the name of Cooley was placed in command. Their supplies were proportioned much like the trout fishes of our northern streams - $10 worth of whiskey, 25 cents worth of bread and meat.

"On a trip late in the fall their bread gave out or got too dry to eat. Being far from shore upon the broad, desolate waters of Lake Winnebago, Cooley and his men became terribly discouraged. Starvation stared them in the face. Death seemed inevitable. They all went below to partake of the little that remained to support life.

"They either lost their reckoning or were too weak to man the ship and she went upon the rocks north of Stockbridge Harbor. Capt. Peter Hotaling, then in command of the steamer Menasha, and sole owner of the Queen, having been informed of her fate, started with the Menasha to their relief.

"Arriving at the scene of the disaster, a large number of Indians had collected on the face of the bluff, overlooking the lake and the wreck. The Menasha was run as close to the Queen as the depth of the water would permit. There was no one on board the vessel.

"The Captain had hailed the Indians, inquiring into the circumstances of the misfortune. One of the crew sitting among the Indians and scarcely distinguishable from them, detailed the facts, which in effect are related above. 'Where is Capt. Cooley?' was the next question. 'Oh, he has gone to get something to quench his thirst.'

"A long line was made fast to the Queen and with much difficulty she was finally pulled off the shore into the water. Several holes were broken through her bottom. She was towed in this condition to the mouth of the river at Menasha. She was left there upon the upper reef during the winter, as she drew too much water to pass over the reef.

"During the high water in the spring, she floated down over the reef and loaded upon the second reef, where she remained an obstruction to navigation for about two years. She was then hauled out upon the shore near the old Grant house (a place well known by boatmen) and left there to rot and decay.

"The next schooner of any importance was built at Algoma, which is now the Twelfth Ward, by Buck & Co. She was a little larger than the Queen and named Algoma. She sailed upon these waters until 1864 when she was sold and taken to Green Bay and her name changed to Capella. Capt. Herman Hitz of the steamer Carter, commenced his boating career onboard this vessel under the command of this writer.

"In 1850 a small schooner named Snow Bird, was brought here from Green Bay by Capt. Carrett and renamed George Pependick. She was sold to Capt. John Williams in the fall of 1852. She was hauled out at the foot of State Street. (This place was used as a shipyard for many years and the birthplace to the first circular sawmill ever built in this city, which stood upon the ground now occupied by the rear of the Revere House) She was there enlarged and came out in the spring under the name of Coquette. She was the prettiest schooner ever seen on these waters.

"In 1853, in command of Capt. John Nichols, on a homeward passage from Chilton loaded with lime (in bulk), in tow of the steamer Peyton, she was towed under and sunk about two miles east in line with Washington Street. The Neff boys tried to raise her but found that her hull completely ruined by the slacking of the lime. She was stripped of her spares, sails and rigging and there left where she remains today.

"In the fall and winter of 1850, Capt. John Williams built a very pretty little two-masted schooner and came out under the name of Star of the West. She was the pleasure boat of Lake Winnebago until the launching of the Coquette. She was finally wrecked on the east shore of Lake Winnebago.

"The next sailboat of any importance was built in the spring of 1851 by Capt. John Williams, Capt. Henry Johnson and Able Neff and came out the last of July under the name of Trader. She was beached at Stockbridge in 1862. She was sold while on the beach to Captains Sam and Will Neff. She was repaired and launched and continued in service until 1867, when she was sunk at Menasha and abandoned.

"In 1851, a small two-masted boat was built at Black Wolf by William Howlett and named William Howlett. She was caught in a storm somewhere between Fond du Lac and Long Point in the month of September 1852. She capsized and all on board were lost, viz; William Strangham, James Murphy, and Nicholas Bangs, all well respected farmers of the Town of Black Wolf.

"From 1852 to 1883, a large number of sailboats were built on the waters of the Fox and Wolf Rivers and according to my record there were 62 different vessels employed during those years, their tonnage varying from 50 to 150 tons each. Some of these vessels have gone to the Mississippi River, some to the big lakes and others wrecked. This loss has been going on until there is hardly a sailboat left to tell the tale of this once thriving industry."