Included are views of  Durand  Eastman Park, Lake Ontario, Mayer’s Marina, Newport YC, Newport Marina (former Newport House location),  Rochester Canoe Club, Fish & Game Club, Snyder’s Island, and a lonely, cold gull. In this warm winter, the Bay did not freeze over except in a few coves, and fishermen were absent.

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Leo Balandis, On the Bay since 1970.  Member, Rochester Canoe and Newport Yacht Clubs.

The owner Jim Gargiula said that it was a Peterboro built Canadien Model 16ft. long with 45 SF sail weighing 80 lbs. built in 1939-40. He bought it from Harry Bogdan at Yonkers Canoe Club (a competing club of RCC in 1890) in 1954, and he himself sailed/paddled it on Jamaica Bay out of Sebago Canoe Club (founded 1933) in Brooklyn. By coincidence, RCC member John Fortunato came from that club.

But the coincidence is much greater, as Jim and I discovered as we talked. He lived in the same area that I grew up in, though closer to Bensonhurst/Dyker Beach than Bay Ridge. He was in the Army 1963, (me 1953) and at Camp Gordon, as I was, and the Signal School at Fort Monmouth, as I was. And he met Werner Von Braun, the ex-Nazi rocket scientist at Redstone Arsenal, where I served.

I also had a good conversation with with Bill Oben, President of FLBM, and I have already sent him some RCC History, and have decided to join FLBM.

A small world, indeed.
Leo Balandis

Leo Balandis, Past Historian Rochester Canoe Club.
Photos by Leo Balandis

Sours acquired Newport House at the age of 30 from his uncle Henry Walzer, who fell through the ice and died in December 1880 while walking home from Newport House. Sours recognized the opportunity presented by the new railroad from Rochester to Sea Breeze built in 1879 with stops at hotels along the west side of Irondequoit Bay, and the clubs and groups that were building cottages to enjoy summers on the Bay. There were the Point Lookout Club (1868), with famed member Seth Green, Dodge Club (1871), Old Star (1872), and Birds & Worms (1872). Space was in demand for convenient and desirable shoreside locations for new groups, so Sours bought an additional ten acres adjacent to and north of Newport House on Newport Point from the farm of uncle Joseph Walzer, and proceeded to build ten houses to the specifications of interested groups, and give them annual leases. Remus Club was the first in 1884 with RCC, and the two merged in a new clubhouse in 1886. Some others were: Undia, Onoko, and Yonnondio; a Masonic Lodge to which Sours belonged. The Manhattan Canoe Club took over Yonnondio in 1898, but it burned down in 1900; it was promptly rebuilt. That clubhouse became the first location of Newport Yacht Club in 1936 until 1943, when it moved to its present location at the old Birds & Worms Hotel. A significant innovation was the flush toilet which made its appearance around this time, but Bay water suffered the consequences,  All buildings were removed when NY State took over the land to build the Route 104 bridge. The only traces remaining on Newport Point are four substantial I-beams, doubled up at what were the landside corner anchors of a pier at RCC where steamboats landed passengers.

When shoreline space became tight for new clubs, one interesting solution was devised by a splinter group of RCC members who started the Irondequoit Canoe Club in 1895 across the Bay in Webster. They got there from Newport House by ringing a bell to retrieve a launch. You can dimly see the place across the Bay (where the flagpole is) in the attached photo of New-Port House around 1900. After a fire, it was rebuilt to a splendid design by renowned architect Claude Bragdon; those plans can be found in the UR Dept. of Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unfortunately, the land chosen at the foot of Inspiration Point was only about 18 inches above the average water level as they knew it; floods would eventually rise six feet above that. All traces of ICC have disappeared after repeated flooding, a fire in the abandoned building in 1954, and finally the devastating high water and storm of 1973.

Sours further expanded his business with horse barns and stables, a large bayside double-deck pavilion, large docks to land steamboats, a 30 Ft. square screened building with a screened tank to stock minnows , and a fleet of rowboats for visiting fishermen. He also owned three gasoline launches, about 50 Ft. long, holding 50 or 60 passengers, for transporting people between Bay resorts and entertainments. These were built on the Bay, since the outlet was closed by a railroad bridge until  1985. Outside the Bay, he was a founder of the Lake Ontario Navigation Co. operating between Sea Breeze and Charlotte. He was Irondequoit Town Supervisor 1885-1891, and active in ice yachting during the winter.

After an interim ownership by George and Julia Henner, the property passed in 1947 to Buster F. and Florence Cross with M. Hazel Tiefel, and fell into a long period of neglect and deterioration, which can be seen in the attached 1984 photo of a house adjoining Newport House. Buster was reputedly more interested in running a horse than a restaurant. With the opening of the Bay, Newport House became a new opportunity as a location for a marina, bar, and party house, this time by Dan Cappa. All of the accumulated structures were demolished, utilities upgraded, and a marina established. The new 12,110 SF Newport House built in 1989 is shown as it appeared in the attached 1997 photo.

Once more, changing times have resulted in a transfer of restaurant ownership, and finally in its closing and abandonment, though the marina flourished. The 5.83 acre property was sold to RSM Development in August 2006 for $3,715,000 and Town approval obtained for the new plan in March 2010. The building will now be demolished, and Newport House will disappear forever after 170 years on Irondequoit Bay.

More information on Rochester Canoe Club history can be found at rochestercc.org: see links to Club History, Navigate, and Jib Sheet August 2009.

Leo Balandis, Past  Historian of Rochester Canoe Club

Member of Rochester Canoe and Newport Yacht Clubs

July 7, 2010

Early ice yachts were simple, crude, home-made combinations of two wood planks, three runners ( stern steered), a mast, boom, and sail, usually arranged as a gaff-rigged sloop. On one version, the jib was the only means of steering. Some ice skaters used a hand-held kite to propel them, and at the other extreme a propeller driven ice vehicle with an engine appeared that reputedly could reach 140 MPH. Of course, with only 4 miles available on the Bay, that distance would be covered in 1.7 minutes, and where are the brakes? Ice sailboats could reach 60 MPH, although 40 MPH was more typical.

Iceboats require unique skills because they can go much faster without the hydrodynamic drag of water on the hull and its well-known speed limitation related to immersed boat length. Thus, iceboats can go faster than the true wind, and what starts downwind becomes upwind as the apparent wind shifts forward relative to the boat’s sail. The state of the early art is well described in “Ice Boating” by Herbert L. Stone (1922), now available in the public domain online through Google. Thanks, Google!

According to Maude West, a respected past Irondequoit Town Historian who wrote “Irondequoit Story ” (1957), the first iceboat on the Bay was built in the 1880′s by George Payne whose home was on Culver Road near Sea Breeze. He was followed by John and Jacob Aman, William Sours, and members of the Rochester Canoe Club. One of the largest and fastest iceboats, carrying up to six passengers, was built by Orlo Walzer and Daniel Forman about 1890.

The glory years of the sport on the Bay extended to the 1920′s, then faded away until a rejuvenation in 1963 with the incorporation of the Irondequoit Bay Ice Boat Club, following the Sodus Bay Ice Boat Club in 1962. The IBIBC is an informal, itinerant group that currently meets during the winter at Newport YC. None of their boats are kept there. There is a hotline phone, but no website. Activity can be anywhere within a day’s travel, but is very infrequent. A recent news story (Rochester D&C – Jan. 16, 2011) stated that “around here we probably get a perfect day once every five years now”.

Over the last two winters, since December 2009, this author has toured various locations around the Bay several times a week, walking the ice and visiting ice fishermen, motorcycle racers, firemen practicing rescue operations, and even some skaters. But I never saw an iceboat until Feb. 23, 2011, when a lonely DN (Detroit News) Class boat sat parked on the ice near Newport YC, left there for days by it’s owner, a local Bay resident. A photo of that historic appearance is attached.

Local iceboat activity in its early days was recorded by the notable Rochester Herald photographer Albert R. Stone, and his wonderful quality glass plate negatives were preserved by RMSC. They are available online at the Museum, and through Rochester Images at the Local History Division of the Central Library. A few examples of his work on the ice are attached, including the iceboats, Howie, Whistler, and the motorized ice vehicle Elbridge Go-Devil.

Times change, sports and equipment evolve, but wind and water will always be on the Bay, until, of course, climate changes catch up with us. Then, Beware the Ides of March!

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Leo Balandis, Sailing on the Bay since 1970. March 4, 2011
Past Historian, Rochester Canoe Club
Member, Rochester Canoe and Newport Yacht Clubs

The original lighthouse was located where the present miniature replica lighthouse is now at the south end of the Snipe slips, and was said to have been built around 1800, when the Bay was a Federal body of water requiring aids to navigation. At that time, commercial ships came in from Lake Ontario and sailed up Irondequoit Creek carrying coal to the lost city of Tryon near the north end of Ellison Park, until that city was abandoned in 1818. The lighthouse was built with the aid of a local Indian tribe, the Irondeguts, who ferried old silo blocks over from the Webster side in their 30 foot war canoe. It was illuminated with a thousand candles which were replenished continuously by a thriving local cottage industry. When the Bay was closed by the railroad bridge in 1879, big ships no longer came, and the lighthouse was not maintained.

After Newport Yacht Club bought the property in 1943, there was much discussion about what to do about the dilapidated lighthouse. There was a concern about safety, as it leaned out precariously over the water and might collapse. However, a comparison to the Leaning Tower of Pisa revealed that the lighthouse leaned one degree less, and therefore was safer, to a degree. The discussion ended when the lighthouse collapsed in 1944 after being rammed by a German U-Boat (submarine to you), which had managed to slip around, over, or under the sandbar and railroad bridge blocking entrance to the Bay.

The lighthouse was rebuilt in 1952 by the club using the same old silo blocks, as an emergency measure to guide rum smugglers from Canada, as the Club’s punch bowl was half empty. However, the lighthouse was again left to slowly deteriorate until the high water and great storm of 1973 washed it away, saving a workday for the members. The blocks were later towed out to deeper water by the DEC to encourage growth of the local lobster population. According to our informant, the blocks were numbered with a felt-tipped marker, and the plans which were thought to have been lost were found stuffed in an old brown jug floating in the Bay. Some members are enthusiastically looking forward to rebuilding the original lighthouse to provide an aid to navigation to guide large yachts, or to help our own members find the Club on the water in the dark. Others feel that is now unnecessary, as visual sighting of the 104 bridge and the use of Global Positioning Systems should be enough for most of our members to find the Club after a day’s sail on the Bay without Coast Guard assistance. Contact your board members to give your opinion on restoring the old lighthouse, as the Capital Improvement Committee is anxious to do something again after the recent multiyear interior Clubhouse improvement..

And yes, there is a Santa Claus, if that is your name, and pigs can fly in the rear of the plane, and even historians can have fun.

Leo Balandis, updated December 2010 from 1998.
Past Historian Rochester Canoe Club
On the Bay since 1970
Member Rochester Canoe and Newport Yacht Clubs

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