The 84th Shellback Year Continues
Feb 22, 2018
The Shellback Club officially started in February 1934 and met at Eileen Bradley’s Tea House on Adelaide Street but had its roots earlier. Starting in 1924, some of the crews of large racing sailboats from RCYC met weekly in the summer to organize crew duties.
THE SHELLBACK CLUB
In all respects, ready for the sea
“Keel Laid 1934”
By 1934, these crew meetings had morphed into The Shellback Club as other sailors from Clubs in the area liked the idea of sharing lunch and sailing lore…and even singing a shanty.
To be “Shellback” today only requires attending a lunch meeting and joining everyone in singing a sea shanty.
Website: http://shellbacks.weebly.com/ Many thanks to Ron Jenkins for creating and maintaining our website. Take a look here for our speakers, history, current updates. Ron now also videotapes our speakers, so if you miss one, you may go to the website to watch the session.
Location: The location, as in past years, is the RCYC at 141 St George Street at Prince Arthur (West exit of the St. George TTC station). The walk-in entrance is off Prince Arthur.
Timing: We start promptly at 1215 hours and finish about 1330 – 1345 hours. The guest speaker starts about 1245 hours. Come early to enjoy the company and a beverage. All the usual beverages are available at Club prices.
Seating and Dress: There are no prearranged tables and dress is mostly smart casual.
Costs: Lunch costs are the same as last year – $23 including all taxes and service. Lunch is three courses of soup or salad, a main dish, desert and tea or coffee. We suggest $2 for the Dory, which includes a ticket to win, if you’re lucky, a nautical book in the weekly book draw. There are no annual fees or initiation fees.
Once a year, we suggest a $20 contribution to pay for basic communication costs and the minimal costs of operation. Funds not needed each year are donated to local youth sailing charities.
Guests are always welcome. Membership at the RCYC is not necessary and confirmation regarding attendance is not required for Shellbacks or guests. Come when the spirit or the topic moves you but come often!
Meeting Dates: This year the meetings continue on Wednesdays through to April 11.
The 84th Shellback year continues with these presentations:
February 28: Beverley Darville, Curator, plans to give us A Brief History of the RCYC from the beginning to the present day and its place in the sailing world. She promises many interesting stories.
March 7: Jennifer Laidley & Gene Denfor’s topic is Walking on Water (or reshaping Toronto’s Waterfront). They use a set of rarely seen lantern slides from the early decades of the 20th century as well as recent images, to tell of the dramatic reshaping of the waterfront in Toronto.
March 14: TBA.
March 21: Richard Hudson, returns to tell us of his exploration ‘Round Newfoundland’ and what he discovered there.
March 28th: For the second time this year, we welcome back Rob Mazza. In his search for Frederik Henrick Af Chapman (considered to be the first naval architect), Rob explored the Marine Museums of Sweden and Denmark in particular and took side trips to the Baltic and Estonia. He is in search of ideas for the re-establishment of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston.
April 4: We welcome the return of John Summers. This time he will speak of the Canoes and Romance, from the late 19th century to the present day …. women & canoes, men & canoes, canoes with sails, without sails, designing & building canoes … John has covered the gamut with respect to canoes.
April 11: Stephen & Fran Hill return to present Part II – Down East Circle Route They presented Part I of the trip on their 37’ Nordic Tug during the last session of Shellbacks in 2017. This past summer they continued their earlier trip, heading further down the eastern seaboard to NYC, up the Hudson, east to Lake Champlain, north to the St. Lawrence, up the Ottawa River, down the Rideau Canal & finally back up the Trent Severn to their home base on Georgian Bay.
THE SHELLBACK CLUB
In all respects, ready for the sea
“Keel Laid 1934”
