Dobson Yacht Club
Burgee of the Dobson Yacht Club
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| Abbreviation | DYC |
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| Formation | 1953 |
| Legal status | active |
| Purpose | advocate and public voice, educator and network for recreational and competitive sailors, coaches, volunteers and events |
| Location |
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Official language
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English, French |
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Commodore
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Dan McCarthy |
| Website | dobsonyachtclub.org |
Dobson Yacht Club (DYC) is a private yacht club based in Westmount, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Dobson Yacht Club sits on the western shore of the South Arm of Sydney Harbour, directly opposite the Sydney downtown area, part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Its location on the chart (4266 Sydney Harbour) is shown as Dobsons Point, formerly known as Shingle Point.
The Dobson Yacht Club came to be in the year was 1953 a time of relative prosperity in Cape Breton. Sydney Steel was booming and coal was still "King". It was a time of rebuilding and hard work following the war, but it was also a time when recreation was important as a diversion from the everyday realities of life.
One such diversion was Snipe racing. These small sailing vessels provided an inexpensive form of entertainment. Sydney Harbour's only yacht club, the Royal Cape Breton was reaping the benefits of the increase in the number of Snipe racing enthusiasts. However, several members of the Royal Cape Breton's Snipe Sailing Fleet had become disillusioned with some of the restrictive practices of that club so they began to consider starting their own yacht club.
They no assets, but they were attracted to a piece of land directly across the harbour called Shingle Point. There was safe anchorage on the southwest side of the property that would be ideal for the Snipe fleet. This property formed a part of the "Dobson Estate", located across the Westmount Highway from Shingle Point. This estate was an early land grant from the Crown to the Dobson family and so included all the rights to the water frontage bordering on the estate.
In 1953, the estate belonged to Mr Sidney Dobson and several of his sisters. One of the sailors trying to establish this second Sydney Harbour yacht club was a young man named Roy Mac Keen. His mother was Myrtle Mac Keen, née Dobson, and she was one of the sisters in control of the Dobson Estate. She was also very sympathetic to the cause that had captured her son's attention.
Negotiations began between the sailors and the Dobson family and a price of $3,000 was placed on the property. Twelve original members paid $100 each, plus a membership fee of $20. Some of the members fronted a loan for the balance and, in late 1953, adopting the name of its benefactor, The Dobson Yacht Club was born.
The original clubhouse was a shack from the construction site of the then-new Federal Building on Dorchester Street. In the spring of 1954, the water's edge in the southwest cove was only 9–12 metres from the clubhouse itself. The next order of business was to purchase a new clubhouse.
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Wikipedia