Where do we start? How do we narrow down 1,300-plus issues spanning a time frame that saw two world wars, a bicentennial and the invention of the Internet, all to uncover the most patriotic page in Yachting’s history?
Covers were the most logical place to begin for strong artwork, so we looked through the July issues — all 107 of them published since Yachting premiered in 1907.
“Anyone living more than 50 miles from deep water was considered a landlubber.—“Down Where The Lakes begin” by Critchell Rimington, Yachting, july 1943
Issues from World War I yielded a tall ship, two sailboats and what appears to be a ferry. The World War II years are where we found the beauty shown at left: July 1943, practically serenading us with The Star-Spangled Banner.
The artwork gracing the wartime cover rings true with pride and elegance even today. Its title is The Lookout, by Teasdale Barney. It is a fitting image for an issue dominated as much by battle illustrations as by columns about cruising yachts.
In A Month of Yachting: July 1943
Did you know?
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology captured the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy for the first time in four years when MIT dinghy sailors won the Inter-Collegiate Yacht Racing Association’s National Dinghy Championship. MIT held off the defending champs from Harvard in a two-dinghy race.
Shhh! The enemy is listening!
The first ad in the issue promoted a seagoing receiver that let sailors listen to music on the radio without giving away their location to enemy ships. Ordinary radios “rebroadcasted” their signals and would tip off the vessel’s location. “Without any radio, morale suffered. Now, it’s different!”
First Lady Honors:
Edith Roosevelt presented Seamanship Training Corps certificates to Oyster Bay, New York, high school boys.
