We spent the weekend in sunny Florida with long-time friends who are also great hosts. The 70+ degrees combined with bright blue skies and a persistent breeze made for perfect sailing weather. Although we had no plans to sail, we were nevertheless inspired with thoughts of restoration and collecting. We have been collecting books relating to East Coast sailing with an emphasis on pre-WWII books for a few years.
Over the weekend we noticed a 1900 NYYC book on Ebay - a year we didn't have. It's a somewhat soiled white cloth book with red tinted page edges and wonderful type faces.
Our oldest NYYC book is 1891. At the time, sailing was in it's earliest stages of beginning to evolve into a sport for the person of average means, but that would not have been possible if the people responsible for the great industrial age of our country didn't embrace the sport. Whiles names like Morgan, Roosevelt, Carnegie and DuPont flow throughout it's pages, simply put, these books are a testament to American talent and ingenuity.
It must have been common for these books to have been kept onboard, as so many of them have some evidence of moisture or sometimes just evidence of total submersion. This book was no different, but hey, it was a 1900. We checked in with our friend Robert to make sure he didn't need it and to avoid a friendly-fire bidding war. We got the all-clear and lobbed in our best offer just after boarding the plane home and prior to the announcement to turn off all hardware. Would it stick?
The first thing we checked when the plane hit the tarmac was to see if our best offer stuck. YES-it did!
We can't wait for the book to arrive and to add it to our shelf regardless of it's scruffy condition. In the meantime, you might like to see what's inside the 1891 version. If we were bidding against you, well, we hope another 1900 comes up at some point.
The 1891 is tight, but the cover has seen serious action
Vellum inserts showing courses 4 & 5 off Newport
Officers and type faces
We'll be posting soon on NOR'EASTER's new galley. In the meantime, happy reading!
