Tales of the North Palm Beach Yacht Club 
By P/C Joseph A. Tringali
A tip for your hat: it's not this one!
It's great to see the members of our North Palm Beach Yacht Club in uniform. Yacht clubs are the most traditional of all clubs, and the club uniform is an integral part of the club experience. Looking sharp makes the club a better place for everyone.
It's important to recognize that "uniform" means exactly that: uniform: "always the same; being without variation." A certain "uniform yachting specialist" (that's what her card says) in a downtown West Palm Beach uniform shop continues to tell our members that the "scrambled eggs" hat in this photo is "the hat that everybody uses." She's wrong! A uniform hat with a "scrambled eggs" visor (actually they're oak leaves, not eggs) is worn by professional yacht captains and naval officers with the rank of commander or captain. It is NOT appropriate for Eastern yacht clubs and has NEVER been used by North Palm Beach Yacht Club.
Salespeople at this same uniform shop have sold this type of hat to three of our members, and -- to their credit -- have taken each one back and refunded the member's money. We've spoken to the latest "specialist" and once again explained the difference, but "specialists" seem to come and go like Florida breezes. Save yourself the time and trouble by buying the proper hat: plain black visor with a black cord. If in doubt, check with someone who is wearing one at our monthly Sundown Ceremony: we're always happy to promote the
idea of looking sharp.
THE BICYCLE BRIGADE
Goals and objectives: what‟s the difference? When I was elected to the North Palm Beach Village Council in 1998, I learned that one of my duties was to attend an annual “Goals and Objectives Meeting.” By the time I became Mayor, I had figured out that we were taking about long-term plans. Mine was to make North Palm Beach a unique place to live. I didn‟t know – in fact, I still don‟t know – whether that was a “Goal” or an “Objective,” but I plunged ahead and suggested we should have a special Village holiday. For lack of a better name, I called it “Heritage Day.” Much to my surprise, the idea was accepted and the Village Manager and his staff built it into our budget for the next three years!
NPBYC members thought the Club‟s Past Commodore‟s (i.e., the Mayor‟s) Yacht Club should take part in the event, and Kay Peterson leaped in where angels fear to tread. Kay grew up in a small town in Ohio, and told us about parades in which kids dolled up their bicycles. Her husband, Jim, who was a former military man and by then Commodore, promptly christened her concept the “Bicycle Brigade,” and so the idea was born. North Palm Beach Yacht Club would invite “all of the Village kids,” to participate in the Heritage Day Parade. They would become part of our Yacht Club “unit,” and we would give cash priz-es and a trophy to the winner.
Even back then, our fiercely loyal Treasurer. Dotty LeVally, was known to be somewhat tight with an NPBYC buck, and we worried about getting the “cash prizes” idea through the Board of Governors. Where else could we get the needed funds? Kay suggested the dollars might come from Petunia the Pig. We had been imposing a one-dollar fine on everyone who discussed Village politics at the Sunday POETS table, and Kay had been taking Petunia home every week. Surely Petunia must be full by now, she said. We (the Petersons, Mary Lou and I) held a high-level wine-and-cheese-tasting party 240 Harbour Road (the Peter-son‟s home) and found that, sure enough, Petunia held more than enough to meet our needs. Without further discussion, we bought a trophy and announced the contest.
Jim said that keeping kids “up to 12 years old” in a parade would be like “herding cats,” and he was right: it wasn‟t easy. But with enough NPBYC members marching along in their “summer whites” we managed to get everyone started at the same time, and get them to the finish line in – more or less – one group. Without a mishap, we completed the very first “Bicycle Brigade” of Heritage Day, 2000.
Those free-wheeling days of off-the-record decisions are long gone, and perhaps that‟s for the best. We are more formal now; we have become the go-to yacht club in Palm Beach County. That was our goal, „way back at the beginning, and it‟s nice to see it happen. It‟s also nice to remember just how instantaneously things like the “Bicycle Brigade” began. Sometimes it‟s good to be right, but more often, it‟s better to be lucky. We were both in those early years. Let‟s keep it up.
It Was a Team Effort
A few weeks ago we held our annual Change of Watch in which we in-stalled our officers for the coming year. When it was over, a number of members thanked me for "doing such a good job" with the installation. Well, to those of you who thought that, "you‘re welcome," but . . . the fact is, the NPBYC Change of Watch ceremony was the product of many minds. Here‘s the real story.
Back in1997 at the time of our reorganization, I thought we should have an official change of command ceremony. I didn‘t want some long, drawn-out "swearing-in" that I had seen at so many other organizations. "After all," I said, to anyone who would listen, "the President of the United States takes an oath that consists of only one sentence. I seems to me we should be able to do the same thing."
P/C Jim Peterson, who was past commodore of Quonset-Davisville Navy Yacht Club and my vice commodore at the time, came up with the idea of simply having the installing officer describe the duties of each office and having each new officer agree to perform them with a simple, "I will." Jim‘s idea eliminated the long, boring, "repeat after me" part. It took another past commodore to put the icing on the cake.
P/C Phil Bouckaert was so impressed with our NPBYC ceremony that he asked me to install him as the Commodore of Sugar Sands Yacht Club. When I arrived, Phil handed me the script for the evening that began with the now-famous words, "This is a time-honored tradition marking the transfer of responsibility and authority of the Club‘s officers from one year to the next. It is a legacy that honors the history of the Club and the continuity of command."
"Wow, this is great," I said. "Where did you get it?"
"I wrote it," Phil replied, rather too modestly.
"Mind if I steal it?"
"Go ahead," Phil agreed.
I cobbled the whole thing together and published it in my book, Yachting Customs and Courtesies, and in a few years it became the standard change of command ceremony for yacht clubs in many parts of the world. Yes, it all began right here.
So if you‘re here for the Change of Watch Ceremony in 2011, and if you‘re impressed with what you see, don‘t just thank me. Give a snappy salute to P/C Phil Bouckaert, and if you happen to be in Waterloo, South Carolina, ring Jim Peterson‘s doorbell and say, "Thanks for that idea." You see, our ceremony was a team effort.
The Blue Blazers
Yacht clubs are the most traditional of clubs. All clubs have their traditions, of course, and many clubs have established codes of attire. But only in yacht clubs do you hear "attire" referred to as a "uniform." Here’s why.
Back in the mid-nineteenth century, when American busi-nessmen established the New York Yacht Club, they copied the customs and courtesies of the clubs in England. There, the accepted yachting attire was based on the gentlemen’s clothing of the day: a black double-breasted "hopsack" (wool) coat with matching black pants. The insignia was very subdued (black braid on black sleeves) because if a man was truly a gentleman, there was no need to be ostentatious. The double-breasted black "uniform" is still the official tuxedo of many yacht clubs. It is never out of fashion and it is the standard formal attire at clubs throughout the world.
Naval officers, who were gentlemen, had to buy their own uniforms. They too copied the gentlemen’s clothing of the time, which means that yacht club (and Power Squadron) uniforms are not “copied” from naval uniforms. In fact, both were copied from the same source. (By the way, this still holds true today. Officers in our armed forces buy their uniforms; enlisted personnel have them “issued.”)
When we reorganized North Palm Beach Yacht Club in 1997, we did not have any recognized attire. It seemed to me and a few other members that it was time to take our first step into the big leagues. That meant creating an official dress code. The black double breasted was nice, but it was a big investment for an outfit that people would only wear a couple of times a year. And it was hot – not "sexy" hot, but hot hot. "Hot" as is in a hot, sweaty coat – especially if you were going to wear it in North Palm Beach. Instead, we opted to follow the lead of many Florida yacht clubs and use the blazer – considered an "informal" jacket in most Northern clubs – as our official attire.
To make life easier on our members, we decided to use the blue jacket with gray pants and black shoes (you can use those with other things) and reserved white pants and shoes for only formal occasions. Once again, the people spoke. It turns out that while guys complain about dressing up, they really like doing it – especially when their significant others pinch them and say things like, “Honey, you look so good in that outfit I could . . .” Well, never mind about that. Let’s just say that in a very short time, blue jackets, white pants and white shoes became the order of the day in our club. It’s still the accepted attire for every member at every North Palm Beach Yacht Club dinner meeting.
And now you know why. Try it. Maybe you’ll get pinched too.
Last month I mentioned that way back in 1997 we changed the existing NPBYC burgee. Here’s why.
A burgee (pronounced as in "Brrr – Gee, it’s cold!") is a triangular flag used to identify a yacht club. (If you’re really into this kind of thing, a triangular flag identifying a unit of United States Power Squadrons or the Coast Guard Auxiliary is called a "pennant.")
Good flag design requires a burgee to be unique and identifiable at a distance. It should also be "readable" from both sides, and the canvas strip along the hoist (the vertical part of the flag that attaches to the staff) should not be part of the design. The NPBYC burgee violated all of those rules. It was meant to be a white "N" against a blue background, with a white horizontal stripe running the length of the burgee and divided a top yellow half from a blue bottom half.
The letter N can’t be read from both sides, nor is it unique. And whoever designed the NPBYC burgee used the canvas strip as part of the design – making it the first leg of the N.
Since you don’t really notice that strip when you’re looking at a flag, what people saw was a slanted white V – which is what you get when you take away the front leg of an N. It didn’t work.
Fortunately there was a solution: a 1959 copy of Lloyd’s Register showed a blue North Palm Beach Yacht Club burgee with a white ship’s wheel around a boat outlined in a sunrise, and the letters NPB in a fat block style that was “modern” in the 1950’s. All we had to do was go back to the original burgee, lop off the letters, divide it vertically and plug in the exist-ing blue and gold colors. We had a new 1997 burgee that met all the rules of good flag design and preserved the history of the club from its very founding in our community to the present day. It was Instant Heritage – and it was instantly and unanimously approved by the members at a meeting in the Herb Watt Building (“Ah, those were the days!”)
Next time you see our NPBYC burgee, take a minute to study it. Like many things in our club, it has a special meaning. Be proud of it.
Next month: Blazers (for sure)!
In order for a club to attract new, dues paying members, people need to know that it’s something more than a bunch of friends who happen to get together whenever the spirit moves them. When we re-organized North Palm Beach Yacht Club in 1997, one of the very first things we needed to do was create such a special club identity.
There are two ways to create a special club identity. The first is by owning a “members only” building which people think of as an extension of home. Given the number of our members (few) and the number of dollars in our treasury (none), a building was out of the question. The other way is by encouraging members to wear unique apparel. Embroidery was all the rage back then, and the quickest, cheapest way to solve the identity problem was with embroidered polo shirts. The decision was easy; the implementation wasn’t. Most people don’t like ordering clothing from a catalog. The want to see an item, hold it up and feel it. And when they decide to buy it they want instant gratification.
Kelly Dobbs, the manager of the Beautiful North Palm Beach Marina, introduced me to Skip Ward who owned a company called Graphic Reproductions which shared a building off Old Dixie Highway with an auto-painting establishment. Skip could provide the embroidered shirts, but we needed to order at least six at a time. I picked out a dozen in assorted styles, sizes and colors and handed him my credit card.
Now for the logo. The existing North Palm Beach Yacht Club burgee was unacceptable for a number of reasons, so I turned to the 1957 edition of Lloyd’s Register which had a graphic of the original North Palm Beach Yacht Club burgee: a ship’s wheel with a design of some kind in the center. Because the graphic was so small we couldn’t figure out what the design meant, but it was part of the foundation of the original club and that was good enough for me. I told Skip to embroider it on the shirts. Then, just to make sure that everyone knew what it stood for, I told him to add the words “North Palm Beach Yacht Club.”
The shirts arrived just in time for our first rendezvous at what was then called Indian River Plantation, and I went there hoping that at least a few members would buy our special yacht club shirts. I loved the club but didn’t want a dozen ship’s wheel embroidered shirts hanging in my closet. No problem. The shirts sold like hotcakes. The only complaint I heard was that I hadn’t ordered enough of them. By the time the weekend was over, I was able to pay my MasterCard, our treasury made a profit, and I was back at Skip’s place
ordering more shirts.
So today if you see one of our members walking around wearing a polo shirt with a ship’s wheel instead of a burgee, you’ll know it – and its wearer – was part of the “original batch.”
Next month:
Burgees and blazers.
THE STORY OF PETUNIA THE PIG
Last month we talked about the POETS, an informal luncheon group that began in 1997 and still meets every Sunday. Our mascot was Petunia the Pig, a bright pink, L‟il Tykes, piggy bank with gray nose and feet who sat on our table starting with the following year. Here's how she got there and why:
In March, 1998, I was elected to the Village Council with the help of some old-line Village stalwarts including Louise Call, the self-described, Oldest Call Girl in North Palm Beach, who joined my campaign team and later joined the Yacht Club. After the election, the talk at POETS, often led by Louise, centered on Village politics: who was right, who was wrong, what should be done about this or that. Naturally much of this was directed at me, the new Village Councilman. It was impossible for me to take a bite without somebody asking me what I thought about things like ambulance fees or garbage pickup.
During my days as a young lawyer in Buffalo, a man named William B. Mahoney, an old lion of the criminal bar, used to eat with his cronies every day at the same table in the same restaurant. Like most criminal lawyers, Bill's use of English expletives would make the most hardened sailor blush. One day the waitress who was regularly assigned to serve Bill and his friends came in with a tall piggy bank and plunked it in the middle of their table. She announced that henceforth anyone who "swore" would be fined a dollar – to be paid on the spot to the pig: no trial, no appeal. It was a good idea, but it didn‟t improve the language. Once the boys decided to use the money for charity projects at Christmas, the blue streaks got worse and the fines increased, especially in the winter months when a little extra cash was needed.
My grandson Connor was born in November, 1998, and Mary Lou and I found ourselves in Charleston where our son was based, shopping at "Babies are Us." I spotted a whole wall of pink piggy banks, and put one under my arm in spite of my wife's protest that the baby was a boy. "I know he's a boy," I said. "I'm buying this for myself."
I installed "Petunia the Pig" on the POETS table as soon as we got home. After I introduced the little pink lady, I told the POETS she would collect a fine of $1.00 from anyone who talked about Village politics at the table. The system worked about as poorly as it had in Buffalo. People like Louise Call simply sat down, stuffed a buck into the slot in Petunia's back and said, "Okay, I'm in. Now, Joe, you're going to have to do something about . . ."
No one escaped the fine. Jim Peterson, who asked if he could pay 50 cents just to listen and not talk, was promptly fined a dollar for asking the question. In a very short time, it was considered a badge of honor to "feed the pig" and the political talk continued unabated.
The tale has a happy ending. Kay Peterson took charge of the money, and used it to buy good things for the Club. As I recall, the Heritage Day "Bike Brigade" trophy was bought with Petunia's funds, and she may even have supplied the prize money. The moral of the story is that sometimes politics – like swearing – accomplishes some good...
Sundown Ceremony Planned for June
Members and guests who attend the June “Trophy Night” meeting will be the first to participate in something new at North Palm Beach Yacht Club – our very own Sundown Ceremony, sponsored by members of the Florida Commo-dores Association.
The Sundown Ceremony is based on an event that is carried out monthly at Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club and has been traced back to earlier versions at the Miami Yacht Club and the New York Yacht Club. It is a brief ceremony featuring a reminder of important events in American history for the month, and a formal lowering of the American flag as a means of showing respect to our Nation. (Sundown Ceremony is 6:30 p.m. regardless of the local time of "sunset." )
The flag will be lowered by the North Palm Beach Police Explorers and the Sea Scouts of Ship 777 who will act as a color guard. In keeping with the tradi-tion from Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club, Chief NPBCC Mixologist Lisa has agreed to create a special drink – “The Sundowner” – just for the occasion. The ingredients have not been settled as of press time, but Lisa says they will probably include pineapple juice, rum and vodka.
The Florida Commodores Association, which is a region of the International Commodores Association, has made promotion of the Sun-down Ceremony one of its goals for yacht clubs throughout the State of Flor-ida this year. We hope it will become a monthly tradition at North Palm Beach Yacht Club.
Attire . . .
is not just part of a car.
Yacht clubs have existed for over three centuries, but yachting attire really came into its own at the 1851 British regatta that became world famous for what would become known as the America‟s Cup. Newspapers of the day reported that many of the men were dressed in “white flannels and blazers.” The “blazer” of that day was not the blue jacket with brass buttons you see around NPBYC dinners today. It was a loud design of contrasting vertical stripes. Believe it or not, today it‟s still used by some British and Australian rowing clubs! Technically, yachting attire is not a “uniform.” It is not based on anybody‟s navy. Members of the New York Yacht Club imported it to America at the turn of the 20th century, and it hasn‟t changed very much since then. The formal outfit – the tuxedo of the yacht club world – is a black double-breasted jacket, with very subdued back braid on the sleeves designating the officers. The less formal attire is a blue blazer with a club “badge” or “patch” or “bullion” (take your pick) and a gray or white pants/skirt. We use white in NPBYC because we‟re in what was once considered the tropics. The informal summer outfit is a white shortsleeved shirt with white pants/skirt and shoes, and, by the way, the Club commodore gets to designate the proper attire for any function. Do you have to wear a uniform? No, but it is encouraged. Yacht clubs are the most traditional of all clubs. They have existed in an unbroken line from the founding of the Cork Water Club in 1720. By joining NPBYC, you became part of that heritage. It‟s something to be proud of and to cherish. Show people that you are part of the team; that you care about our Club. Wear our attire, and wear it
right!
I Love a Parade!
Seven human members and one canine member of North Palm Beach Yacht Club stepped off smartly in perfect parade weather on Saturday, March 20, as an official unit in the Village’s 11th annual Heritage Day Parade.
The NPBYC ―Bicycle Brigade,” which had been dormant since 2001, was back in force with kids 12 years old and younger competing for cash prizes and the right to have temporary possession of The Trophy. In the end, judges couldn’t decide on the best four, so the prize money was quickly redistributed and five kids went home with cash. The top prize of $100 and the right to have her name on The Trophy went to Dawn Pisa of North Palm Beach Elementary School who stole the judges’ hearts with her tribute to the Easter Bunny.
After the prizes were awarded, NPBYC members shifted their venue to the new Johnny Longboat’s for an ―after action‖ lunch. Everyone agreed it had been a perfect day, and agreed to make it even better next year.