History
of
Dallas Sailing Club
Extracted from notes by Roger Hansen
In 1944 at the age of 12, I spent half the summer
and part of the fall as caretaker at the DSC. A remarkable experience
- looking south off their screen porch and listening to the political
conversations.
To my knowledge, the first Lightning on the lake was
being built by Truehart Brown and one Raleigh Usery, who was a big
friend of Balfour Patterson at that time. Usery and Patterson, I
think, had left Lone Star Gas and joined National Geophysical some
time before - when that company was deciding to acquire the patent
on the selenium diode from AT&T for TI. (That acquisition was
discussed on the screen porch at DSC). They were trying to influence
the selection of that boat as the next club boat to replace the
Seagulls. I do not remember seeing any Lightnings on the lake before
theirs, which I believe was put on the lake that fall. I think that
the remaining 9 boats of DSC's Lightnings were built by a Mr. Shipman
who did a great job. Since Pat Haggarty was a part of CSC, I would
not be surprised if Shipman built some of theirs too. There would
have been about the same number at each club in 1945.
The Dallas Sailing Club Pier was not where the White Rock Boat
Club is today. Part of the DSC pier still exists today west of the
White Rock Boat Club pier - in a remodeled remnant form.
DSC never had very many boats, but it was an active club. There
were 6 mooring places on either side of the main North-South walkway
for club boats. There were two prior wings running East and West
toward shore, but they did not have many boats in them and only
two davits, for repairs. The boats were moored wet. The principal
activity for the approximately 150 sought for and usual number of
members was drawing for club boats and crew for racing on weekends
and reserving boats during the week. Everyone present was usually
accommodated in some fashion. Having a caretaker was a great help
as well.
The members of the Dallas Sailing Club were middle aged for the
most part, and they were obviously not new members, when I got there
in 1941. Such people as Roger Dixon (the head of the Cotton Exchange),
Bob Meade (the chairman of the Interstate Compact Commission), the
Manager of Titche Goetinger (whose name I do not recall), Hugh Jamieson,
Sr. (a major inventor of high speed photography), Pasley (the owner
of National Geochemical), several people who were part of the management
of National Geophysical which became TI, Frank Carden, a local investment
manager and politician, the McDermotts, the Chiltons, etc. They
did not tolerate any carousing around the club, partly because they
set it up for family activities for their offspring. They also used
a Baptist caretaker to see to orderliness, in their absence. Though
it had a bar, it was used only for holidays and regattas with private
liquor. The place was also in a dry precinct. The law was enforced
by chaining the boat to the pier for 30 days, if the police caught
you on board with liquor. The offending member was asked not to
use the club while the boat was chained up - I only saw that twice.
It is my suspicion that the caretaker, on the instruction of the
members, advised the police of the troublemakers, to enforce the
law. The younger people at the Snipe club may have had some problems
with drinking - but that was not particularly obvious, while I was
there. DSC had essentially no problem with drinking when I was there,
and I never heard of any problem with it before either. [The
last comments are in response to Bill
Sherrill's and WRSC archive accounts of the formation of WRSC.]
