The Day Old Dixie Died

Jere Dennison 

Not to worry, this is not a Civil War story. Desperately perusing some old Logs for a January topic (I am running out of material, folks, so send me some ideas if you have ‘em), I came across the following notice in the October, 1960 Log about Murray Clark’s acquisition of one of the Club’s most handsome yachts, the Dixie. And she came to a most spectacular end while anchored off the Club later in the decade. 

Dixie Finds a Home in Dixie

Forty-five years ago (circa 1915), Rueben Huiseler, a famous Down East builder watched one of his creations slide down the ways into the waters off Nova Scotia. She was a 42-foot gaff rigged sloop named Dixie. It took Murray Clark to bring this long legged (she draws 6 and a half feet) beauty to the land for which she was named.

As he is in all things, Murray is modest about Dixie, but there’s a twinkle in his eye when he says, "She has the 5^th highest handicap on the Chesapeake."

And this boat was truly a beauty as I vividly recall: wooden with a low freeboard, long bowsprit, gaff rigged with cotton sails. And fast too: she was purported to have won her class in the Bermuda race sometime back in the 1920s. Accommodations were sparse for a 42-footer for she was designed and built solely for speed and winning races.

Talk about an anachronism. The decade of the 1960s was accentuated by the swift transition from older wooden racing yachts to the mass-produced fiberglass variety. I suppose Murray was swimming against the tide, but he knew a classic when he saw it and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to acquire this stunning head-turner. Too bad that she is not still around to compete in the Turkey Shoot Regatta for vintage yachts at the Yankee Point Yacht Club where she would still be a winner.

Later in the decade of the 1960s, she was anchored off the Club facilities on Fishing Bay when disaster struck. While the alcohol stove was cranked up to cook a meal, the fire got out of control and, in spectacular fashion, Fishing Bay filled with black smoke and a bright, orange blaze. Fortunately the crew was able to abandon her without injury while the sirens on the Deltaville Volunteer Fire Department trucks wailed as they rolled down Fishing Bay Road. Dixie was pretty much gutted by this conflagration but she didn’'t sink so was towed away to her ignoble fate.

Recently I ran into Sandy Clark, Murray Clark’s son, who promised to provide me with a picture of Dixie for Log. I hope he will follow through with his promise, and, if so, I promise to include it in a future issue.