A History of the Comet Class on the Chesapeake Bay
By Mary Swaine (in 1977)

Comets sailing on the Corsica River off Ship Point, circa 1940. Woodie Woodford, Photographer

Early in 1932 a noted Maryland Yachtsman, C. Lowndes Johnson, fathered an idea for a new type of sailboat. This idea was a result of a request by Mrs. Maria D. Wheeler of Easton, Maryland, who had asked Johnson to design a boat for her sons, David and Thomas Martin. After spending many hours laboriously over a drawing board, Johnson finally completed the plans for what is now known as a "Comet".

In March of that same year, the plans for this new style boat were pub­lished in Yachting Magazine. Interest stirred up by the magazine article result­ed in Johnson receiving a deluge of re­quests for copies of the plans. Meanwhile, the first boats of this design were already being built in Oxford Maryland at the Wiley Boat Yard.

Known as "Crabs", then as "Star Juniors", and finally as "Comets" these sailboats were built by almost everyone who could secure plans. A model of the boat was displayed at the 1933 New York Boat Show. The model was seen by Dr. John Eiman and Dr. Wilbur H. Haines, who together with Herbert L. Stone, editor of Yachting, organized the class and decided upon the name of Comet for the new craft.

About a year later, Comets were under construction at Washington D. C. During the spring and summer of 1935, five Comets were raced on the Potomac River. Finally, on July 1 of that year, the Potomac River Comet Fleet was char­tered. It missed being the first fleet in the new class by a mere few months, for on April 26, 1935 Fleet 1 had been char­tered at Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

Men who were to play major roles in the development of the Comet Class, however; were listed as charter members of the first Chesapeake Bay area Comet fleet. These men included R. Clyde Cruit, H. H. Jacobson, Robert B. Whittridge, Richard S. Doyle and D. Verner Smythe. Smythe became Class President from 1941 to 1950 and now holds the honor­ary office of Commodore. Whittredge became Chief Measurer in 1946, a post he held until being elected Executive Vice President-in-Charge of championship regattas in 1966. Smythe represented the fleet in the first National Championship Regatta held in 1935 at Raritan Yacht Club, Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Sailing ably in his Comet "Sassy", he placed fourth.

Comets were now being built by many sailing centers in the central eastern section of the United States, with many new fleets obtaining charters. On August 14, 1936, the second Bay area fleet, the Talbot Comet Fleet of Oxford, was chartered. It was the 20th to be organized. One of its chief organizers, W. B. Piersol, a builder of Comets in the Oxford area, raced in the 1936 Nationals at the Richmond County Yacht Club, Great Kills, Staten Island, New York, placing tenth.

The Talbot Fleet, sailing out of the Tred Avon Yacht Club, was the first on the Bay to play host to the Class National Championship. In 1939 a fleet of 39 Comets raced off Oxford with Bob Levin sailing "Bad News", representing the Be­verly Yacht Club, Beverly, New Jersey, taking the honors. Jimmie Speer, Jr., a Comet builder at Oxford, who with a third in the 1938 Nationals, had brought the series to his native waters, could do no better than a fourth. The Talbot Fleet and the Tred Avon Yacht Club were not to host this regatta again for 27 years, when in 1966 the Internationals were once more sailed at Oxford.

During the peak years of World War II, Comets raced on a limited scale at Oxford. It was during the summer of 1942, when Lowndes Johnson, with Maria Wheeler as crew, won the championship of the Talbot Fleet. This was the only period he ever raced a Comet as a skipper

The Severn River Comet Fleet was the next fleet to be chartered in the Bay area, receiving its charter as Fleet No. 40 in September 1937. Its charter still hangs in the Indian Landing Boat Clubhouse a1 Millersville, Maryland, where the original fleet first hoisted its sails. In the later 1950's and early 1960's the fleet sailed down the Severn River, and tossed anchor at the Severn Sailing Association, Annapolis, where it resides today. The Fleet, like most of the early ones, has none of its original members actively racing today, Although it is located in an area where there is a constant population turn­over, its racing power has remained consistently strong over the years. From this fleet came another Class President, Wil­liam H. Meyer, who held the reins from 1957 to 1961.

A few years later, in 1940, the Gibson Island Comet Fleet was chartered. It flourished for many years, was host to the Comet Challenge Series, and then died a slow death beginning in the late 1950's and finally ending in the early 1960's.

With the end of World War II, Comets began racing near Centreville, on the Eastern Shore. On August 17, 1946 the Corsica River Comet Fleet was chartered and produced in 1951 at Beach Haven, New Jersey the Bay's first International Champion of the Class, C. W. ­(Bill) Lyons, Jr., with his wife, Nina as crew. With the Championship Series at Corsica the following year, Lyons could do no better than a series fifth. He re­gained the crown in 1953 at Geneva, New York to bring the regatta to Corsica in 1954. Unfortunately, he was unable to race that year as he was sailing in the Star Class Worlds in Europe.

In 1952 a group of sailors in the Talbot Comet Fleet, who lived on the Miles River, formed their own fleet on that body of water. It was chartered in March 1953 as the Miles River Yacht Club Comet Fleet, St. Michaels. In 1961 the Fleet, along with the Miles River Yacht Club, sponsored the International Championship Regatta. It was at this series that friends of Lowndes Johnson presented the Class, in his honor, with a handsome silver cup to be awarded an­nually to the winner of the first race of that regatta.

The Bay area's youngest fleets are the Susquehanna Yacht Club Fleet at York, Penna., and the Nutbush Creek Comet Fleet of Kerr Reservoirs, Buggs Island, North Carolina. These are active, growing fleets and are a welcome addition to the Chesapeake Bay Comet com­munity.

Although the Chesapeake Bay has produced only one Comet Class champion, it has over the years been a constant and active area for Comet racing. Without question, it contains excellent waters for sailboat racing, and there are many in the area who will claim the best one design boat for these waters still is a "COMET"