Who created the Yacht Club
by Tommy Carruth
You could say I started the Laguna Madre Yacht Club. I sent a letter to all the sailors in the area (see First Correspondence, next section). The letter is also framed and posted at the Yacht Club.
I am a registered Architect and had all the facilities of that time ( Pencils pens and dinosaur of a copy machine ) to do all the necessary graphics. I designed the Logo still in use today and drew it by hand on all correspondence and membership cards. The loosely knit group, which became the Yacht Club, called itself the Confederate Navy because Fred Petch, who was born in Canada was enamored by the South and the Confederacy. For that reason the Logo has the Confederate flag. The Conquistador helmet represents the Laguna Madre discovered by the Conquistadors.
I gave myself Membership No. 1. I suppose I am still No. 1 unless someone has changed the numbering system. I also made myself the First Commodore. Sounds like a South American dictatorship. I placed people in order to become Commodore.
- Jim Haley-Vice Commodore (membership No. 2),
- Fred Petch-Rear Commodore (membership No.3),
and so on. This all worked well for a couple of years but things got out of hand. Or rather we became a real Yacht club.
Jim Haley’s Commodore’s Ball was a real bash. Every thing we did in those days was a real bash. It was held at the Harlingen Country Club. I was playing in a Jazz band, which, as usual, I took to the party. I have pictures of all those incoming officers if I can find them.
Of course, I designed the Masthead for the “Light”, copying a picture of the Port Isabel lighthouse I found. At first I wrote editorials, recipes and anything else I could think of. I, also, did an appropriate cartoon of current happenings. I still have a lot of them.
Our racing program was quite interesting. The first leg of the race was up the bay to the water tower, where we would raft-up, have a cocktail party with people standing around in three feet of water. Then we would race back. We called this a “cocktail party between the legs”.
At first, our only meeting place was a raft-up every Sunday at the light. Bob Watson came from Colorado and built the Anchor Marina. The restrooms were a little square box. I got permission from him to build a second floor on top of the restrooms. In return people staying at the Marina could use it during the week. To get more room the top floor had about a four foot overhang all the way around. When the party got really lively you could feel the whole thing move. It is still there and the present owner of the Marina uses it for his office.
After my stint as Commodore, I became steward. Sunday morning was important to us. We always had doughnuts. I started having waffles and occasionally Eggs Benedict. You can imagine the crowd this generated. Charley’s Angels was a popular TV show of the time, so I formed “Tommy’s Angels”. This group consisted of about six ladies who did all the work when I was Steward. Joan Sammons was one. I gave each person a little angel patch, which they proudly wore on their jackets. I don’t think anyone ever knew they were purchased from the Angel Golf Course at Rancho Viejo.
As you can tell, the Yacht Club was very important to me and it is very gratifying to see how it is growing and how well it is being taken care of.