Business name : Duck Island Yacht Club
The three charter members were taken aback when two weeks later, cruising yachts from the Larchmont Club anchored behind Duck Island, blowing there horns for the yacht club launch. The boys kept out of sight!
In the early 1930s, Duck Island Yacht Club became one of the charter members of the Eastern Connecticut Yacht Racing Association and twice hosted the Annual ECYRA Regatta. The club had an active racing schedule going most Saturdays and Sundays. The first classes of boats raced were Manchester, Handicap, Duck Island and Zip. Harold D. Brainard built the last two types locally.
Fredrick G. Winslow became Commodore in 1933 and served until 1938. At the 1938 Annual Meeting, the adults failed to show up. As a result, the teenagers elected W. Whitney Stueck, one of their own, as Commodore. In 1939, Fredrick G. Winslow was reelected commodore and Stueck headed the race committee. The racing schedule had 29 days posted from July 1st to September 3rd. There were so many Zips showing up for races, they had two starts, odd and even sail numbers.
In 1938, the club had an opportunity to lease/purchase the Smith beachfront house at the western end of Grove Beach. Fortunately the members confirmed that they could not afford it as later that year the 1938 Hurricane blew the house away. In 1939, a motion was made to investigate purchasing the land. Nothing ever came of it. In 1939 the club purchased a new committee boat, a 22′ 6″ motorboat with a new 60 hp Chris Craft engine, from Harold Brainard for $750. Throughout various years, the club rented the Grove Beach Tennis Clubhouse for their clubhouse.
During WWII, no meetings or races were held. Dues were lowered to hold inactive members and there were no dues for members of the Armed Forces. At a meeting on July 7, 1946, twenty members voted to start races on July 26th and by 1947 all was returned to normal where the racing classes included Comet, Star and Zip.
Through the early 1970s, an increase in boat size to 30 ft was observed and the nature of the club changed from mostly racing, to cruising and racing. Duck Island now extended its visibility into Narragansett Bay, Cape Cod and the Long Island fishtail.