The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-04-16
YACHTSMEN ACTIVE
Preparations Being Made
FOR the Coming Boat
ing Season.
RAGING ON DECORATION DAY
Boaimen Complain That the BIZ
cycle Has Hurt Their
Business.
AGING ON DECORATION DAY

The old salts along the shores of Com
nunipaw are very busy these days, and
the boat houses are scenes of activity and
hustle. The boating season will soon be
upon us, but Ihe owners of boats viii be
ready when the Ionged-for time arrives.
The sail boats, row boats and both large
and small launches are being overhauled
and put in readiness for the season. A
reporter of 1.-THE News paid a visit to
the numerous boat houses and yacht clubs
along the C~ommunipaw shore yesterday
afternoon and to see the way the work
of o~verhauling the yachts and boats was
being done one would have thought that
the season was to open in a week. There
are hundreds of sail boats lying on the
shore, all of which will be thoroughly
o~verhauled. The boats are to be scraped
and painted and fitted up with all new
rigging.
The Jersey City Yacht Club will be in
the swim just as much this coming sea-
son as ever before. The boat house of
this popular club was Quilted by fire about
four months ago. Just how the fire orig
mated is not known, but some are inclined
to think that it was done out OF spite
by someone outside of the club. This hre
proved very disastrous to the owners OF
all the yachts and thousands Of dollars
worth of rigging was consumed by the
flames. Sails, spars, blocks, masts, ropes.
rudders. c-entreboards and a hundred and
one other things pertaining to a sail boat
were burned up. This loss has proved to
be more serious than was at first antlcl-
pated. New rigging will have to be Sc
cured for the yachts, and this it is
thought will greatly injure the chances of
any of the fast boats winning in the
coming races.
The yachting season will open on Dec
Grafton Day, and although a schedule OF
races has not yet been prepared by any
of the clubs good sport is expected one
of the rsmartest boats along the beach"
as an old salt described it, is that owned
by Commodore Roe of the Jersey city
Yacht Club. The boat is named the For
sythe, and a slick-looking craft she is.
This boat defeated about everything
around Communipaw last season.
Another fast boat is the Theo. owned
bv Captain Parker. A new boat house is
being built for the Jersey City Yacht
Club in the same place where the old one
stood, but it will not be as large Ihe
work on this club house is being pushed
rapidly, and viii be finished in time for the
yachting season. The boats of the Pa
vonia Yacht Club are undergoing a thor
ough o~verhauling also, and many a pot
of paint is being used to give them a neat
appearance. This club, like the other, is
preparing for a season of sport, and many
exciting races are looked forward to.
The first races will be held by this club
on Decoration Day.
The bicycle has hurt the boating bust
ness considerably. Rowboats are little in
demand IN HI summer, and since the BIZ
cycle has become so popular many pro-
p~rietors have abandoned the business of
hiring out rowboats to pleasure parties.
In an interview with a boat owner yes
terday a reporter learned that the de-
mand for rowboats for pleasure parties
has fallen off at least one half. Boats
are now mostly used for fishing and crab
hing parties. eve have something like
two hundred rowboats stored away" said
the boat owner, "but only about one
third of them will be taken out to be re-
fitted and painted"
At all of the boat houses the owners
talked in the same strain and many said
that they were not going to take the
trouble to repaint their boats.
1t will no doubt surprise many readers
to learn that from six hundred to a thou
sand shad are landed at C~ommunipaw
each day. The hedges where the nets are
placed are just off the Statue Of Liberty.
Dozens of boats come in each day and the
fish are packed right on the shore and
carted away, to market. Large beauties
they are, too, some weighing hfteen
pounds.
In the Greenville section along the
shores and in the numerous boat houses
the scenes are those Of activity, and the
same process of o~verhauling is being gone
through. The shore front on the Newark
Bay in Bayonne in summer presents a
beautiful appearance. and the scenery is
grand. ever more so thar on the New
York Bay. The coming season for picnic
! parties bids fair to be a record-breaker
- L. ~ q tianG - Dir