History (List) | Chesapeake 20 Class

Nearly a Century on the Water

The Chesapeake 20s' history is intertwined with the histories of local sailing and yacht clubs on the Bay, especially West River Sailing Club (formerly Our Own Damn Yacht Club) which had its first race on Labor Day weekend in 1929. There were nine events for kids such as swimming contests, potato sack jumping and dog races with the first ashore the victor. The highlight was a handicap sailboat race with three classes based on sail area: less than 100 sq. ft. with a four-minute head start, from 100 to 150 sq. ft. with a two-minute lead, and scratch boats of over 150 sq. ft. These “racing” boats were mostly bateaus built by Capt. Ed Leatherbury of Shady Side or converted flat-bottom rowboats. At the first regatta, Capt. Ed, who was in his 80s, led the boys around the course in a 22 ft. heavy cypress boat with a sprit rig.

This regatta jumpstarted the search for a faster and better sailboat across the Chesapeake Bay.

Our Decades of Sailing

1930

The Albatross

Ernest H. (Capt. Dick) Hartge, who became West River’s major boat designer and builder, the next year built the Albatross – a 20-foot, double – ender with a chine or V-bottom. He beat Capt. Ed with a lighter and thinner hull, who in losing proclaimed, "those damn shells, they won’t stand a beating up against a wharf.” A series of historic contests took place between Capt. Dick and the boys from Herring Bay, led by Leroy “Babe” Brooks in Lucky Strike, a 20-foot-long bateau rigged like a log canoe. Capt. Dick soundly trounced Lucky Strike in her home waters with the first Albatross. This was the beginning of the Albatross Class, thirteen of which were built by Capt. Dick in the early 1930s. He also produced Sea Witch, the first chine bottom precursor of the Chesapeake 20 class. These sailboats were mostly built by eye without formal plans, and many were home-built using traditional Chesapeake Bay workboat construction.

1938

Class Formalized

In 1938 at the Annapolis Yacht Club, WRSC Commodore Ozzie Owings held an organizational meeting to form the Chesapeake 20 class with dues at $2 each. He said the purpose of the association was to prevent being overrun by “freaks and racing machines such as Double Trouble, the Owens scow.” While the sail area and length were fixed, Chesapeake 20 rules remain only about three pages

1939

Andrew Kramer meets Dick Hartge

In 1939, Capt. Dick was approached by Andrew Kramer, President of Annapolis Bank and Trust, who told him “to get serious about building Chesapeake 20s.” Kramer provided a loan to build twenty Chesapeake 20s which were “mass produced” in lots of four at $600 each. The first of these boats was Stormy, now registered with the Maryland Inventory of Historic Properties.

1943

40+ Hartge Built, Numerous Others

Capt. Dick Hartge built about 40 round-bottom Chesapeake 20s from 1939 until 1943, and only four after World War ii as cedar wood and materials were in short supply and expensive. He said that “I lost my shirt” after the war when the cost to build them doubled.