Photo: Mayor Ben Franklin and Past Commodore Bill Mantle with the new club burgee
By the time the club officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 29, 1979, NSC had a membership of 120 families, for a total of 350 individuals. The first real Board of Directors had also been installed. Gerry Gravelle was selected as Commodore, apparently because he had been mooring his boat in Graham Bay for the previous four years, and thus had the most experience sailing in the area. Another nine people rounded out the list of board members, including Mayor Ben Franklin, Alderman Hugh MacDonald, and Bill Mantle, who assumed theduties of Past Commodore.
In those days, annual membership fees were $50 (the equivalent of roughly $168 today) for families and $25 for seniors. A dry sail space would cost an additional $30, while keeping your boat on a swing mooring in theunprotected waters of Graham Bay would set you back $40 a year. Cheap by today’s standards, but fifteen years ago the club’s assets consisted of little more than a few dozen feet of plastic dock, wire fencing around the compound, and a small trailer which served as club headquarters.
This is an excerpt from an article which was written by Michael McGoldrick in 1994 and first appeared in a special edition of the Telltale for the club’s 15th anniversary, and has been posted on the nsc.ca website.
