The Port Washington Library Display

This display was put together by Jim Wood of the Mill Pond Club, and depicted the history of pond yachting from the 1900's to the present. It was easily the finest display of historical model yachting that I have ever seen or heard about. These pictures give some of the highlights.
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The "Queen of the Exhibit," a gaff-rigger from the turn of the century.

The "Queen's" Braine steering gear. The centering rubber is not fitted.

As with so many other locales, pond boats were built and sailed at Mill Pond as school shop projects. These are two boats from the 1920's.

An X Class boat, showing construction details. This is the form of construction described in our book "Building Planked Models."

An "Admiralty Model" of an early M boat, used to teach construction techniques.

A older A boat, currently under restoration.

An M boat from the late 1940's, showing vane gear and sliding rig.

The original "Delta Class" boat, an unsuccessful attempt in the 1950's to produce an entry-level class that was easy to build. Symmetric, hard chine hull and vane steering gear.

A superb example of a Ballantyne-style vane gear, using gears instead of a linkage for the "breakback" motion. This example was designed and built by Casey Wojno, and includes addition innovations such as a tilting pivot which intitiates the "guying" motion without the need for springs or elastics. More details on vanes in general in our page on on free-sailing in the days before radio.