Eastport Walking Tour stops 19-20
​

​

Stop #19 is the Seafarer's Yacht Club.  Before schools were desegregated in Maryland, this site served as a school for Eastport's "colored" children.  It was built in 1918 according to the plans of a Rosenwald School, but without Rosenwald Foundation funding.  This school merged with the "white" elementary school on Fifth Street in 1963.  In 1967, it became the home of the Seafarers Yacht Club.  This club was organized in 1959 by a group of black men with a common interest in boating.  They banded together in the face of discrimination and founded the club at a time when many Chesapeake Bay marinas would not let black boaters gas up at their piers and most yacht clubs were closed to black captains.  Today the club is comprised of more than 50 members and is well known for seamanship and community service, teaching children to swim and introducing them to the world of boating.

Stop #20 is the Farr Yacht Design.  Annapolis owes its reputation as "America's Sailing Capital" to Eastport, where there are more maritime related services than anywhere on the East Coast between Newport and Ft. Lauderdale.  A prime example is Farr Designs, based here since Bruce Farr moved from New Zealand in 1981.  Best known for designing large Bluewater racing yachts for the Volvo Round the World Race and the America's Cup, Farr learned his craft designing 18-foot long racing skiffs in Australia and New Zealand.  Curiously, his latest 70 foot long racing yachts bear some of the same design characteristics as his earliest small boats - lightweight, shallow hulls with wide sterns - which is one reason why they're so fast and win so many races!