The
Kingston
Yacht Club was officialy formed in 1896
(known for a time as the Kingston
Ice Boating Club) and became a
founding member of the CCA in 1900. They purchased a
C15 in 1899 but there was "not enough interest
displayed to get sufficient crew to man the canoe for
the CCA races at Brockville." (Evening Recorder
August 1, 1900) Soon after, in 1903, the club left the
association but still operates today. Paddlers left
in 1934 to form the new Cataraqui
Canoe Club.
*
The American Canoe Association Club Member Lists show
a "Cataraqui
Canoe Club" from approximately
1886-1895. In 1896, KYC shows up with the former CCC
members in their ranks. including J.M. Mowat. According
to Margaret Wild in Vista, "when Kingston's
sailors formed a yacht club, they invited CCC to join
them in erecting a handsome new building. The canoeing
fraternity thus became part of Kingston Yacht Club."
The Cataraqui Canoe Club was formed in 1886 as an "association
of gentlemen canoeists" and hosted the ACA camp
in 1893 at Wolfe Island. Back in 1891, it was announced
in the Toronto Mail (May 21) that "the Frontenac
Boating Club of Kingston have decided
to build an athletic club house." This may have
been the origins of the Cataraqui Canoe Club.
In
1899, there was a race between Thomas McAnley's steam
yacht and the Kingston Yacht Club C15 from the clubhouse
to the penitentiary and back. The C15 covered the distance
first in 25 minutes.
Another
club, the Kingston Canoe Club, was
started around 1909. According to Fred Johnston:
"The success of the Kingston paddlers may account
for the appearance of a new canoe club — the Kingston
Canoe Club — sometime between 1909 and 1914. Little
is known about this phase of canoeing in the community.
World War One stifled the fledgling club and it failed
to survive the war years, along with numerous other
sporting organizations in communities across Canada."