Two of the cup-style trophies already had orange absentee stickers with the same number. At least one person was drawn to them. Trophies don’t exactly lure me, but I always stop to read the inscription because I’m curious about their origin.
I’ve come across horse-show trophies from equestrian competitions and Rolls Royce trophies from the estate of an avid classic-car collector.
The inscription on these current ones at auction showed that they were yacht-racing trophies:
O.G.Y.C., Sneak Box, Class A, 1st Prize, 1925
S.P.Y.C., Sneak Box Race, 2nd Prize, June 16th, 1926
Polyhue Yacht Club, 15 FT Sneak Box, Class A, First Prize, 1925
S.P.Y.C. 1925 15 FT Sneak Box Race, Class A First Prize
2nd Prize, Class A, L.Y.C., 1925
What the heck was an a Sneakbox? A kind of yacht that I had never heard of?
Googling, I learned that Sneakbox referred to a small boat that was initially used to hunt ducks off the Jersey shore. A boat-builder named Hazelton Seaman is credited with inventing the sneakbox in West Creek, NJ, Barnegat Bay, in 1836. The boat was low in the water and could be easily camouflaged with grasses to hunt waterfowl. It allowed hunters to hide from ducks in creeks and marshes.
The boat was designed to be watertight and easily maneuverable in the water. Some were outfitted with sails, and others could be rowed or sculled. The boat was improved and upgraded over the years.
Nathaniel H. Bishop, a writer for Forest & Stream magazine, popularized the boat after traveling 2,600 miles in one – which “proved a most comfortable and serviceable home,” he wrote – down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and along the Gulf of Mexico in 1875. He wrote about his four-month journey in a book published in 1879.
The earliest boat was 12 feet long and four feet wide, and held only one person and gear. By the late 19th century, the sneakbox was “improved” into a racing boat and grew to 15 feet. That was the common size used in races in Barnegat Bay, which is the ancestral home of the sneakbox. Families apparently would come down from North Jersey and Philadelphia to participate in the races.
Yacht clubs were formed, and trophies were awarded. The Polyhue Yacht Club was the first to use 15-feet sneakboxes, which were purchased from a boat-builder who went on to provide practically all boats of this size to other yacht clubs on the bay. The Polyhue, so-named because all of its sails were different colors, no longer exists.
The half-dozen trophies at auction dated back to 1925, 1926 and 1928 races. Along with the Polyhue, they bore the names of the Ocean Gate Yacht Club, the Seaside Park Yacht Club, the Bay Head Yacht Club and the Lavallette Yacht Club.
