Notes:
The UCI Sailing Club has beautiful Shields Keelboats. Almost 40 years later, our Shields are still sailing today. Same hulls, same masts and almost the same rigging. It’s a tribute to the UCI maintenance staff, instructors and the sailors who keep them up.
“UCI’s Fleet of Shields Keelboats are a living memorial to those who helped get them here and care for them”, Bob Allan, Sailing Hall of Fame, one of the founders of UCI Sailing Program.
HISTORY OF THE SHIELDS CLASS
The Shields 30 sloop was conceived as a strict, one design class which could be raced during the summer months in a yacht club racing fleet, and yet be sturdy enough to be used as an instructional boat during the winter.
In 1965, Cornelius “Cory” Shields of Larchmont, New York, commissioned the design from of Sparkman and Stephens to create such a yacht based on the International One Design Class and the the Twelve Meter, “Columbia” in 1958. Its interesting to note that Cory had made an enormous amount of money with his investment company, Shields & Co just after the Stock Market crash during the depression. He invested in the down market and made tons of money when economy recovered. Cory then commissioned his old friend, Olin Stephens, to design a boat and he came up with a modified 5.5-meter design. The finished product was a beautiful boat that could sail in any weather, easily steered and driven, with plenty of room in the cockpit. The “Shields” built will this money, were constructed of fiberglass, 30’ in length with long overhangs and a graceful shear. Cory bought the famous boat building company Chris Craft and had the first 20 or so Shields build there. He donated these boats to several East Coast universities. His idea was that during the short summer racing season, the boats would be raced by the Long Island Sound yacht clubs and used by the schools for training and instruction the remainder of the year. The boats quickly became popular, and the first class association named them "Shields" to honor their originator.
OUR UCI SHIELDS
Four out of the six Shields UCI has are named after important people that have helped build the sailing program…
“JEAN”
UCI Shields “Jean” (Hull number 175), is named after Jean Aldrich, wife of UCI’s first Chancellor Dan Aldrich, who helped promote the program in the early years.“Jean” and the other beautiful UCI Shields are taken out sailing everyday, many times more than once a day! This christening was very special to the first Chancellor of UCI. The boat was trailered up to the heart of campus and christened by Jean Alrich, wife of the Chancellor to help promote the new campus to the local Orange County community. With no real alumni yet at UCI, Chancellor Alrich saw the UCI boats would help promote the university bridge said Bob Allan.
The formal christening took place on November 24th, 1969 in the Gateway Plaza in front of the Main UCI Library. Present were Chancellor Dan Alrich and his wife Jean, Jeffrey Allen, Robert Allan, Jr., UCI’s Athletic Director and many others.
Side note: After being built in the east coast, “Jean” was shipped across the country and developed a bad case of road rash and had to be repainted before it was christened and launched....
The original paint out of the factory was a beautiful emerald green. But after getting scratched up on the drive out to California it was decided that the green paint would be to expensive and too hard to match so the boat was painted a light blue color.(add color photo of Jean here).
“MABRY”
UCI’s Shields “Mabry”, (Hull number #135) was named after Mabry Steinhaus who was instrumental in helping with fundraising. Before UCI acquired her though, the boat was named first named "Prudence" when donated to USC, but was renamed "Cruncher" after sold to UCI alumni in 1975. Lee Painter bought out his partner in 1976 and renamed the boat "Spray". In 1979, UCI bought the boat with the assistance of the UCI Foundations Marine Development Committee. In 1982, she was renamed "Mabry" in honor of the committees chairman, Mabry Steinhaus.
“UCI’s Fleet of Shields Keelboats are a living memorial to those who helped get them here and care for them”, Bob Allan, Sailing Hall of Fame, one of the founders of UCI Sailing Program.
“COLUMBIA”
UCI's original boats were all named by Mr. Shields. "Columbia" (#189), was named after the 1958 Americas Cup defender which "Corney" and his brother Paul Shields once owned. It was christened in a formal ceremony on June 14th, 1970 at the Intercollegiate Sailing and Rowing Base. Columbia was presented for Cornelius Shields by Robert Allen, Jr and accepted by Jeffrey Allen on behalf of UCI. The invocation was performed by Reverend Edward P. Allen, christening Columbia was Frederick M. Barnes.
“CHARLOTTE”
"Charlotte" (#94), was named after Mrs. Walter Charlotte Podalak. She was instrumental in helping to get the Shields Keelboats to the west coast. Her husband was a famous East Coast sailor. At the boats formal launching ceremonies on November 13th, 1966, Carter Ford was the master of ceremonies. The invocation was delivered by Father William Ralph Harvey of Our Lady Queen of Angeles in Newport Beach. Accepting for the University was Dr. Wayne Crawford, UCI’s first Athletic Director. Also christened at this ceremony was “Dainty” (#96) named for Miss Karen Lamond, the president of North American Intercollegiate Yacht Association during that time. “Dainty” was part of the UCI Shields fleet for just a short while.
”AILEEN”
No 139 was named "Aileen" after Mr. Shields daughter and was one of the boats originally donates to USC. USC sold her to a private individual and the boat went through several owners before being bought by UCI in 1978.
“WIND”
No. 129, "Wind", was the last Shields donated to UCI by Dr. Erv Gordan in the late 1990’s.
HOW SPECIFICALLY UCI GOT OUR FIRST THREE SHIELDS – from Bob Allan…
“At this time we had a Western crew sailing the Columbia in the America's Cup trials. “Columbia” the Amercia’s Cup yacht had belonged to Corney Shield's brother Paul, and the present skipper was Walter Podolax. Walter's wife Charlotte was on the spectator boat with Corny. She told him of our efforts to promote college sailing in the West. They exchanged phone numbers and Charlotte gave Cory’s phone number to Bob Allan.
Some time later, the story goes, Allan was at home when the dog and doe incident occurred. One evening outside his home in Carmel, Allan noticed some dogs attacking a deer. He grabbed his three-iron golf club from his golf bag and threw it at the dogs, chasing them away, in the process he destroyed the three-iron. In seeking a replacement for the broken golf club, he came across one bearing the name of “Mrs. Cornelius Shields.”
“I called him in the East that night.” Allan said, “I said, ‘Corny, I have a golf club here with your wife’s name on it.’ He said, ‘That’s odd because we’ve never been to California.’” As the conversation turned to sailing, Allan again mentioned he was trying to promote more collegiate sailing on the West Coast.
“Well, I’m superstitious.” Shields said. “God meant for us to do something. What can I do?”
“Send us some money.” Allan said.
Three days later Shields sent a check for $50,000, which was spent to buy the boats.
UC Irvine, USC and Stanford each got a couple. Harvey-Mudd got one, and the programs grew.
Those first Shields that came to UCI were, Charolette, Jean and Columbia
Side note from Bob Allan: “I can now reveal that when I started raising funds for college sailing after World War II, Humphrey Bogart called and offered me the sum of $8,500 to buy a fleet of International 14-foot dinghies for the University of California at Los Angeles with the condition that no one know that he made the donation. This is typical of the cooperative spirit of the sailing fraternity that helps to compensated for the more "newsworthy" shortcomings such as the bickering over rules and measurements or the seemingly un-sportsmanlike attitudes express”
BAY WINDOW - AND THE HISTORY OF THE INTERCOLLEGIATE SAILING AND ROWING BASE – By Robert Allan.
The first four or five of the Shields 30-footers delivered to the Coast were distributed to the University of
California, Irvine, to the University of Southern California and to Stanford University. The Stanford
boats were given moored facilities at the San Francisco Yacht Club in return for shared use, but we
had a helluva time finding a home the Irvine and U.S.C. boats. Newport harbor was over-crowded. This
situation led to an all-out battle with the local authorities to find some area in the Bay that was both
available to the public. We finally found a 400 foot stretch of land destined for future development. It
was the last piece of waterfront on the bay, so we nicked named it the "Bay Window."
During the next four years we took turns attending public hearings, writing letters, sending in plans,
and generally trying to be as constructive as possible in oiling the political machinery that would finally
enable us to build a college sailing center at Newport Harbor. Finally, we succeeded and secured the
property where both UCI and OCC have their Shields moored.