In 1926, Winfield Black noticed a Mathews Company cabin cruiser display model at the Maryland Yacht Club in Baltimore, and purchased it for $6,500, a considerable sum in 1926. As a show boat, Isabel came equipped not only with gear such as anchors and life rings, but completely outfitted with monogrammed china, linen, and silver. Many of these artifacts are on exhibit in CBMM’s “At Play on the Bay” building.
The Black family spent nearly 70 summers cruising the Chesapeake Bay on Isabel. Eleanor Black Requard and her husband Tom inherited the boat and did much of the maintenance themselves, adding fresh coats of varnish every season. In the early 1970s, they were among the founders of the Classic Yacht Club of America, a group of like-minded owners of older boats, and participated in rendezvous, parades, competitions and cruises. Except for a new diesel engine, the boat retains most of its original equipment and fittings. In 1995, the Requards donated Isabel to CBMM.
Built: 1926, Port Clinton, OH, by the Mathews Company
Length: 38 ft. (11.58 m)
Beam: 11 ft. (3.35 m)
Isabel, trunk cabin power cruiser, 1926. Collection of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels, MD. Gift of J. Thomas and Eleanor F. Requard. 1995.
