The Rock Hall Yacht Club Sailing School (RHYCSS) deeply values the maritime heritage of the Eastern Shore. We recognize that understanding our history is essential to guiding our future.

A centerpiece of this heritage is the Mench Ark, also known as a fishy shanty. Rescued from Chestertown, Maryland, around 2005 by RHYCSS founder Charles "Mr. Chuck" Parry, the Ark was intended to serve as a functional piece of living history. Mr. Chuck, who had recently established the sailing school, envisioned the Ark as a unique space to store sails and educational equipment for our sailing school.

After being retrieved from the former Scott’s Point Marina, the Ark was carefully transported to the Rock Hall Yacht Club property. Though it arrived in poor condition, Mr. Chuck and a dedicated group of volunteers painstakingly restored her—replacing rotted wood, recaulking, painting, and installing a new roof. They chose a permanent location set back from the shoreline to ensure she remained safe from the elements.

For over 20 years, the Ark has been "moored" on land overlooking Langford Bay and the Chester River and maintained by the RHYCSS. It remains an integral part of our summer programs, housing the sails, blades, and dinghy parts essential to our operations. We are fortunate to have this piece of local history as a resource, and we continue to incorporate on-the-water history into our adult and youth enrichment classes.

After these 20+ years, the Ark was showing more and more signs of deterioration from the sun, the bay air, and time. Leaks were developing and siding was decaying quickly. The RHYCSS wanted to protect our expensive equipment housed inside, halt the further deterioration of the Ark and preserve it. We are very fortunate to have a club member and major sailing supporter, Doug Hyatt, donate and install a TPO roof in early summer 2025. The further costs of repair were beyond our annual budget, so in 2025 we applied for a grant with Preservation Maryland to repair and rehabilitate the Mench Ark. The Heritage Fund Selection Committee approved a grant to the Rock Hall Yacht Club Sailing School, Inc in support of the Mench Ark/Fishing Shanty Rehabilitation project. This was great news for us! After careful selection, we chose Rosin Creek Collaborative to do the bulk of the repair and rehabilitation.  Most of the work was done during late fall 2025 with final painting , interpretitve sign, and finishing touches planned for early spring 2026.

The final product is shown below. The Mench Ark is painted, roofed with TPO, windows glazed, interpretive signage installed, and back in action for RHYCSS sailing programs in June 2026.