yacht club annapolis

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Annapolis Yacht Club

Founded as an informal canoe club in 1883, the Annapolis Yacht Club has built a tradition of excellence.  Our mission is to encourage and support a wide range of boating activities, and to provide and maintain a suitable clubhouse and associated facilities for the recreational and social use of its members.

Stories from Annapolis Yacht Club

AYC beginnings were in 1883 as an informal canoe club. A building was constructed two years later on a pile of oyster shells at the foot of Duke of Gloucester Street, which, in 1886, became the Clubhouse for the formally-organized Severn Boat Club. This oyster pile was rented from St. Mary’s Church and was next to a rickety wooden bridge across Spa Creek. In 1897 a new clubhouse was built and was enlarged in 1912.

In 1904, the first records of meetings indicate a membership of 30. In 1910, the first wharfs were built, and the first club manager was hired in 1911 at a salary of $15 a month. Members began to acquire small sail boats and organize club regattas. These were uncomplicated affairs held on Memorial Day and Labor Day. Shell and canoe races started up Spa Creek at Old Woman Cove and ended at the Eastport Bridge. There were also swimming races and diving competitions. The club owned several single and double shells, two four-oared shells, and was given an eight-oared shell in 1911 by the US Naval Academy.

World War I and the depression slowed boating activities until the mid-30s. A hurricane damaged the clubhouse; the wharf was reduced to pilings in 1933 and it was difficult to keep the club’s quota of 100 resident members. By 1936, there seemed to be little interest by members in the club and changes were needed. With renewal in mind, in 1937 the Annapolis Yacht Club was incorporated and the first formal regatta (Annual) was held that year. The Fall Series first year was in 1940 with five boats competing. World War II interrupted organized racing, but in 1946 the Spring Series was started with three classes – 30 Square Meters, Stars and Chesapeake 20s. By 1948, Moths, Comets and Hamptons were also taking part. The Annapolis to Newport Race (Newport to Annapolis back then) started in 1947 and has been run every two years since. A dining room was added to the club in the late 1940s and in 1948, the first Smoking Lamp newsletter appeared as a single page mimeographed sheet. The junior fleet started in 1948, and the first junior trophy was presented in 1953. The first junior boat, Dolphins, were replaced by Penguins, which were next followed by 420s which the junior fleet still races. By 1959, membership had risen to 1000 and a new club building was badly needed. This was opened in 1963, with the first deck left unfinished due to lack of funds. Frostbite and Wednesday Night Racing soon demanded more club social space, and the Skipjack Lounge was finished in 1969.

The land across the Eastport Bridge where the junior fleet building is now (Holden Property) was purchased in 1969. The junior fleet was established there and a new building for them was completed in 1995. In 1989, women were welcomed as members, and the White Rocks Marina property (now the Harborside Sailing Center) was added in 1990. The club’s first official one-design fleet, the J/22, was started in 1991 with a crane added to Harborside for launching of the boats. The clubhouse again underwent a major renovation in 1995.

Today, AYC is at full membership with very active social, racing, and cruising programs.  Large international events such as the Star Class World Championship, Rolex International Women’s Keelboat Championship, and many North American championships are hosted every year at AYC. Harborside is filled with one design boats (J/22s, J/24s, Etchells, Stars, Melges 24) while the in-the-water boat slips are in high demand. AYC is known worldwide thanks to the members who are prominent in participating in, promoting, and organizing the sport of sailboat racing, as well as those who opt to leisurely cruise the waters of the Chesapeake and beyond.

Michael R. Krissoff

AYC Foundation President

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Annapolis Harbor Webcam

Annapolis Yacht Club

Play in the heart of downtown baltimore, marina info.

A fire in December of 2015 destroyed the Annapolis Yacht Club building and they are in a temporary location until a new facility can be re-built.World class racing, extensive cruising, championship junior sailing, and fantastic facilities. That's what you would expect from one of the oldest yacht clubs in the country. Founded as an informal canoe club in 1883, the Annapolis Yacht Club has built a tradition of excellence. Our mission is to encourage and support a wide range of boating activities, and to provide and maintain a suitable clubhouse and associated facilities for the recreational and social use of its members. This is a private club for members only but does have short term dockage available for non-members. Does not offer fuel.

2011 Rates:Non-member short term dockage: $2.50/ft/day, includes water and electric

Can only make reservations 7 days in advance.

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Renovated Annapolis Yacht Club launches amid…

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Renovated Annapolis Yacht Club launches amid boat show

Standing in front of the New Zealand flag in 2002, Annapolis Yacht Club members, from left, Tink Chambers, Dick Neville, and Geoff Bridges celebrating ANZAC Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps). The club attracts members from around the region and the world.

Joshua McKerrow / Capital Gazette

Work had begun to board up the windows of the Annapolis Yacht Club two days after a fire burned the building.

Paul W. Gillespie / Capital Gazette

Commodore James Ellis discusses the unique bar in the Skipjack Room on the first floor. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

File photo / Capital Gazette

Stephen Murray Jr, left, skipper of Decision IV, receives 2009 IRC East Coast Championship Perpetual Trophy from Race Officer Dick Neville during Awards Ceremony at the Annapolis Yacht Club in 2009.

A wire fence surrounds the Annapolis Yacht Club two days after a fire burned the building.

Robert Shapiro sails by Annapolis Yacht Club in June 1997 to pop the question to Susan Stobbart, who was about to have lunch inside the club. She said yes.

Commodore James Ellis discusses the second floor deck. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

In 1965, the new Annapolis Yacht was said to be the largest in the United States. It was designed by Earl S. Harder and Robert Randall Fryer Sr.

By Matthew Cole / Staff

Boats at dock at the Annapolis Yacht Basin, next to the Annapolis Yacht Club. The club is within the city's Maritime Conservation District.

A new third floor deck. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

A porch overlooking the docks was added as part of a renovation in 1940.

A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

By 1988, the Annapolis Yacht Club had been joined on the waterfront by the Annapolis Waterfront Marriott, seen to the left.

A painting of the club by John Barber was destroyed in the fire, but was able to be recreated by the artist, who mixed ashes from the fire into some of his darker paints. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

Ron Ward, left, and Gaither Scott work on the Annapolis to Newport Yacht Race in 1997.

Guests and racers gather around a video monitor to watch the results of the Wednesday Night Races at the Annapolis Yacht Club.

By Paul W. Gillespie / Capital Gazette

Fire investigators continue to search on Tuesday for the cause of the Annapolis Yacht Club fire that gutted the building Saturday.

The Skipjack Room on the first floor. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

Robert Shapiro kisses Susan Stobbart on the Annapolis Yacht Club dock after proposing to her with a message on the sail of his boat.

Some of the club's most treasured trophies survived the fire and required minimal restoration. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

By Paul W. Gillespie / Staff

Dan Spadone fires off the air horn to start the Herreshoff's class sailboats in Spa Creek for the start of the Annapolis Yacht Club Wednesday Night Races in 2013.

African-American bartenders serve club members in the new bar at Tte Annapolis Yacht Club in 1940. The club would not admit its first black member until 1991.

The second floor main bar and dining area. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

The new first floor kitchen. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

The Bill Bennett Memorial Leadership Award For The Junior Fleet was melted in the fire, left, but replaced, right. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

The new main staircase. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

The second floor deck. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

An aerial photo of the Annapolis Yacht Club shows how it looked in 1939.

The front door stands open at the Annapolis Yacht Club two days after a fire burned the building.

Photography artist Ginny Kuhn of Severna Park was one of many artists and photographers who have used the Annapolis Yacht Club for inspriation. She showed her 2006 photo , "Sails at Dusk" at a show on Kent Island.

The Annapolis Yacht Club will temporarily move to Harbor Grill near City Dock.

Third floor dining area. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

Posted by johnfparsons_9, Community Contributor

The Annapolis Yacht Club on fire on 12/12/15 at about 3 p.m.

Two young women share drinks and cigarettes in the cocktail lounge at The Annapolis Yacht Club in 1940. Debbie Goesslin will take over as the club's first female commodore in January.

The new Annapolis Yacht Club building, which opened in 1963, included a knotty pine paneled club room.

Contests in the Annapolis Yacht Club's Wednesday Night Races are back in their slips in 2007.

The Binnacle Bar on the third floor. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

Clarence B. Garrett / Baltimore Sun Media Group

In 1962, construction began on the new clubhouse for the Annapolis Yacht Club. The club was renovated in 1997, and burned on Saturday.

Commodore Jim Ellis shows off one his favorite parts of the renovation, a clear view of Spa Creek and bridge from the third floor dining area. The area where the fire began. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

file photo / Capital Gazette

Robert Carney, the former executive chef, of the Annapolis Yacht Club, as he prepares his dish for a social event in October 1998.

In 1947, the Annapolis Yacht Club, lower left, was one of the biggest buildings on Spa Creek.

Vice commodore Debbie Gosselin talks about the Annapolis Yacht Club two days after a fire burned the building.

Annapolis Yacht Club members and their crews gather at the end of the Wednesday night sailboat races in July 2014. The series started in 1959.

View from the third floor dining area. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

The clubhouse and part of anchorage of The Annapolis Yacht Club in 1939.

The second floor main bar. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

The lobby. A tour of the Annapolis Yacht Club which opened after extensive reconstruction following a fire which damaged most of the building.

Powerboats line the docks next to the Annapolis Yacht Club in 1964.

That changed Sept. 28 when the club had a soft-opening. It invited members for drinks and to tour the $18 million in renovations, which were on display Saturday with the Annapolis Boat Show in town.

About 450 members and guests showed up to the soft launch just over a week ago, said Commodore Jim Ellis.

The commodore serves as the leader of the club. Former Commodore Debbie Gosselin led the club while it rebuilt. And now Ellis is leading the club through the re-opening after a plastic Christmas tree destroyed the interior of the building in December 2015.

“Do I wish someone was nearby to unplug the tree? Yes. In this case I was dealt a fire that wrecked the club,” Ellis said Saturday. “Membership has been supportive of what we are doing.”

The renovated Annapolis Yacht Club is much like the previous club before it. But really the only thing left over from the previous building is the structure. Everything else is new: furniture, carpets, ceilings, Ellis said.

A new deck was placed on the third floor and some of the bars have been shifted around or extended. There is plenty of space to sit alongside the water and enjoy the view. With the boat show going on, city waters have sprouted a forest of masts. There was no shortage of things to look at for boat enthusiasts.

In the yacht club things were quiet, save for some steel drums linked to a British Virgin Islands event on the first floor. The club’s staff moved about swiftly as they prepped for the day.

“Hello commodore,” they said as they passed Ellis.

It was early in the morning, so club members trickled into the building slowly. Many of them were visiting for the first time to get a glimpse of the renovated building.

Michael Dodd, a club member, stopped Ellis to give his compliments.

“This place looks great,” Dodd said. “Fabulous. It’s impressive.”

For years the club — which started in 1885 as the Severn River Boat Club — has made its home in Annapolis. The past three years the club was a charred husk. The scars of the fire — scorch marks as the flames licked the outer walls — were visible from the street. Most of the destroyed trophies and memorabilia were replaced with support from members, Ellis said.

The cosmetic surgery of renovations has restored the building to its former glory, with a few changes. The elevator is no longer on the exterior of the building, meaning the roof line isn’t interrupted by the elevator’s upper machinery.

Sound-dampening materials were placed in the ceilings to cut down dining room noise. The windows looking out onto Spa Creek now reach from floor to ceiling. The older building had metal panels at the bottom, restricting some of the view, Ellis said.

On the third floor — where the fire started — The Bridge room looks much like it did before. Except for the corner where the fire started.

Previously there were drapes and trophy cases, but now the space is clear and it’s easier to see more of Spa Creek, Ellis said.

“It’s my personal favorite change,” Ellis said as he looked out on Spa Creek. “We didn’t have this before.”

The club spent about two years on Dock Street at its temporary location within the former Harbor Grill restaurant.

Annapolis businessman Harvey Blonder owns the building and it has been returned to him, said Brian Asch, the club’s general manager.

Moving into the temporary location was controversial as some residents said the private club didn’t need the support of government. The city bent zoning rules a bit to allow the private club to operate within the former restaurant. To maintain the site’s status as a restaurant, the city required the yacht club to open its private doors to the public once a month for a short lunch.

That site served its purpose, and the club was thankful for the space, but the Compromise Street location has room for more members and better infrastructure, Asch said.

Even at Dock Street, the members still gave it the yacht club feel, he said.

“It was the members that brought the culture to the club,” Asch said. “And the staff.”

Want to join the club?

That will take some time.

The club currently has a two-year wait list. And membership is somewhat difficult to earn. New members have to be sponsored by two regular, life or intermediate members. And incoming members have to have endorsement from five other members, according to the club’s website.

Membership applications also include an interview regarding the individual’s boating interests and character.

Then after all of that, membership requires a fee. This is where the club’s openness ended: Ellis said he couldn’t talk about the cost of membership, citing IRS rules against solicitation. The club is a 501(c)(7) tax-exempt social club.

There are rules on what can be talked about and what can’t be, Ellis said. So the focus stays on boats and members.

“This is not a dining club,” Ellis said. “It’s a yacht club. Everything is about membership value.”

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When Black boaters faced discrimination on the water, this yacht club became a refuge

Scott Neuman

Commodore Benny McCottry stands outside the entrance of the Seafarers Yacht Club of Annapolis in Annapolis, Md. It was founded more than 60 years ago by a handful of Black boaters. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption

Commodore Benny McCottry stands outside the entrance of the Seafarers Yacht Club of Annapolis in Annapolis, Md. It was founded more than 60 years ago by a handful of Black boaters.

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — David Turner, whose father and grandfather worked the Chesapeake Bay as crabbers and oystermen, recalls "getting up at the crack of dawn" as a kid to help out on weekends and summers.

"I hated it," he says. Turner's childhood experience on Kent Island left him wanting "nothing to do with the water."

"That's why I went to college," he says.

He also remembers his father and grandfather's stories of racial discrimination they encountered on the bay. "They couldn't get parts," he says. "They couldn't get fuel."

Turner's dislike for the water eventually faded. In fact, as he got older, he found that the Chesapeake Bay was "in my bloodstream." He bought a boat. Then another. Eventually, in 2007, he joined the Seafarers Yacht Club of Annapolis.

The historically Black group of like-minded boaters is what drew him in. "I found a group of people who were serious about boating, serious about the community," he says. "They weren't worried about what they did for a living every day. They were interested in boating and the broader community."

David Turner aboard his boat Savior, at Herrington Harbor South on the Chesapeake Bay, on July 29. Scott Neuman/NPR hide caption

David Turner aboard his boat Savior, at Herrington Harbor South on the Chesapeake Bay, on July 29.

A safe haven for Black boaters

If not for the nautical flagpole out front and the placard next to the entrance, the headquarters of the club, founded in 1959 by a handful of Black boaters, would blend seamlessly into the surrounding houses in the city's Eastport district. In many ways, it's a reflection of the area's history and how attitudes have evolved over time. The Maryland capital was once an infamous slave port, and until the early 1960s, the club's headquarters served as a segregated school for "colored children."

In and around Annapolis at that time, some fuel docks refused to serve Black boat owners, says SYC Commodore Benny McCottry.

"They would have to be creative and say, 'I'm here to get gas for the the boss' or something of that nature," he says. "So people would assume this boat didn't belong to them."

McCottry points to multiple articles written about the Seafarers Yacht Club. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption

McCottry points to multiple articles written about the Seafarers Yacht Club.

Today, the SYC is one of several yacht clubs started by Black boat owners that still dot the Chesapeake and its tributaries. It is equal parts boating organization, social club and community center. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Seafarers have continued to flourish, now boasting about 80 members.

A space for children to learn about the water

On a recent Friday inside the SYC's headquarters, about 40 children wearing matching yellow-and-blue shirts fidget in their seats as they gather for the final day of a two-week youth program. The popular summer curriculum aims to teach an eclectic variety of life skills — from boat handling and fishing to physical fitness.

The children in the Seafarers summer youth program head to the park across the street to stretch and play games. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption

The children in the Seafarers summer youth program head to the park across the street to stretch and play games.

But on this day, swimming and chess are at the top of the list. The children had been anticipating a cruise on the Chesapeake Bay, but the weather wasn't cooperating.

"Just like in chess, we need to adjust our plan," Vice Commodore Derrick Cogburn announces to the seated kids. Plan B is to watch Queen of Katwe , a film about Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan girl who rises out of the slums of Kampala to become an international chess star.

The children watch a movie about chess. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption

The children watch a movie about chess.

Chess, Cogburn tells the children, can help them learn discipline, abstract thinking and how to be flexible about strategy.

The club has its own pool and McCottry, 72, a former Red Cross water safety instructor, rattles off some sobering statistics that illustrate why swimming is a focus: African Americans are 1.5 times more likely to drown than their white counterparts.

According to club member Alice Mahan, who is coordinator for the summer program, "Most of these kids, when they came, did not even want to get their faces wet."

One of them is 10-year-old Olivia Oliver. Entering the program two weeks ago, she did not know how to swim. Now, she says she's mostly confident in the water, but still a little nervous on the deep end. For her, the best part of the program was kayaking. "It was super fun and interesting to see all the jellyfish in the water," she says.

Left: Commodore McCottry shows photos from the children's fishing trip earlier that week. Right: The Seafarers clubhouse is fully decorated with sailing and boating items. Keren Carrión/NPR hide caption

Left: Commodore McCottry shows photos from the children's fishing trip earlier that week. Right: The Seafarers clubhouse is fully decorated with sailing and boating items.

The SYC also hosts Annapolis' only Sea Scout ship as part of the Boy Scouts of America-affiliated program. Some of its top Scouts have gone on to the U.S. Naval and Coast Guard academies.

Confidence and camaraderie

Lonnie Alsop, 69, who joined the club just a few months ago, says he's known about the Seafarers since he was a boy. "My father had friends who were members," he says. "My dad was not a boat owner. I was always hoping he would be, but that never happened."

Alsop says he's always had a love of water. "I bought my first boat when I was 16 years old, which was a speed boat," he says. "I went from there to larger and larger boats. And so finally I got involved in cigarette-style boats, and I had those for years."

"I always wanted to be a Seafarer, but my life has been so busy that I didn't think I had time to be totally involved in and do the types of things in the community that they are constantly involved in."

He says he's "looking forward to spending more time with them and getting involved in some of the programs that they're carrying on in the community."

The days of being turned away at fuel docks are long gone. Many places on the bay are very welcoming, Alsop says. But even now, he says he's "not super comfortable going to marinas where I'm not really familiar."

"To be honest with you, having the camaraderie of some of the guys who are of my same race makes [me] a little more confident," he says.

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Annapolis Yacht Club

If you appear to be near Charles Carroll House , you can go to this restaurant. Tasty crab cakes , filet américain and salmon can make a favorable impression on you. Drink the delicious wine offered here.

There is a magnificent view from Annapolis Yacht Club . This place is recommended for the competent staff. The cool service is something these restaurateurs care about. You will definitely appreciate the nice atmosphere. According to the Facebook rating, this spot received 4.6 stars.

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ANNAPOLIS YACHT CLUB

Annapolis Yacht Club (AYC) was founded in 1886 as an informal canoe club. Today, the Club's mission is to encourage and support a wide range of boating activities and to maintain facilities for the recreational and social use of its 2000 members.

The Annapolis Yacht Club is a full-service, year-round premier private yacht club that provides high-quality programs for its members. These include sailboat racing, cruising for sailors and power boaters, a vigorous junior sailing program, fun, and educational winter activities, social events, and first-class dining and facilities.

AYC is a prominent fixture in Annapolis, is a good corporate citizen, and provides select opportunities for non-members such as its Junior Sailing program. In addition, AYC's Race Committee supports club racing and regional, national, and international championships. AYC members are pleased to welcome these competitors and other visiting yachtsmen to the Clubhouse and sailing facilities.

RACE HEADQUARTERS

ANNAPOLIS: ANNAPOLIS YACHT CLUB

Race Headquarters for the Annapolis Newport Race is at the Sailing Center of the Annapolis Yacht Club located at 510 Severn Avenue, just over the Spa Creek Bridge from the Main Clubhouse. 

Onsite Registration, Tracker Pick Up, and Official Race Merchandise will be available at the Sailing Center. Please see the Event Schedule for the onsite registration schedule. 

Electronic guest cards for Annapolis Yacht Club are available to all non-members visiting the Club for the race. Guest cards will be available in advance and a link to registration will be available one month prior to the event.

ANNAPOLIS DOCKAGE

For Mooring Information in Annapolis Harbor, contact the  Harbormaster.

The source for Annapolis marine services.

ACCOMMODATIONS

Annapolis has all types of accommodations from historic hotels, larger chains, Airbnbs, etc., many of which are within walking distance to the Annapolis Yacht Club

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Admirals Annapolis Yacht Club

Founded in 2000.

The AAYC was founded in 2000 and serves a community of power boaters, sail boaters, and active members who love the Chesapeake Bay!    Our club hosts a variety of land and water based social activities throughout the year.

The AAYC is a member of the   Chesapeake Bay Yacht Club Association (CBYCA). Clubs within the association extend reciprocal privileges to CYC members. CYC is also on the Register of American Yacht Clubs ,  which affords our members reciprocal privileges at clubs around the country.

Read the charming story of how the AAYC was formed and the history of the members who dedicated time, resources, and libations to get it all going! 

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• How This Historically Black Yacht Club Learned to Thrive by Centering Community

In 1959, the Seafarers Yacht Club's only goal was to establish a presence on the Chesapeake. Now, it's providing services to the community.

Diane m. byrne.

Contributing Boating Editor

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In 1959, four Black men who were boaters in Washington, DC, decided to take their love of the water to the Chesapeake Bay. Joseph Barr, Hugh Dowling, Ellsworth Randall and Albert C. Burwell had been part of the Seafarers Boat Club on the Anacostia River, but wanted to take advantage of the Chesapeake’s much larger cruising grounds. They decided Annapolis should be home port. But the doors of local yacht clubs were closed to them and marina owners refused to sell Black captains fuel.

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Undeterred, they created the Seafarers Yacht Club, one of the oldest Black yacht clubs in the US. At first, they met in each other’s homes. Later, the group rented a small storefront in downtown Annapolis. In 1967, they purchased an abandoned, two-room 1918 schoolhouse—the first elementary school for Black children in Annapolis’s Eastport area—and turned it into a clubhouse.

The founders organized cruises where service providers welcomed them, hosted cookouts when they couldn’t dine in restaurants, and built a swimming pool at the back of the clubhouse. Over time, as SYC grew, its mission to enjoy boating transformed into something larger, with a community-service focus that included teaching at-risk youth how to swim and boat, hosting dinners for seniors, and setting up the city’s first Sea Scouts program—think Boy and Girl Scouts on the water.

Community service has become a primary mission of the yacht club. Its programs range from summer camps to teach seamanship and swimming to local youth to a Sea Scouts chapter that has seen one member enter the US Naval Academy.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

Capt. Ade Adebisi, SYC’s immediate past commodore, has seen the club mature since joining in 2001, both in membership, which has seen an 80 percent turnover in the last 20 years, and focusing on the local community.

Adebisi first learned of the club through a chance encounter. One day out cruising, he and his family came across Dr. William Woodward, their family dentist—who, unbeknownst to Adebisi—was the club’s then-commodore. After being invited to meet the members, Adebisi never looked back. “These are accomplished individuals who come together and work towards a common goal and support one another,” he says. “We’re not just yacht-club members, we’re friends.”

The club now has 76 members, who own multiple boat types, from kayaks to cruising sailboats to 60-ft. sportfishing machines. During the summer, flotillas of member boats cruise the Chesapeake, or do weekend trips to destinations like Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. On more somber occasions, the group wears the club’s dress whites to member funerals. While the founders were all working-class men, today’s group is more demographically and racially diverse, comprised of business owners, professionals and military officers. The club’s female members are also active in running the organization, with many serving as board members.

Over the years, the club has seen business owners, professionals and military officers join its ranks. That’s reflected in the members’ boats.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

Adebisi says the club has made him a better boater, since many of the more seasoned members provide seamanship and boat-handling advice to others. “As a new boater, you’re just learning to deal with all the challenges that come with the water,” he says. “Now, you have other people around to gain experience from, and share stories.”

The current commodore, Capt. Benjamin McCottry, says camaraderie is one of the club’s main strengths. Officially, he’s been a member for six and a half years, but has been around the members “practically all my life,” back to when the 70-year-old was a child.

McCottry is most proud of how the organization gives back to the community. It hosts an annual Thanksgiving Day dinner for seniors, for instance, and uses a donated 28-foot powerboat to teach seamanship skills to local youth.

Three Past Commodores (left to right): Dr. Mel Wyche, David Turner and  Dr, William Woodward.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

In fact, the youth programs are of particular importance to McCottry and his fellow members. Since its early days, the Seafarers Yacht Club has provided swimming lessons in the club pool as part of a two-week summer program that also includes boating education.

“Drowning is the second-leading cause in the country of accidental death in children 12 and under,” McCottry says. “Not only do the kids learn how to swim and save themselves, but they also learn how to save somebody else—without endangering themselves.” Many of the youth, he says, come from homes where no one can swim.

The swimming instruction, as well as STEM-related programs and even chess lessons from a chess master to promote critical-thinking skills, all target local children ages eight to 12. They’re overseen by the club’s non-profit arm, the Seafarers Foundation. Older children aren’t forgotten, with the Foundation further overseeing the first—and only—Sea Scouts unit in Annapolis. Sea Scouts is a program of the Boy Scouts of America for male and female teens ages 14 through 20.

A group kayak around the harbor in Annapolis.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

The Seafarers Yacht Club established its unit, Sea Scout Ship 1959, in 2019. Not only has it become one of the fastest-growing units in the nation, attracting nearly two dozen members, but also it received the prestigious National Flagship Award last summer. This recognizes outstanding program quality, youth achievements, and adult commitment. One member has gone on to attend the US Naval Academy.

“It’s doing rich work,” says Major General Errol Schwartz, the Seafarers Foundation president. What’s more, he sees opportunities to expand that rich work. He and his colleagues are exploring ways to offer programs year-round, plus close the age gap between those programs and the Sea Scouts.

Additionally, he wants to focus on health issues, especially in light of the pandemic. “We want to hear from the youth,” Schwartz says. “They’ve been pent up in this Zoom environment for two years. What are some of the things that are affecting them, mentally or otherwise?”

The club officers in dress whites, honoring a recently deceased member.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

Whatever it ultimately does, this “tight-knit family,” as Schwartz calls the Seafarers Yacht Club, will continue to honor its past. “Let’s not forget the people who got us here,” adds Adebisi.

Some of the original members are still alive and the work they did to buy and renovate that original two-room schoolhouse laid the foundations for today’s thriving club. “It’s important for us to maintain that history,” says Adebisi. “We’re proud of it.”

Diane Byrne is a longtime yachting journalist, specializing in the megayacht market; she has covered the industry since 1993. She is the founder and editor of MegayachtNews.com, a daily-updated…

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