Vallejo Yacht Club celebrates 125th anniversary

VALLEJO – The Vallejo Yacht Club is celebrating its 125^th anniversary later this month with a day of fun and activities. The unpretentious and inclusive club hosts fun events throughout the year and will soon resume one of the most affordable sailing lesson programs in the Bay Area after a hiatus since the COVID-19 shutdown.

Vallejo Yacht Club Commodore David Sweet said the club is getting back to its roots of family and friendship. “People are having fun again,” he said.

The Opening Day celebration on April 27  will begin with a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the boating season, then a Ducky Derby with cash prizes, followed by a Poker Run. Food will be served inside the clubhouse.

The club opened on the same day in 1900. Located on the eastern shoreline of the Mare Island Strait at the foot of Florida Street, the clubhouse deck overlooks the harbor and the historic Coal Sheds on Mare Island. Originally named the Vallejo Yachting and Rowing Club, the long-lived organization is one of only seven yacht clubs on the west coast over 100 years old, and the fifth oldest yacht club in the San Francisco Bay area. Author Jack London was a member from 1910 until his death in 1916.

While the phrase “yacht club” might evoke an image of the snooty Thurston Howell III character from “Gilligan's Island,” the Vallejo club welcomes people from all walks of life.

“It’s a place where you can have camaraderie,” said Sweet. Vice Commodore Olga Hambrick agreed. “It's really not about snobby and stuck up people. Our club is pretty welcome for everyone,” she said.

Hambrick is from Ukraine. She said she joined the club five years ago, and felt supported by everyone there when the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out. “It was very important to me,” she said. “I'm honored to be Vice Commodore here. I love the club, and I dedicated all my time here.”

Rear Commodore Sylvia Keita, who is half French and half West African, said that the club has members from all around the world including Vietnam, Hungary and Poland. “The term yacht club makes it sound very hoity-toity, but in fact, it's not. It's very much working people, all parts of society, from every part of the economic structure are found here,” she said. 

Keita said she found an opportunity to break the exclusive image of the club when she came across a group of people of color watching last year’s Great Vallejo Race.

“I overheard somebody say, ‘Oh, this is what those rich people do,’ and I thought, “This is a great introduction for me.’ I walked up to them and I said, ‘it's actually open to everyone,’ she said. She invited the group to visit the club, and some of them went out on the water.

The Mare Island Strait once bustled with recreational boaters. Rowing was a common way for Mare Island workers to reach the island and avoid paying the ferry fare before the causeway was built in 1934, and competitive rowing became popular during that time.

By the middle of the 20^th century, the strait was busy with watercraft from jet skis to power boats to schooners. But water sports in the strait have dropped sharply over the last couple of decades. Maintenance of the public boating facilities has lapsed and lack of dredging has made it difficult or impossible for boaters to access parts of the city’s municipal marina and the public boat launch during all but the highest tides. 

The Vallejo Yacht Club is the exception. The membership keeps it well-maintained and its harbor regularly dredged. 

The club is open to the public during the annual weekend-long Great Vallejo Race on May 3 and 4 this year. Dozens of sailboats will race from Berkeley to Angel Island then to the finish line at the Vallejo Yacht Club, with big, colorful spinnaker sails puffed out in front. The club hosts an after party with live music, food and drink. Then the following day, the sailors race back to the San Francisco Bay.

The club also opens its doors during the Waterfront Weekend festival, held on the first weekend in October. 

But people who want to discover more about the club don’t have to wait for a special event. Keita said there is usually someone around during that day who can set up a visit with staff or other members. She recommended the club’s Friday night dinners as a good time to schedule a visit. “They're very affordable, very delicious. It's an easy way to come and get to know people,” she said.

You don’t need to own a boat to join the Vallejo Yacht Club. Keita said she had no boat when she first joined, and it was not a problem. “People will take you out on their boats,” she said. “Very kindly, very open, very welcoming.” One of her biggest attractions to the club is the community, the friendships she has developed, and the meals shared together. 

Members and their guests can volunteer as crew on the sailboats during the club’s Wednesday Night Beer Can Races, held April through September. You don’t need a lot of sailing experience to crew as “rail meat,” nautical slang for people who lean on the rail to help balance the boat when it tilts to one side.

Full membership costs $80 per month, basic membership is $45 per month, and the student rate is $25 per month. Sip fees are an additional charge based on boat length.

Keita said the club is actively recruiting new members, and because their population is aging, they hope to attract younger members, including high school kids, by reestablishing the club’s Learn to Sail program, which hasn’t been held since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s beginning sailing lessons will start in late June or early July. Students of all ages can apply tuition toward their club membership, should they choose to join.

The beginning lessons primarily use 8-foot El Toro and 11-foot Pico dinghies that can be piloted by one person. Students learn to handle boats individually inside the protected harbor before venturing out into the strait. Learning the basics of handling both the sail and the rudder simultaneously provides a good foundation for sailing larger boats. Beginning sailing graduates can progress to keelboat lessons on a 20-foot sailboat

Students must be nine years old or older and be able to swim 25 yards independently. The tuition currently posted on the club’s website is $200 for six lessons. But the cost this year may have to be raised. The volunteers who used to teach sailing have been retiring, and new instructors may require being paid. The club is seeking sponsorship to help defray that cost.

But even with a modest increase in price, the Vallejo club will be one of the most affordable places to learn to sail in the Bay Area. Sailing lessons at the volunteer-run Cal Sailing Club in Berkeley are cheaper, but the rougher, colder water of the San Francisco Bay is less forgiving than the Mare Island Strait, and a wet suit or foul weather gear is required.

The Berkeley club gives lessons in a 14-foot dinghy with one volunteer instructor and three students taking turns at the helm, which means less hands-on time per lesson. Other sailing lessons offered around the San Francisco Bay Area are considerably more expensive.

“If there are people who want to learn to sail and money is tight, they just need to get a hold of us and we'll find something, we'll find a sponsor.” Keita said. “We'll make sure that if the water is calling them, or the community is calling them, we'll answer.”

Learn more about the Vallejo Yacht Club at vyc.org.

Editor's note — this story was updated to correct information about membership costs.