From the Commodore

Welcome Members and Friends to the Conanicut Yacht Club website.

CYC was incorporated on October 7, 1892 “for the purpose of encouraging yacht building and improvement in seamanship and the cultivation of naval science…”  A small parcel of land was purchased on Conanicus Ave in Jamestown a year later.  A covered pier and clubhouse were constructed and the fledging yacht club slowly grew in the “Gilded Age.” Memberships were primarily summer residents from Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, Baltimore, New York and Providence.
A new clubhouse was built at the same site in 1917 and served the Club well until Hurricane Carol destroyed the pier and damaged the clubhouse (yet it stood up).  In 1955, CYC purchased the Knight/Lyons cottage and we moved to our current waterfront location on Bay View Drive.   Just prior, in 1951, CYC leased, improved and ultimately bought the tennis courts on Shoreby Hill from the Conanicut Country Club, and racquet sports were added to the club’s heritage. 
With these improvements, the Club grew rapidly in the fifty’s and sixty’s. In the seventies, the baby boomers were coming of age and membership grew and diversified from its summer resident heritage to a mix of summer and year round residents.  We are now open year round with a mix of Sailing, cruising, racquet and social activities.
We are especially proud of our junior programs and of those members who have excelled in sailing and racquets competition on the local, national and Olympic levels. Our signature event is the Around the Island Race held on Labor Day weekend which attracts the best from around Narragansett Bay and beyond.  We offer limited reciprocity to clubs listed in the Register of American Yacht Clubs Reciprocity Guide and invite members and guests to visit us and join us in our social activities such as our Friday TGIF, and our “Soup and Sloop” lecture series.
I will do my best, as your Commodore, to see that all members and guests enjoy their experience at the Club.  See you on the water and on the courts.

Sincerely,

Vic Calabretta
Commodore