The San Diego Yacht Club (SDYC) —founded in 1886—has many of the hallmarks of a premier club: A large and engaged membership (about 2,100 members); a talented executive team (headed by GM/COO Terry Anglin, the 2016 Mel Rex Award for Excellence in Club Management) and premium facilities that are continuously improved and expanded to keep pace with the scale and scope of this club’s vision as one of the world’s very best yacht clubs.
Periodic surveys confirm that membership attitudes and attachments to the club are extraordinarily strong. Two key measures—overall satisfaction and perceived value—are further indications that this club doesn’t so much meet the standard benchmarks of excellence as actually set them.
One key statistic for the club is the average age of a new member—38 years old. As other clubs sometime struggle to find new younger members, SDYC is already attracting them in unprecedented numbers.
While many clubs have experienced growth through a diversification strategy—finding new programs and activities that attract new members—the SDYC has maintained its vibrancy and capacity to attract new and younger members by maintaining its core mission that links it to all-things sailing and boating. The club has a spirit that motivates it to share, support and expand the distinct pleasures from its many maritime-related activities. “At the end of the day,” says Anglin, “we’re a yacht club.”
Facilities and Amenities
With many of its members owning boats, the club must have the facilities, support and access required. The club supports both sailboats and powerboats, with 65 percent in the former category and 35 percent in the latter. The club, as Anglin puts it, offers a 1,200-room hotel for boats with 576 wet slips and more than 600 dry storage options.
Though the very word “yacht” and pursuits like regattas often connote expense and exclusivity, the San Diego Yacht Club is all about bringing down barriers to the enjoyment of its sport. So, even for those members who may not presently own a boat, the path to the sea at SDYC is a direct and relatively easy.
For example, the club maintains a fleet of J/22 sailboats that are available to members, which provides a popular option for non-owners, and serves a variety of instructional, recreational and special-event needs. Many adults at SDYC are learning to sail from an experienced staff and other members who understand the traditions and joys of the sport. In this way, the club provides a very complete experience of yachting and boating for all—without incurring the substantial capital outlays and maintenance expenses related to boat ownership that might otherwise delay entry for some into this activity.
A Family Focus
The junior program is another way the SDYC supports and expands its traditions. When junior program class offerings and activities get rolled out in early February, the many offerings that reach across the summer month rapidly fill in just a few days. More than 400 participants take part in the very popular summer program, which offers half-day programs in both the morning and afternoon.
While activities at the club are maintained every day of the year with the sole exception of Christmas, the club’s pace quickens in the summer months as kids take part in the summer program and moms and dads are also willingly pulled into the social, dining and sports activities that fill the days, evenings and weekends.
The club has a strong and popular dining program, serving well in excess of 10,000 meals monthly in addition to a thriving catering option for member sponsored events. In January 2016, SDYC underwent a complete kitchen renovation.
Additional work is currently underway at the club to build an outdoor seating area and bar, as well as to add several child-friendly amenities (a giant Jenga game and ping-pong and foosball tables) to further augment the club’s facilities and capacity to enjoy the seaside outdoors.
This informal and relaxed context is ideal for the young family and all that are young at heart. The club invites this laid-back atmosphere with its full slate of opportunities for sea-faring adventure, racing competition and relaxed interaction. SDYC also has a minimum of rules and regulations to constrain its membership as they pursue its outdoorsy, California lifestyle. Enquire about dress code and you likely to get the official club position: “Not naked.”
The San Diego Yacht Club has succeeded generation after generation. In today’s environment awash with choices and time-constraints, it is worth reflecting on how SDYC has steadily expanded its appeal in a world buffeted by fads and fashions.
The answer is not easily reducible to a single recommendation. However, SDYC’s storied success can be attributed to the fidelity with which it has honored its traditions and enthusiastically passed them on. It is no fluke that many of the world’s best sailors and yachtsmen have had their roots in this one club. This is in evidenced in the pictures, trophies and medals on the club’s walls. So, too, is the tradition supported and displayed by the people themselves whose accomplishment in the sport and other endeavors trace in important ways back to club life. Champions, All-Americans, Olympians and winners of America’s Cup count themselves as members, where you may find them dining, at dockside or talking to the next generation of club sailors.
In this way, the young men and women that learn the skills and traditions at SDYC have their own experience linked in an inspiring way with other sailors from the club like Dennis Conner (who has won America’s Cup four times), Graham Biehl (a former Junior World Champion and Olympian), Nevin Snow (a top collegiate sailor) and Jennifer Ann “JJ” Fetter (World Champion, Olympian and National Sailing Hall of Fame). These are names that inspire the next generation, and the San Diego Yacht Club is the place where these dreams of youth can truly set sail.
Club Trends Winter 2017