Club History

In 1952, a group of avid sailors first formed The Island Boat Club on the Detroit River, with only three catboats and five boat wells. Located just east of Waterworks Park, the club recruited members, collected dues, and by 1954 borrowed enough money to lease the current site on Lake St. Clair. That same year, the association was renamed Great Lakes Yacht Club (GLYC), and construction of the clubhouse began. The pool and docks were built in 1959, and in 1962, GLYC was granted membership in the Detroit River Yachting Association, today the Detroit Regional Yacht-Racing Association (DRYA). In 1963, GLYC acquired title to its lakeside grounds, and in 2000 a major renovation of its dockside was complete.
From its modest beginnings, Great Lakes Yacht Club has become a regional leader in yachting and yacht racing. Each spring since 1962, GLYC has hosted DRYA’s Early Bird Regatta and each October, the GLYC Fall Series of five races. In 1986, a doubled-handed yacht race was inaugurated on Lake St. Clair. In 2000, GLYC became an official sponsor of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s “Leukemia Cup Regatta,” joining sailing organizations in 22 other states each year to raise money for cancer research through local sailboat races.
Since its inception, GLYC has valued diversity in its members. It was among the first clubs in the region to grant membership to women, and in 1983, elected its first woman Commodore, Eve Kommel. Originally founded by a Jewish membership, the club’s earliest Commodores include: Avern Cohn, senior federal judge in the Eastern District of Michigan and the late Irvin Yackness, former executive officer and general counsel of the Building Industry Association of Southeast Michigan. Today, membership has swelled, forming a yachting community as diverse as Michigan itself.