For 20 years, Shelter Cove in ‘Old Town’ Sausalito was home to The Pacific Yacht Club (PYC) whose clubhouse can be seen in the background of the photograph above. According to the 1889 San Francisco Blue Book and Club Directory, the PYC was organized in June of 1878. At that time, the San Francisco Yacht Club was moving their organization from Mission Bay in San Francisco to Sausalito, but some members were unhappy with the selection of a site farther north in Sausalito and splintered off, forming the Pacific Yacht Club and purchasing property along South St. and the Bay.
Thirty years earlier, Shelter Cove and ‘Old Town’ were known as Whaler’s Cove, a favorite rendezvous point for whaling vessels in the 1840s. In 1848, the US. Navy built a sawmill and dry-dock there to supply and repair the Pacific Steamship fleet, which would be the beginning of the area’s long history of boat and ship building. When the Navy moved their shipyard to Mare Island in 1852, the area fell into neglect and disrepair. Further north, ‘New Town’ Sausalito began to thrive, especially after the North Pacific Coast Railroad began operations in 1874.
Though short lived, The Pacific Yacht Club, made quite a splash in San Francisco Bay yachting circles during the 1880s and early 1890s. Sausalito News and San Francisco Call articles from the period covered races sponsored by the PYC and events such as the Opening Day celebrations in May of every year. Some Club members lived on “The Hill” in
Sausalito but many ferried over from their homes in San Francisco for lavish gatherings and “boat-hopping”, dinner dances “til’ midnight”, and “tug-boat” parties across the Bay and back. The PYC had many illustrious members and some fine boats but dark clouds began to appear on the horizon for the Club in the early 1890s.
Less than half of their number were “subscription” members that paid annual dues while the larger group were “lifetime” members who didn’t contribute any funds at all. Their membership was also not the most diligent and enthusiastic of sailors as news items often criticized the Club for failing to enter boats in regattas or not following through with planned races of their own. In a scathing San Francisco Call article of Oct. 1898 the paper wrote, “The Pacific Yacht Club…has suffered from a superfluity of officers and a deficiency of yachts…But the failure of the Pacifics…prove that yachting is not a rich man’s sport in San Francisco Bay…Owners of handsome, expensive yachts manifest less club spirit than the owners of moderate-sized or small craft.” Owing more than $20,000 in principal and interest, The Pacific Yacht Club’s land and assets were sold out of foreclosure in 1899 to the Spreckel brothers, one of whom ironically enough, was John D. Spreckels, a member and former President of the Yacht Club.
Thank you to the Sausalito Historical Society for their many articles and publications.
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)