New York Yacht Club

The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) was started on July 30, 1844, when John Cox Stevens invited eight friends to his yacht Gimcrack, anchored in New York Harbor. The nine who met resolved to form the NYYC and named Stevens commodore. Three days hence, the new commodore announced, members would be departing on a yacht-club cruise to Newport. Thus, began the historical connection between the NYYC and Newport, RI.

The NYYC’s first clubhouse was built in 1845 on land donated by Commodore Stevens, at the family estate at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, NJ, overlooking the Hudson River. (The estate is now the site of the Stevens Institute of Technology, endowed by Edwin Stevens, John’s brother, and the fourth commodore of this club.) The clubhouse, a Gothic revival building, officially opened on July 15, 1845. This was followed the next day by the first club regatta, billed as a “trial of speed.” This became the “Annual Regatta.” Only the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and II and the assassination of New York Senator Robert Kennedy have caused it to be cancelled. Today, the NYYC has its signature clubhouse on New York’s West 44th Street – a National Historic Landmark — and an on-the-water clubhouse in Newport, RI. The first clubhouse, “Station 10,” is on the Newport property.

Today, the NYYC conducts the aforementioned NYYC Annual Regatta presented by Rolex, Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex and Transatlantic races – the next one, the Transatlantic Race 2023, will start in June 2023 — in conjunction with the Royal Yacht Squadron, the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Storm Trysail Club. The club also conducts the biennial Rolex NYYC Invitational Cup for Corinthian (amateur) sailors representing their yacht clubs and nations, its companion event for U.S. yacht clubs, the Resolute Cup, and national, North American and world championships. The NYYC also runs and participates in numerous Team Racing Events and Cruising activities.