History of Seattle Yacht Club

In the 1880’s the center of yachting in Seattle was at Budlong’s Boathouse. Although there were newspaper reports of a “Seattle Yacht Club” as early as 1879, it really was not until September 1, 1892 that the Seattle Yacht Club was formally founded with a charter and election of officers. The search for a clubhouse location was on and property was secured at the foot of the Duwamish Head in West Seattle. The 194 members contributed to its construction but the clubhouse was only used for a few years.

In October of 1909, the Seattle Yacht Club merged with the Elliott Bay Yacht Club. The Elliott Bay Yacht Club burgee was chosen for the new amalgamated club and since that time the star and bar has flown proudly as the burgee of the Seattle Yacht Club. A new clubhouse was built at about this time in West Seattle. It was only used for a short time until the building was taken over by the United States Shipping Board for an officer’s training facility in 1918. This left the club looking for a new home.

Commodore Norval H. Latimer and architect John Graham lead the search for a new clubhouse site and settled on the present day property on Portage Bay at the foot of Hamlin Street. Miller Freeman and Scott Calhoun negotiated the first long-term lease with the city for the property. John Graham, who had already served as commodore, designed the clubhouse.

Since 1920 the Portage Bay Clubhouse has been the focus of shore-side activities for SYC. Dozens of committees and hundreds of volunteers gather almost every day of the week to carry on club business ensuring that SYC continues to be one of the premier yacht clubs in the world.