The records of the Southern Yacht Club trace its history back to the club's founding in the Gulf Coast resort town of Pass Christian, Mississippi in the year 1849. Only the venerable New York Yacht Club can document an earlier founding date. As such, SYC is proud to bear the mantel of second oldest yacht club in the United States.

New Orleans in the antebellum era was a thriving port city, banking center and cultural leader. However, during the summer months, many New Orleanians would retreat to the Gulf Coast to flee the heat, humidity and outbreaks of yellow fever. Summer homes, hotels and boarding houses dotted the coast along the Mississippi Sound to Mobile Bay. The first recorded regattas in this region were held as early as the 1830s in the coastal ports of Biloxi and Mobile.

A favorite destination among New Orleanians was the Pass Christian Hotel. There, SYC’s organizational meeting was held on July 21, 1849 and the hotel became its headquarters for several years. Eighteen yachts answered the starting gun of the first regatta.

Activities continued at "The Pass " until 1857 when the club relocated to New Orleans and held its regattas on Lake Pontchartrain. Meetings were held at various locations in the city.
The Race to the Coast

The year after its founding, on July 4th, 1850, SYC held the first of what was to become an annual race from New Orleans to Pass Christian. The racecourse winds its way across Lake Pontchartrain, through The Rigolets to Lake Borgne and then into the Mississippi Sound. This annual Race to the Coast continues today and is among the oldest regattas still regularly contested in the United States.
A Clubhouse, at last

The seventeen years of Civil War and Reconstruction greatly curtailed boating activities until 1878 when the club was reorganized and its first postwar regatta held. The following year, a handsome clubhouse was built over the water on the shoreline of Lake Pontchartrain. It became the scene of many elaborate social events as well as sailing competitions. In 1899 a new and larger clubhouse was erected under the leadership of Commodore Albert Baldwin. Regattas continued annually on the lake with the fleet competing each summer in interclub races on the Gulf Coast.

The Fish Class sloop, designed by SYC member Rathbone DeBuys, had its debut in 1919 and quickly became the most popular one design class in the Gulf South. Other early classes of yachts introduced were the Massachusetts Bay 21 Footers, Stars and Sound Interclubs.

The 1899 clubhouse had been extensively enlarged and renovated in 1920, but by 1949 it had deteriorated and was replaced by a modern, concrete and steel structure. This building was expanded in the 1960's and 1980's, and another major expansion was to begin in 2005.
Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina made landfall just east of New Orleans on August 29, 2005 causing widespread destruction throughout the region. Heavily damaged by wind and flood waters, the clubhouse was ultimately destroyed by a massive fire which burned, unchecked, in the hours following the storm. Sadly, many historic trophies and other priceless artifacts were lost in the fire.

Under the leadership of Commodores Ewell "Corky" Potts and Hjalmar Breit and General Manager Tim Fitzpatrick, the club's organization was kept remarkably intact through the ordeal of Katrina's aftermath. By the end of 2005, an interim facility had been erected to meet the needs of the overwhelmingly supportive membership. The renowned New Orleans-based firm of Waggoner & Ball Architects was retained to design what will be SYC's fourth clubhouse.
Tradition

Over the years, SYC sailors have won four Olympic medals and numerous national and international championships. Through more than one hundred and fifty years of prosperity, depressions, wars, yellow fever epidemics, floods and hurricanes, the Southern Yacht Club has always maintained a tradition of keen competition, sportsmanship and eponymous hospitality.