HISTORY & TRADITION

On July 4, 1899, The Northport Yacht Club was launched on Bayview Avenue by Stanton Street. The Club was started by wealthy gentlemen who worked in New York and had second homes in the area.

Three weeks later, on July 22nd, the The Independent Yacht Club got going on Woodbine Ave. (right next to the Marina). The Independent started out as a local club for merchants and town folk. Its charter members were local businessmen: Burr, Scudder, Sammis, Seymor and Fox.

By October 1925 The Northport Yacht Club called it quits and auctioned off their property for $18,400. Two years later, on Dec. 24th, 1927, the Independent Yacht Club changed its name to The Northport Yacht Club, but by 1944 the Club was suffering financially as WW II began and had to close its doors and sell off its property.

A year later a serious sailor named Ben Gambee needed to become a member of a yacht club in order to race. Northport had no clubs so he started the Edgewater Yacht Club in May 1945. It was a paper club. Members met in Ben’s home. Dick Steers was a member and also owned the sand and gravel company. He offered the fledgling club the property we are currently on for about $4,000.

By 1948 a new clubhouse was built and there were about 125 members. In 1952 the charter of the defunct Northport Yacht Club lapsed and the Secretary of New York State notified the Edgewater Club members that the name could be theirs. So, in 1952 the new Northport Yacht Club came into being and exists to this day.