History of The Cape Fear Yacht Club

An Overview

The Cape Fear Yacht Club was founded in 1994 as primarily a large sailboat (PHRF) river and ocean racing organization centered at the Southport Marina. Within the first two years we quickly grew into a more general boating club with strong social, youth and cruising divisions for both sailors and power boaters. The club originally met casually at Port Charlie's Restaurant and then at Hurricanes at the Marina. Our first real facility came with the loan of several hundred feet of sandy beach on the Southport river front. It became the center of our ceremonial, social, youth training and small boat sailing programs. The CFYC Youth Sailing Team went to the Leukemia Cup competition in 1998 and won all three places in the Optimist one-design class.

       In 2000 we were chosen as the sailing venue for North Carolina's Pan American Games bid. Unfortunately the games went to Texas. That year we also moved into our first clubhouse when we leased the old Harborside Restaurant across the street from the marina. With a new and luxurious clubhouse came a significant boost in our membership. For three happy years it was the center of all CFYC activity. In 2002 we began our long association as host club for the Leukemia Cup sailing regatta bringing with it national and international recognition.

       Our lease on the clubhouse was up at the end of 2003 and the landlord demolished it to make way for new condos. In the meantime our sailing, cruising, youth and social programs reached their all time highs. The next two years were spent studying, planning and acquiring land for our new clubhouse at South Harbour Marina. Construction occupied much of 2005 and 2006. The doors were opened to a world class facility in June 2006. The design won a national award for our architect.

A new facility with all its amenities including a strip of land on the east side of the marina for boat storage and plenty of beach just across the road for the youth program reinvigorated the club. A flood of new members augmented the old time stalwarts to give us a true cosmopolitan feel. The youth sailing program reached an all time high during the summer of 2009.

CFYC Past Commodores

Hank Grupe................1994-1995

Mark Tallon............... 1996-1998

Keith Reschly..............1999-2000

Tom Harrington.........  2001

Billy Coleman............. 2002

Jerry Gable................. 2003

Scott Hill..................... 2004

Stanley Mandell......... 2005-2006

Rob Wartchow........... 2007

Butch Shirkey............. 2008

Woody Wilson............ 2009