About

The Provincetown Yacht Club was formed in 1867 to encourage, educate and support all skills, knowledge and crafts that promote boating, competitive sailing, good seamanship and good sportsmanship for people of all ages and walks of life.

Officers

Commodore, Charlotte Walker
Vice Commodore, Susan Avellar
Rear Commodore, TBA
Secretary, Linda Welter
Treasurer, TBA
Fleet Captain, TBA
Power Squadron Captain, TBA
Measurer, TBA

Background and History

The Provincetown Yacht Club is located within the historic and picturesque Provincetown Harbor, which is a federally designated harbor of refuge.  Surrounded by the Cape Cod National Seashore, the harbor is also shouldered by the world famous Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, which is listed as the Nation’s top whale watching destination.  The Dolphin Fleet, based in Provincetown Harbor, is the largest of the whale watch fleets in Cape Cod Bay. 

The harbor is also home to the world re-knowned Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, which carries out its mission to preserve marine and coastal habitats and to recover species in collaboration with institutions throughout the Gulf of Maine such as the U.S. Coast Guard, McMaster University, the New England Aquarium, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The Provincetown Yacht Club was organized at a time when yacht racing was becoming a competitive sport in America.  In 1851, it was the New York Yacht Club yacht, America, a 100-foot schooner owned by John Cox Stevens, the first commodore of the New York Yacht Club, that won the One Hundred Guinea Cup, a race around the Isle of Wight in Great Britain, then considered the epicenter of yacht racing.  After this victory, the Cup was renamed the America’s Cup and for the next century and more the United States was the world leader in boat building technology and yacht racing with much of it centered on the eastern coast of the United States.

Racing was nothing new to Provincetown fishermen who relied on their skill in seamanship and the speed of their vessels to be first to market with their catch to command the highest prices.  By the mid to late 19th century, Provincetown Harbor was home to 100, 90-ton Schooners and 700 ships and the town had 17 ship and boat building establishments.  Its Schooners, Captains and crews were well known for their skills as able navigators and seamen both in the Atlantic and Pacific waters.  During the 1886 to 1938 period fishermen schooner races took place off the New England coast.  In one such race in 1907 it was the Provincetown Schooner, Rose Dorothea, which triumphed.  Her Captain was awarded the one of a kind Lipton Cup that now resides in the Provincetown Public Library.

The New York Yacht Club, which had been organized in 1844, often stopped in Provincetown Harbor on the Club’s annual cruise to New England.  It was during these summer lay overs that New York Yacht Club members encouraged local sailors to form their own club and to encourage and support racing in Provincetown Harbor.

Since 2002, in recognition of the towns unique cultural and economic maritime history the Provincetown Yacht Club has been the race host of the Great Provincetown Schooner Regatta.  More recently the Fishermen’s Cup, a Schooner race from Gloucester to Provincetown, and the Fishermen’s Series, a one-design Rhodes 19 race have been added to the Regatta.  In 2010 a Catboat race, the Cape Cod Catboat Race for the MacMillan Cup, will be added to the eight-day event

More history on Provincetown at the Cape History websit