New Yacht Club to Open in CI Harbor, June 30

Byline: Catherine French

New Yacht Club to Open in CI Harbor, June 30

CHANNEL ISLANDS HARBOR — The newest yacht club in the area, The Yacht Club, will celebrate its grand opening June 30.
The brand-new club will be open daily and will provide full food and beverage service on weekends, with breakfast, lunch and dinner being served from 6 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Sunday. It will offer ample dock space for boaters visiting by yacht, dinghy or electric boat.

Located at the White Sails condo development in Channel Islands Harbor — at 4308 Tradewinds Drive —  this new club is the brainchild of two local business owners: Anita Mays and Tom Peterson.

“We wanted to offer a full-service yacht club where my partner (and fiancé) Tom Petersen and I would run the business side of things, and the members will decide on and coordinate member activities,” explained Mays, co-founder of the new club.

The Yacht Club will have an executive board and a volunteer member board of directors — with a commodore and staff officers made up of club members. They are in charge of the activities for members.

Sitting in her new office for The Yacht Club and her yacht brokerage, Mays spoke of her and Petersen’s excitement and enthusiasm for this new venture. The boating duo had dreamed of opening a restaurant someday, so The Yacht Club will now provide that experience — and more.

Mays said she believes that with her more than 20 years of experience as a yacht broker and with Petersen’s background as a successful specialty insurance business owner, they have a strong skill set for running the club. The couple are avid boaters who own a 60-foot Sea Ray, and they founded the Channel Islands Sea Ray Club in 2006.

“The Yacht Club provides us a way to combine our passion for boating with the desire to expand boating and social opportunities for others,” Mays said. “We even went to culinary school, to learn how to operate a restaurant and oversee a commercial kitchen and staff.”

On Memorial Day weekend, The Yacht Club held its first membership drive, and the partners were overwhelmed by the response: A whopping 370 people came to enjoy a barbecue, learn about member benefits and view the facilities being constructed by Frank McCarthy Construction of Camarillo.

“We expected a good turnout, but were ecstatic over the response we received,” Mays said. “We have already accepted applications for 70 memberships, so we feel we are well on our way to reaching our goal of 250 members.”

The club is operating as a nonprofit organization and has applied for membership in the Southern California Yachting Association, in order to offer reciprocal privileges to other yacht club members. Planned club activities include two long-distance club cruises a year, several local area cruises, a monthly crab boil, a bridge group, a bimonthly steak fry, Wii bowling tournaments and more. The club also plans to offer classes, including women’s boating classes and courses on radar, GPS and other marine electronics.
The Yacht Club membership is available in three categories — general membership, Admiral Class and a family membership —  ranging from $580 to $1,180 for the initiation fee, with monthly dues set at $100 (dues or food/beverage minimum per month).

In support of the local community, The Yacht Club will offer locally grown produce and fresh-caught seafood from local waters, Mays said.

“Our executive chef Robert Grenner has created a menu that features local fare at a reasonable price,” she said. “We are excited to share our club with the local community and invite everyone to come by and see what we have to offer.”

For more information, call (855) 825-5974 or email info@theyachtclub.us.

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