***LAYC First Women Commodore Carol Armitage, Director Sue Thotz, Women on Water Chair Nicole Arndt***

Tucked in a building just off the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, the Los Angeles Yacht Club (LAYC) comes together for a Friday night dinner. As the night progresses, veteran members join each other for budget meetings while other members trickle in and begin to mingle with each other over drinks and a meal. Members greet one another as the week winds to a close, chatting about their lives and about sailing.

This camaraderie and tight-knit community sets this yacht club apart from so many others, which often run restaurants to support their operation. With no more than 400 members, this small club does not serve as a business, but instead as a service club comprised of members who volunteer their time to build up the LAYC community and carry on its legacy.

“They are people who actively want to see others joining sailing,” says Sue Thotz, a member of the LAYC board of directors and co-chair of the membership committee. “You could just have a boat and go out on your own, but it’s so nice to come to a place where people are willing to share their knowledge and their experience and to have a community of people who love boating, love sailing and want you to enjoy that as well.”

The LAYC has developed a rich history since its founding in 1901, which the club’s current members honor with newer programs dedicated to the central love of sailing. Kelly Marie, the commodore of the LAYC, has worked on a Heritage Project at the LAYC clubhouse showcasing the club’s highlights over the years, which range from having Olympians as members to trophies won in competitive sailing by the club.

The club participates in hosting several major racing events during the year, including the Harbor Cup, a regatta based out of the Port of Los Angeles that attracts worldwide attention, and the Transpacific Yacht Race, which begins in San Pedro and ends in Hawaii. It also owns moorings and a cove called Howlands Landing on Catalina Island, where club members can sail and visit.

The club’s volunteer fabric has also led to several programs, including a community sailing program, which allows those who do not own a boat to use boats owned by the club to sail, and the Women on Water program, in which women mentor other women in sailing. Thotz and Kelly Millar, a co-chair of the membership committee, have run the Women on Water program in the past and now mentor the current chairs of the program, Stephanie Stien and Nicole Arndt.

Millar describes the Women on Water program as a way for women “to learn about sailing in a non-pressured environment.” The LAYC has had three women commodores throughout its history, with Marie — the current commodore — as the third. The Women on Water program has allowed Thotz and Millar, along with other women in the club, to continue the legacy of these commodores.

“It wasn’t until I started sailing with some of the Women on the Water group that I found I had more experience than some of the other people I was sailing with and I found myself teaching, doing more and taking more responsibility as opposed to always just relinquishing that responsibility by default,” Thotz says.

The LAYC also launched a junior sailing program about a year ago to train children in the families at the club. In this program, led by co-chairs Scott Weinert and Katie Rusch, children learn about sailing as well as the ocean and how to care for it.

“There are a lot of other traditional junior sailing programs and they’re great,” Rusch says. “But I think we’re trying to do something a little different and embrace a lot of different aspects of sailing — not just the racing but the cruising, exploration, camaraderie, working together as a team and ocean conservation.”

***Matt Gotrel: Olympic Rowing Champion, Hannah Mills: Record-Breaking Olympic Sailor, Junior Commodore Marcus Weinert, Alexi Weinert Junior Rear Commodore, and Future Commodore Charlotte White***

Rusch views this program, along with the others hosted by the club, as a way to extend the legacy of the LAYC and preserve it for generations to come.

“Because of our club’s history and longevity, people really understand the generations and future and [the importance of] building that,” Rusch says.

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