Northeast · St. Augustine
Florida's oldest yacht club, formed 1874 on Salt Run beneath the St. Augustine Lighthouse. PHRF cruising and performance racing on the Tolomato River, open to any skipper regardless of club, plus a youth Sailing Center that has taught 3,600+ local kids since 2012.
PHRF cruising and performance regatta on the waters off St. Augustine, followed by a Friendsgiving dock party at the club.
SAYC's summer PHRF points series on the Tolomato River, with numbered Wednesday-evening races open to cruising and performance boats of any pedigree.
Formed in 1874 and incorporated in 1875, the St. Augustine Yacht Club is the oldest yacht club in Florida. Its first commodore was Major General Gordon Granger of the U.S. Army, and through the Gilded Age the club ran regattas for the sailing yachts (and later the power boats) of St. Augustine’s winter-resort set. The club went dormant in the war years and was recommissioned in the spring of 1978, when a new municipal marina gave it a home again. Today the clubhouse sits on Salt Run at 442 Ocean Vista Avenue, on Anastasia Island beneath the St. Augustine Lighthouse.
Racing is the club’s throughline. SAYC runs a full inshore and offshore schedule out of St. Augustine, with inshore PHRF racing in the Tolomato River north of the Vilano Bridge starting in February and a numbered Summer Series on Wednesday evenings through the warm months. Boats race in cruising and performance fleets, and, unusually, the races are open to any skipper regardless of experience or club affiliation. The signature events are the July Liberty Race (a U.S.-flag rating bonus), the Compass Rose navigation race, and the season-closing Turkey Bowl & Friendsgiving. The club is also a host club for St. Augustine Race Week, the First Coast Sailing Association’s nine-day April festival of offshore, inshore, RS Aero, and youth racing.
The youth side runs through the SAYC Sailing Center, a nonprofit that has reached more than 3,600 local kids since 2012 and awards over $15,000 in scholarships a year. It moved into a building of its own in June 2026, on the site the City of St. Augustine accepted as a donation in 2022, and it now runs camps, race teams, an after-school program, a homeschool course and adult clinics on its own schedule.
St. Augustine Yacht Club is a private, member-owned club that honors reciprocal privileges for visiting members of other yacht clubs. Its club racing, though, is genuinely open: you don’t need to be a member to sign up and start on a Wednesday night.
St. Augustine Yacht Club is a private club. Membership is subject to the club's approval. For current membership costs and how to apply, contact the club's membership office. Members of reciprocal yacht clubs can usually arrange visiting access with advance notice.
Featured Private Northeast · Daytona Beach · est. 1896
Incorporated 1896 and believed to be the oldest East Coast yacht club still operating on its original site. Downtown Daytona Beach private club on the Halifax River with a strong reciprocal tradition across the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs.
Featured Private Northeast · Jacksonville · est. 1876
Chartered April 1876 by seventeen members under New York businessman William B. Astor Jr.'s lead; first commodore took the helm at the Market Street Swiss-chalet clubhouse in 1877. One of the longest continuously operating yacht clubs in the country.
Private Northeast · Fernandina Beach
Amelia Island's sailing club on the Northeast Florida coast. Racing, cruising, and beginner lessons for every skill level on the waters around Fernandina Beach, with no boat required to join.