nantucket yacht club

The organization which was to become the Nantucket Yacht Club was first chartered in 1890 as the Nantucket Athletic Club. By the summer of 1906 a second group had come together, calling themselves the Nantucket Yacht  Club, whose purpose was to provide sailing and racing for the summer residents of Nantucket, their families and friends. The leadership and membership have been able to hold a steady course – no easy matter with a seasonal operation – making changes as conditions have required and proving that yacht racing and sailing, tennis and social activity can all be kept lively and popular. The next hundred years will be exciting and are full of great promise.
Into a burgeoning summer scene, the Nantucket Yacht Club was born in the summer of 1906, when sailing enthusiasts led by H. Holton Wood assembled their boats off Brant Point and held organized races in Nantucket Sound. They met in houses built on Hulbert Avenue in 1900 by Henry Oliver Underwood, and had use of a nearby pier, complete with gazebo, owned by the neighboring Atkins Family.  Although still in its infancy, the new club acted as though it had been established for years. The first flag officers were H. Holton Wood, commodore; J.E.T. Rutter, vice commodore; Alice Underwood, secretary-treasurer; and Margaret Underwood, fleet captain. In mid-September, the yacht club held its first Commodore’s Cup Race to close the season. The new club was here to stay. Like no other instuition of Nantucket, it is a place where traditions are honored, where the past is respected, and where families are celebrated – its history intertwined with that of the island it calls home.