Naples Model Yacht Club

The history of the Naples Model Yacht Cub started in November, 1982 when By-Laws were submitted to original members.  Pete Bodine, Sey Colen, Bud Curtiss, Neal Karr, Ed Knight, Jeff Ryan, Jim Schaefer, John Sprague, Joe Bonness, Dan Corbett, Fred Gartz, Steve Hemstreet, Lynn Hendrickson, Banny Sprague and Tom VonMello were original "plank owners" in the club. 

 

Membership in the club was obtained by placing articles in the newspaper, by a display of sailboats at the Coastland Mall, information sheets handed out at our sailing sites and by encouraging visitors to sail our boats. 

 

The first monthly publication printed by the club was called the "Masthead" and contained race results, club roster, saiing Rules and tips for tuning the boats for racing.  Commodore Bill Saunders had comments in each issue.

 

The first boats sailed on the Transom Twister pond on Airport Road north of Pine Ridge Road. The boat classes raced were 12-meter American Cup and 36/600. Skippers either built from scratch or kit built these models. Later a fleet of 50/800 class was added.  There were three competition series, fall, winter and spring.

 

In 1990, NMYC was incorporated and acquired liability insurance to satisfy the owners of the ponds where members sailed.  In December 1997 the club adopted the very popular Soling One Meter class.  This class is the most popular class nationally as well as at NMYC.  The Soling 1 meter is a good performer, fun to sail and relatively inexpensive.

 

In 2014 club officers contacted the Collier County Park Board and successfully negotiated an agreement to sail at North Collier Regional Park located just South of Immokalee off Livingston. All classes sail on a dedicated day of the week. The current club membership is 80 members as of April 1, 2019. 

 

Our club is affiliated with the American Model Yacht Association (AMYA) as club #108.