The Biscayne Bay Yacht Club is a private

yacht club A yacht club is a sports club specifically related to yachting. Description Yacht clubs are mostly located by the sea, although there some that have been established at a lake or riverside locations. Yacht or sailing clubs have either a mar ...

located in

Coconut Grove Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as The Grove, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, S ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

(

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

). Founded in 1887 by Commodore Ralph Middleton Munroe, the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club is one of the oldest yacht clubs in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. BBYC is one of the 5 members of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Racing Association (BBYRA), together with

Coconut Grove Sailing Club Coconut Grove Sailing Club is a sailing club located in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida (United States). CGSC is one of the 5 members of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Racing Association, together with Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, Coral ...

, Coral Reef Yacht Club, Key Biscayne Yacht Club and Miami Yacht Club, and one of the six founding members of the

Southern Ocean Racing Conference Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

(SORC), being the

St. Petersburg Yacht Club The St. Petersburg Yacht Club (SPYC) is a private yacht club located in St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida (United States) and a member of the Gulf Yachting Association and the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs. The club won the Mrs. ...

, Miami Yacht Club, Coral Reef Yacht Club, Lauderdale Yacht Club and Nassau Yacht Club the other five. Biscayne Bay Yacht Club has recently adopted the sport of windsurfing. Currently, BBYC is the location of one of the most successful youth windsurfing programs in the United States of America. With the rapid growth of the program, some local windsurfers are on their way to the Olympics. Biscayne Bay Yacht Club has already hosted several windsurfing regattas and is known internationally as a hub of the sport.

History

From 1888 to 1893, the

Cape Florida lighthouse The Cape Florida Light is a lighthouse on Cape Florida at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Constructed in 1825, it guided mariners off the Florida Reef, which starts near Key Biscayne and extends southward a few miles ...

was leased by the

United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

for a total of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1.00 (20 cents per annum) to the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club for use as its headquarters. It was listed as the southernmost yacht club in the United States, and the tallest in the world. After the lease expired, in 1932, the club purchased its present clubhouse located at 2540 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, which is adjacent to

Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay () is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is la ...

.Blank, Joan Gill (1996). ''Key Biscayne''. Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press, Inc. . pp. 81-85, 96.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
1887 establishments in Florida Sailing in Florida Coconut Grove (Miami) Yacht clubs in the United States