For nearly 40 years, longer than any other existing social club in town, the Kingston Cove Yacht Club has been a place for fun and friendship. Oh, yes, and boating.

Yacht club members are quick to point out that boat ownership is not a requirement for membership. An active calendar of parties, dances, Friday open-bar evenings and other special events supplement the boaters’ monthly cruises and provide plenty of incentive for those considering a social membership.

“Everybody wants to come to Kingston,” said past-commodore, Janice Kutz. “We’re not the fanciest yacht club, but we’re one of the most fun.”

A case in point was the recent Mothers’ Luncheon, an annual May event. Members and non-members alike gathered for a salad buffet, prize drawings and a fashion show hosted by Lindsley’s Classic Clothing of Bainbridge. After lunch, Deb Boardman and Diane Lentz were honored with the Lona McFarlane award for outstanding service to the club.

Attending the luncheon with her daughter was charter member, Dorothy DeBoer. In 1968, DeBoer and her husband, Frank – now deceased – joined together with 38 of their friends and fellow boaters from the Kingston area to establish the club. She remembers the early days when many of the members lived on their boats in the marina, and happy kids took home prizes from the annual fishing derby – an event the yacht club continues to sponsor to this day.

Dorothy’s son, Pete DeBoer, now an active member of KCYC, was a teenager when the club was founded. He recalls the pride that his father, the club’s second commodore, felt when assigned membership card number one. “And I remember that the boats were much smaller back then,” he said with a grin.

Clubhouse aquasitions

Helen Hill and her late husband, Dick, who was manager of the Port of Kingston from 1968 to 1980, were also original members. An active participant in the club for the past 39 years, Hill is a veritable encyclopedia of club history.

“I know everything,” she joked, “but my lips are sealed.”

Yet Hill acknowledges the challenge of starting a new club.

“Dick and I were determined to have a yacht club. It started out in an abandoned, ratty old building on port property; the whole Kingston gang got together, swished through and cleaned it up, and that was the beginning of the yacht club,” said Hill. “Dick leased the building to the club for $5 a month. Now we have this beautiful new building, and the club is still a close community.”

KCYC moved from its original location when the port slated the clubhouse property for a parking lot. The next clubhouse, located just up the hill on what is now paid parking west of Central Avenue, was a definite upgrade. History repeated itself several years later when the second clubhouse was leveled to make way for a parking lot and the port’s new boat ramp.

Leased from the Port of Kingston, the current clubhouse overlooks the Port of Kingston Marina and has a commercial kitchen, full bar, dance floor, view deck and barbecue facilities. Many local families are familiar with the clubhouse as the site of the yacht club’s annual Fourth of July pancake breakfast.

Inside, the current clubhouse retains some fixtures from the original building including a ship’s wheel and stained-glass windows acquired by Frank DeBoer from the old Seattle Elks Club. The bar came from Bill Gates’ Medina home when it was torn down. In one corner an old-fashioned piano takes pride of place.

“We fought to keep that old piano,” reminisced KCYC member, Laura Zetterberg. “Mary Chesmore used to really pound out the tunes on it.”

“And Harold Davis was the only man allowed to attend the women’s luncheon because he could play the piano,” added Kutz. “We don’t have anyone who plays now, but we keep it tuned up.”

Seas the day

These days the music may be digital, but the camaraderie remains the same. KCYC is a popular stopping off point for members of other yacht clubs. In turn, its members have a standing invitation to visit all Puget Sound clubs.

The KCYC fleet is composed primarily of power boats though there are sailboats. At least one cruise is scheduled each month. Summer outings include the San Juans, Canada and the south Sound. In winter, the club sticks closer to home with trips to Brownsville, Edmonds and Port Townsend. While a boat isn’t required for membership, it is a prerequisite for taking the helm as club commodore. Standing commodore, Bob Lee, and his wife, Deni, are 15-year members of KCYC.

“The yacht club started out as a boating club by a group of friends who had boating as a common interest, and it evolved into close friendships,” said Deni.

Next year KCYC will celebrate four decades of fun on land and at sea. The friendship continues as new generations of boaters are drawn to the organization. Membership currently stands at approximately 150 – each one a boater at heart, if not in fact. Serious sailors, casual cruisers and landlubbers alike find safe harbor at KCYC.

For more information, visit the Kingston Cove Yacht Club Web site at www.kcyc.org.