If you see a gas can dangling from the neck of an Everett Yacht Club member, don’t be startled.
It only means their boat ran out of fuel.
If you spot one near the marina saying “quack quack,” and donning a necklace of rubber duckies, the public display is the price of falling from a vessel.
Those quirks are part of a long run of fun had at the Everett Yacht Club, which turns 100 today.
Much has changed over the years – from the types of boats its members cruise to the cocktails they drink – but one thing has remained steady.
That is the love of boating.
“I think everybody in the Puget Sound area has some yen to go boating,” said Ralph Lower, who at 87 is the club’s oldest active member.
Lower recently sold his 40-foot twin diesel engine Bayliner, but still regularly attends Yacht Club meetings and functions.
Indeed, about one in seven households in Snohomish County own a licensed boat, according to statistics from the state Department of Licensing.
Abundant water in Western Washington makes it a haven for boaters. It is often said that the area boasts more boats per capita than any other place on Earth.
The founders of the Everett Yacht Club recognized Port Gardner’s potential for pleasure sailing.
While industry has dominated Everett’s waterfront for the past century, there has always been room for recreational boating.
Today, with more than 2,000 slips, the Port of Everett claims to run the largest marina on the West Coast.
The Everett Yacht Club was founded during a high point in Everett’s history when many fortunes were made.
Wood shingles milled in Everett were sent by ship to help rebuild San Francisco, which was destroyed during the 1906 earthquake.
The Everett Yacht Club’s charter members were businessmen who figured prominently in local circles in 1907.
A banker, clothing store proprietor and successful builder were among the club’s first members.
Still, not all the names listed on the original charter are recognizable movers and shakers of Everett’s early years.
“It’s not necessarily just the rich and the powerful,” said regional historian David Dilgard with Everett Public Library. “It’s just people who are interested in boating.”
While it started off small, the club eventually grew to more than 3,000 members in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Most were social members, who didn’t own boats, but wanted to eat and drink at the club’s former waterfront restaurant and bar, and to attend the club’s dances.
The late senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson and his family used to eat at the restaurant when in town. And it was the place for the area’s proms.
“It was the city,” said Mildred “Mildie” Morrow, who, along with other members, is writing a book on the club’s history. “It’s where everyone came on weekends for dinners, for dancing, for everything.”
Unlike a typical restaurant, with a perpetually moving stream of diners, members of the private club often staked out a table and stayed all night.
But competition from other waterfront restaurants eventually chipped away at membership.
The restaurant operations ended in 1983 when the club, beset by mounting losses, sold its once-elegant waterfront building to the Port of Everett for about $800,000.
The club now leases a back room in its former quarters on 14th Street for its weekly meetings.
Its 150 members are average Joes who feel the pinch of rising fuel costs, and those with big boats who enjoy the charmed life.
Yachts range from 24 feet to 70 feet, with values between about $30,000 and well over $2 million. They include “I Do Not,” “Reality Check,” “Knotty” and one owned by a former school principal called “Off Campus.”
Everett’s a good place for mooring, because it’s a jumping-off point to the San Juan Islands and the waters of British Columbia.
Flag members, meaning members with boats, pay annual dues of $300, while social members pay half that.
They hope that the new waterfront development, including posh condos, and the marina expansion, will help them recruit new members, said Commodore J.R. Roger, the group’s current leader.
The club takes about a dozen cruises together every year, mostly around Puget Sound, and it holds black tie functions as well as potlucks.
Members often go crabbing, or fishing and later cook meals together, Roger said.
“Pulling up to a dock to meet friends and eat a meal provided by Mother Nature is just fantastic,” he said.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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