The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) is a

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, U.S. based

yacht club A yacht club is a boat 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 ...

founded in 1939.

History

In 1939 the first members built a clubhouse on a

barge A barge is typically a flat-bottomed boat, flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean, marine water environments. The firs ...

in the San Francisco Marina. After the 1989

Loma Prieta earthquake On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) ...

severely damaged the club, members pulled together and rebuilt it. GGYC is a popular cruise and

regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wa ...

venue on the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

waterfront. The club is located on the

jetty A jetty is a man-made structure that protrudes from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater (structure), breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French la ...

directly east of the St. Francis Yacht Club and north of the Marina Green, at the end of Yacht Road in

. The most well-known of current members is

Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...

founder

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014 and is now its chief technology officer a ...

. The Club entered the

2007 Louis Vuitton Cup The 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup held in Valencia, Spain, from April 16 to June 6 was the event used to select the challenger for the 2007 America's Cup. Eleven potential challengers competed in the competition which consisted of two round robins, two ...

, the America's Cup challenger selection series, represented by the ''

BMW Oracle Racing Oracle Team USA is an American yacht racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America's Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 – representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club. ...

'' team. ''BMW Oracle Racing'' were eliminated in the semi-finals. They challenged for the America's Cup in 2010 represented by the

team and won a Deed of Gift match 2–0 against the

Alinghi Alinghi, or Alinghi Red Bull Racing because of the sports marketing branding by Red Bull, is the syndicate set up by Ernesto Bertarelli, racing under the colors of the Société Nautique de Genève, to challenge for the America's Cup, as well ...

team representing

Société Nautique de Genève The Société Nautique de Genève is a yacht club based in Geneva (Switzerland). It was founded in 1872 with the goal of developing nautical sports and high level sailors. Currently the club has about 3000 members. The club held the America's Cup ...

becoming the first American yacht club to hold the cup since 1995. ''America's Cup Management'' announced on July 5, 2007, that the protocol for the 33rd America's Cup had been agreed between the Defending yacht club, the

(SNG) of

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and its Challenger of Record, the Club Náutico Español de Vela of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Golden Gate Yacht Club sued, successfully arguing that Club Náutico Español de Vela was not a valid challenger. The challenge was upheld, and Golden Gate Yacht Club's team,

, sailed against SNG, represented by the

team, in February 2010 in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. The competing boats,

Alinghi 5 ''Alinghi 5'' is a (waterline length, LWL), beam sloop-rigged catamaran built by Alinghi for the America's Cup (33rd edition), 33rd America's Cup. The boat was launched on 8 July 2009 when the hull was lifted from the construction shed in Vi ...

and USA 17 were both 90-foot multihulls. The rigid wing sail of USA 17 provided a decisive advantage and Golden Gate Yacht Club won the

2010 America's Cup The 33rd America's Cup between Société Nautique de Genève defending with team Alinghi against Golden Gate Yacht Club, and their racing team BMW Oracle Racing was the subject of extensive court action and litigation, surpassing in acrimony ev ...

by a considerable margin. They successfully defended the America's Cup at the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco in 2013, but finally lost the trophy in the 35th edition against the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Commodores

To date there have been 66 commodores of the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

References

External links

* Official website: http://ggyc.com/ {{Coord, 37, 48, 27.79, N, 122, 26, 33.37, W, type:landmark, display=title 1939 establishments in California Golden Gate Yacht Club

History

Commodores

See also

References

Further reading

External links