Patsy Helseth remembers the first time she visited the Vero Beach Yacht Club.
“It was in the 1960s,” she recalled. “My husband and I had heard about the yacht club and, being boating people, we thought we might like to become members. So we decided to stop by for one of the Saturday night functions.”
It didn’t take long, though, for the Helseths – her husband, Phillip, was a Vero Beach native whose family’s local roots date back to 1895 – to realize they had made a mistake.
The club, she said, was “too wild.”
Everyone was drinking and laughing and playing games, creating a loud, boisterous scene better suited for a neighborhood saloon – which, at that time, wasn’t too far from what the clubhouse was. There was even a pool table.
That wasn’t the social environment Helseth and her husband were expecting or seeking, so they left. It wasn’t until 1986 – more than 20 years later – that they actually became members.
“For a long time, it was a redneck bar,” said Walter McCahan, a 15-year member and Castaway Cove resident who researched the club’s origin and evolution, then wrote a book titled, “A Definitive History of the Vero Beach Yacht Club,” which was published in 2011.
“You didn’t have to be a member to go there,” he added, “and it attracted kind of a rough crowd.”
“We waited for things to calm down,” said Helseth, now 89 and a widow who resigned her membership last year after moving to Indian River Estates. “The club changed over the years.”
And, most longtime members would say, it has changed for the better.
Indeed, as the yacht club prepares for its 90th birthday celebration Jan. 14-17, former commodore Tom Lockwood believes it is just entering its heyday.
“The club has continued to improve over the years, and it’s really coming into its own now,” said Lockwood, the club’s commodore in 1978 and current chairman of the Republican Party of Indian River County. “As someone who has been a member for more than 40 years, it’s very gratifying to see what it has become.
“From the quality of the people who have joined, to the upgrades to the facilities, to the overall operations of the club – the improvements have been dramatic,” he added. “The club is more active, socially and in the community, and there are still a lot of members who are active boaters.”
Not as many as you might think, however.
According to Annie Rogers, the club’s publicist for the 90th birthday celebration, the club has more than 500 members, most of whom are ages 65 and above. More than half are island residents. Most were, at some time, boating enthusiasts.
However, the club’s current commodore, Glenn Rose , estimated that only 70 to 75 members are still active boaters.
“One of the challenges we’ve had is our age profile,” Rose said. “That caught up with us a few years ago. We were losing members because of aging – some were dying, some went to assisted-living facilities, some just reached a point where they could no longer enjoy what the club has to offer.
“So the club decided to be proactive in terms of membership,” he added. “We became more active in the community and started working with local charities and civic organizations. We got involved in the Chamber of Commerce and Oceanside Business Association.
“All of a sudden, people wanted to learn more about the club, and that started a run of getting new members.”
Still, Rose said, most of those new members were “retired or of retirement age.”
That’s not likely to change.
The yacht club is a private, members-only, social club that offers quality dining, adult beverages and organized activities, such as dances, holiday gatherings and themed parties.
There are no tennis courts. There is no swimming pool. There is no game room.
The pool table is history.
“The club has nothing for children, so we’re not likely to get young families to join,” McCahan said. “It’s really not a young person’s club.”
And, apparently, that’s not a problem.
Rose said the club added nearly 80 new members this past year, pushing the membership to nearly 540. Another such year in 2016 could prompt the club’s Board of Directors to impose a membership cap and wait list.
“Somewhere, I remember hearing somebody say something about the number being 650, so if we get close to 600, we might have to start thinking about a waiting list,” Rose said. “The size of our facility is always a consideration.”
With good reason, too: The clubhouse, which still occupies its original, three-lot site on the Indian River Lagoon, can’t be expanded because of the city code’s parking requirements.
Those lots were donated to the city in the 1930s by Vero Beach pioneer Waldo Sexton, one of the yacht club’s founders. The city later gave the lots to the fledgling club as part of a handshake deal in which the club would manage and operate the municipal marina, which it did until the 1960s.
“Back in 1938,” McCahan said, “operating the marina was the real thrust of the yacht club.”
In fact, though the idea for a club was first conceived by local boaters as far back as 1921 and the Vero Beach Yacht Club was formally chartered in 1926, there is no record of the organization doing much of anything until 1938.
“It just kind of existed,” McCahan said. “The Great Depression probably had a lot to do with it, because, after 1929, not many people were buying boats. And it wasn’t until after World War II that Vero Beach recovered from the effects of the Depression.
“But in 1938, a prominent local businessman named Prescott Gardner donated $1,500 to get the club going,” he added. “He was the real founder of the yacht club. He was also the club’s first commodore.”
Nowadays, the club is a member of the Florida Council of Yacht Clubs and Yachting Club of America. Those affiliations offer members reciprocity with more than 30 of the finest yacht clubs in the state and 700 yacht clubs nationwide.
In 1938, however, the local yacht club could offer few, if any, privileges to its members. The clubhouse wasn’t built for nearly 25 years, a period filled with disputes between the club and city, which was continually frustrated by the club’s failure to maintain written records.
Yet it was city funding that helped build the original clubhouse, which McCahan said was 60 feet long and 40 feet wide when the club celebrated the grand opening on April 11, 1962.
“There have been four or five additions since,” McCahan said. “Every time the club got further ahead financially, they needed more room. To this day, all initiation fees go to physical improvements.
“In the early ‘70s, they added a kitchen,” he added. “They also built a dock. The last add-on was a lounge area – it’s called the “Bergee Room” – which was done in 1979.”
The expanded clubhouse will be the site of the yacht club’s four-day celebration of its 90th birthday:
Jan. 14: Ribbon-cutting ceremony to open a “Ninety Years of Archives” area in the Commodores Room.
Jan. 15: “Thanks For The Memories” happy hour and open mike session, during which members are invited to share their memories of the club.
Jan. 16: “Nifty Ninety Roaring 1920s party, including a live music, champagne toast and birthday cake.
Jan. 17: Closing ceremonies, a special brunch and a blessing of the club.
“From the information I’ve gathered, there have been celebrations of the 50th, 60th, 71st – I guess they missed one – and 80th birthdays,” Rogers said. “We want to keep it going with the 90th, and we think the addition of the historical archives room will make it even more special.”
Certainly, the publicity generated by the event won’t hurt.
Rose described the yacht club as “one of the best-kept secrets in Vero Beach.” And he might be right.
As McCahan put it: “It’s never been the absolute place to go in Vero Beach.”
It’s more affordable and, thus, not as exclusive as some other clubs in this town. It tends to attract older members, few who are active boaters. And, as a social club that doesn’t offer much beyond dinner, drinks and an occasional dance, the makeup of the membership isn’t likely to change.
“We’ve accepted what we are – a social club and a dining club with a few boat slips,” Rose said. “We’ve also accepted where we are – in a community with a significant retired population.
“We know we’re going to be getting recently retired people who’ve just moved here or are seasonal visitors, and we know there’s going to be a certain amount of turnover,” he added. “As long as we continue to have a nice group coming in, it bodes well for our future.”
As for the past …
Helseth said she sent some historical items and photographs to Rogers for the archives display, but she didn’t know if she would make it to the club’s 90th birthday celebration.
“I’m almost as old as the club,” she said, “but I’m sure it’ll be a nice weekend.”
Not too loud. Not too boisterous. Not too wild.
Not anymore.