Please complete the form below to receive periodic updates via e-mail:
We value your privacy. Your e-mail address will be used only for notifications you opt to receive. Your information will never be sold or distributed to a third-party.
A small group of boating enthusiasts with a vision to create a place for like-minded residents to gather formed the Marquette Yacht Club in the spring of 1978. They were able to procure a lease from the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad for a piece of land in Marquette’s Lower Harbor with a readymade clubhouse - a former scale house that had been used to weigh coal that was stockpiled just north of the club in an area that has now become a city park. The club was a gathering point for power boaters who would cruise Lake Superior together and home to a fleet of Pearson Ensigns that became part of the Ensign Class Association as Fleet No. 35. There are currently about 60 members in the Marquette Yacht Club with either full, associate, or race member status.
In 2001, the club purchased the property that the Marquette Yacht Club occupied outright. Since that time, we have upgraded the dock and plans are on the drawing board to make further improvements that include adding dock space and building a new clubhouse to replace the scale house that has served us so well for all of these years
Boating is very much a seasonal activity in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and many of the activities center on getting the club up and running in the spring and arranging to launch members’ boats. A Memorial Day Pot Luck picnic is the “official” season opening event. Ensign Fleet No. 35 hosts a well-attended Wednesday night race series from late May to mid September. There are currently 20 Ensigns in Marquette and 14 of them actively race. The Fourth of July Holiday is always a big event at the club that culminates with a boat parade and a wonderful fireworks display over the Lower Harbor. In 2007, for the first time in its history, the MYC sponsored the Marquette Junior Yacht Club Sailing School. Classes were held for two weeks in August (just to make sure that all of the ice was gone from the lake), and were attended by 30 students between the ages of 8 and 16. By all accounts, it was a big hit and we are making plans to expand the program in the coming year.
Before you know it, the fall colors begin to show and it is time to reverse the whole process. By mid-to-late October, most of the boats are ashore and the clubhouse is closed for the season. The MYC Annual Banquet is held on the fourth Thursday in October, giving members one more chance to gather together to present awards for their accomplishments or mishaps on the water, elect officers, and start making plans to begin the whole process over again in the spring.