The Stamford Yacht Club is located in Stamford, Connecticut on Stamford Harbor, and was founded in 1890 at the home of William Lottimer. The club has approximately 550 members.

Today the club is most noted for the Valeur-Jensen Stamford to Denmark Friendship Race, held in the Fall, and the annual Vineyard Race, held every Labor Day weekend since 1932. NSHOF has a video commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Vineyard Race in its Film Library, and on Stamford Yacht Club’s Club Stories page.

The club hosts a number of significant sailboat races during the season, including the Vineyard Race, held every Labor Day weekend, and the Stamford Denmark Friendship Race, held in the fall.

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From the Commodore:

“Stamford Yacht Club is proud to participate as a Founding Member of the National Sailing Hall of Fame. Special thanks goes to the leadership of Staff Commodore Joseph Dockery who spearheaded the fund raising efforts. The members of Stamford Yacht Club share and support the goals of NSHOF in promoting sailing and preserving America’s sailing traditions.”

Thomas Campfield, Commodore

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The Vineyard Race

Labor Day weekend’s Vineyard Race is a classic American yachting event. This 238-mile course stretches from Shippan Point to the light tower at the entrance to Buzzard’s Bay, and then a return to the finish in Stamford Harbor. For more information on this race, click here.

History

The Stamford Yacht Club was organized on Thursday, October 16, 1890. The incorporators were William A. Lottimer, James D. Smith, William W. Skiddy, Albert C. Hall, Walter M. Smith, W.L. Brooks, A.M. Hurlbutt, Schuyler Merritt, Archibald H. Smith, Henry K. McHarg, James I. Raymond, and Samuel Fessenden, all of Stamford.

The Club’s earliest members were active people living in interesting times. The Merritt Parkway is, indeed, named after our second Vice Commodore, whose Commodore, Henry K. McHarg, built a railroad town in Texas that is still called Stamford.

Like hundreds of members who followed them, the founders preserved and enhanced the Club, both for their contemporaries and for generations to come. When we commemorate our fellow members of earlier generations, we not only express our gratitude, but we also gain a sense of our own responsibility as stewards between the Club’s last century and its next.