Panhandle · Panama City
Panama City's private sailing club on St. Andrews Bay, also known as the Panama City Yacht & Sailing Club. The historic clubhouse was lost to a 2023 fire; rebuilding is underway, with bay racing continuing throughout.
On November 12, 2023, a fire took the historic clubhouse at Bunkers Cove Road, the physical center of a club with roughly ninety years on St. Andrews Bay. The rebuilding campaign is underway, and the thing worth knowing is what did not stop: the racing calendar kept running while the club worked out of temporary quarters. A club that keeps its start line operating without a clubhouse has its priorities in the right order.
The racing program carries the club’s history in its event names. The Candler Regatta has run in the high eighties of editions; the club races the Capdevielle series (the GYA’s inter-club competition, which ties Panama City into the same circuit as Pensacola, Mobile, and New Orleans); and the Caterwaul Regatta brings A-Class catamarans to the bay each fall, one of the few places in Florida that class turns up in numbers.
Junior sailing runs as a standing program alongside the adult racing. St. Andrews Bay itself is the club’s structural advantage: deep, protected, and big enough to set any course a race committee wants, minutes from the Panama City waterfront.
St. Andrews Bay Yacht Club is a private club. Membership is subject to the club's approval. For current membership costs and how to apply, contact the club's membership office. Members of reciprocal yacht clubs can usually arrange visiting access with advance notice.
Featured Private Panhandle · Pensacola · est. 1908
Originally organized 1908 as the Pensacola Yacht and Motor Boat Club; chartered 1910. Charter member of the Gulf Yachting Association and a US Sailing affiliate. Deep junior fleet with Optimists, 470s, Lasers, and catamarans.
Private Panhandle · Crawfordville · est. 1969
Big Bend sailing club off Shell Point, organized in 1969 by sailboat racers. Cruising and buoy racing on Apalachee Bay, the annual Stephen C. Smith Memorial Regatta, and youth sailing through Apalachee Bay Community Sailing.
Private Panhandle · Panama City Beach · est. 1986
Private nonprofit yacht club chartered 1986 along the Gulf Coast in the Bay Point community at the Marriott Resort, Panama City Beach. ~200 members; calendar weighted toward cruising and social events rather than active racing.