The club membership, I am told, is for the sole purpose of one thing: the pursuit of furthering the hobby and past time of sailing and encouraging all of the family to participate, including the “little ones.” I have also been told that those folks seeking new membership who do not sail … are not invited to join. Sailing IS very important here. All events at the club are planned or in concert with different sailing events, races, regattas, meets and “Invitationals.”

The members of LAYC remind me of close knit relatives. Mingling with them at the club as a guest, I get the feeling that I’m at a family reunion; there’s a lot of obvious kinsmanship, brotherly love and spirited discussions that you’d find at family events.

The club’s kitchen always has really good food. They serve sit-down dinners as well as buffet meals. During the racing season, there are dinner parties every Saturday night that are absolutely the bomb. Several evenings during the week, the kitchen is also open to members.

The club also has a sporty, full bar with TV’s to watch sporting events and, as you can expect, beer, wine and cocktails flow freely when the club is open.

LAYC is open basically between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Having said that, the club has a modified opening in the beginning of Springtime and a scaled back version of the club is still open through the early fall. Come winter, however, the club closes down, completely.

My pal is a past Commodore of the club and has been the chairman of the race committee for many years. Races at the club are on Saturdays and Sundays. There are approximately eight fleets (different style sail boats) that race. That means that, usually, the Race Committee [which uses a pontoon boat and sets up at different points in the lake to start and finish races], has to start and finish eight fleets of boats per race. On Saturdays, there are two races (one on Sunday). Over the years, I have helped the Race Committee, usually being a backup scorer or once in a while handling flags and/or marker and lap-count placards with the close supervision and direction from those on the committee. It is a LOT of fun.

Anyone reading this that spends time at Lake Arrowhead and is into sail boats, you are NUTS if you do not join the LAYC!