HIYC History

In the early 1950’s, a handful of sailing enthusiasts, most of them Penguin owners, formed the Nashville Sailing Association For the next few years, they spent weekends racing their boats ‘round and ‘round Bush’s Lake, little more than a pond, in North Nashville. While their facilities were scant, their enthusiasm for racing was considerable, and so they joined in 1954 with The Nashville Tennessean, Nashville’s largest newspaper, to sponsor the city’s first sailing regatta, "The Tennessean". The regatta grew so much the location had to change to a larger body of water, Kentucky Lake.

Then in the late 50’s, Old Hickory Lake was formed. One of the results of the impoundment was the development of a small island residential community named Harbor Island. By 1961, some of the Harbor Island landowners, who were themselves sailors, banded together with members of the Sailing Association to organize a yacht club. The group of sailors asked The Harbor Island Landowner’s Association if they could use a small portion of the island as a base for their sailing activities. The association agreed and the sailors named their new sailing club Harbor Island Yacht Club.

A dirt road turned from the causeway and wound down to a rocky shoreline. Boat launching was, at best, precarious, so the sailors built floats, anchored them in the harbor, and left their boats, mostly Thistles and Lightings, on them. Access to their boats was by small dingy. It was not long before the club founders took up a collection and financed the first improvements to their facilities. They constructed a wooden seawall, a floating dock, and a gathering place at the end of the day, a wall-less shed, complete with pseudo restrooms at either end. Working parties transformed the shed into a clubhouse. They enclosed the shed, added indoor bathrooms, a fireplace and outside decks. A little sailing here, a lot of work there, and they were fusing their club into a respectable organization.

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