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.
(more)
Additional Resources
Officers & Contacts
Directions
Monthly Publication: "The Anchorline"
Commodores (1961- Present)




