THE HISTORY OF BOMBAY YACHT CLUB 

The beginning 1983……………..as told by Phil Stevens in 1998

About 15 years ago, John Helmreich, Carol, Sweetie and Tom Tracy took boats to St. Clair Marina for the weekend.  Sunday morning, John and Tom were walking back to their boats when they passed the picnic area where a group of people were cooking breakfast.  It smelled so good that they had to stop and say hello.  The group was very nice and asked them to join them.  It turned out that they were having a yacht club outing.  John and Tom went back to their boats and told the girls about their breakfast with a yacht club.  As they sat on the boat enjoying their “Bloody Mary’s” John got the idea – “why don’t we form our own yacht club?”  They thought it was a great idea and thus….. a Yacht Club was born. 

The next couple days were spent working on the particulars.  They decided to appoint John as the Commodore (since the club was his idea) and Tom became Vice Commodore.  John liked the name Bombay Yacht Club and Tom thought of the Bombay Gin Bottle for the possible logo.  They decided to use the “queen”.  All that remained was to have Sweetie file the Bombay Yacht Club assumed name. 

Next,  they began recruiting members: primarily at Norman’s Eton Street Train Station.  Fees were $50.00 to join and $75.00 annual dues.

By the end of the week, they had sixteen to eighteen members, including George Scott, Phill Stevens, Dick Dorman, and Bob Barrett.  (George Scott was interested in writing the news letter, so they made him the Scribe.)  That week, as they saw the rest of the “Train Street” regulars, several signed up right away.

As the money began rolling in, they set up a checking account at the Ed Gamble’s bank, than recruited him as a member.  It was decided that the club needed a financial advisor, attorney and a treasurer.  Ed Gamble, Sweetie and Dick Dormand were appointed, thus, completed the first Board of Directors.

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