Click on image to view full PDF
The Montauk Yacht Club is now 80 years old. You might not have been paying attention to this anniversary if you are one of those people who believe that Montauk is on the fringe of the known world. But, truthfully, Montauk is not that far and it is definitely worth a celebratory trip. Besides, eighty years is longevity itself in an area where we see all sorts of establishments come and go, often in the space of a single season.
The Montauk Yacht Club is not actually a club, at least not a private club, the way, for example, Devon Yacht Club is restricted to members and guests. (On the other hand, Devon, on the open bay, has few marina facilities.)
MYC, as it is often called by insiders, is part of IGY, which to us outsiders is Island Global Yachting, an international organization that owns and manages marinas, or as they say in corporate speak, “yachting lifestyle destinations.” You can go online at the IGY website and from a dropdown menu reserve a slip for a specified time at a number of Caribbean islands, in the Arabian Gulf, Mexico, Croatia, or of course Montauk—as routinely as you would reserve a hotel room on the Marriott or Four Seasons site.
This corporate ownership seems suitable for a place that was started by Carl Fisher, a lifestyle destination entrepreneur of the first order. He converted Miami Beach from a swampy barrier island into a major resort. Somewhat less successfully he brought his big vision to Long Island and started a number of enterprises in the late 1920s intended to make Montauk a Tudor themed international playground.
His plans were battered by the whirlwinds of the twentieth century, but the Montauk Yacht Club somehow survived a market crash (until recently we used to say the market crash), prohibition, the Great Depression and a world war. Its scaled replica of the Montauk Lighthouse, a typically extravagant Fisher idea, and its Tudor roofs are still there, now modestly peeking out from all the later changes and additions.
Vanderbilts, Astors, Fords and Doubledays were among the early visitors—a fact so irresistible to publicists that it appears in all of MYC’s promotional material, along with the equally irresistible word “legendary.” A couple of generations later the clientele—and the world for that matter—is decidedly less aristocratic, and the hotel and resort facilities, which have had their ups and downs over the years, have been upgraded in a major renovation to attract today’s big money and bold-faced names.
The marina facilities are still among the best in the area, and during the summer the slips are consistently populated with yachts that take your breath away. And with the new renovations, the restaurants, bars and public spaces are looking more spiffy and stylish than they have in decades. History is reflected in a terrific collection of archival photograph that has been hung on the main floor of the lighthouse area, now called the Turtle Lounge. Mostly from the 1940s to 1960s, they record the fishing tournaments and boating activities of that generation, people like Captain Frank Mundus, the shark hunter who inspired Jaws.
The Hamptons, unlike Palm Beach, Aspen, Santa Barbara or other fashionable places, has never been known for luxury hotels. This has been more a residential resort: people go to their own homes or rentals, or small inns. That perception will not change overnight, but the management of the MYC is clearly trying to make us think differently.