Page 96 - PCYC 75th Anniversary Book

The Place to Be for Racing

From the beginning, PCYC has been synonymous with racing. The founding members, most with small open boats, loved
nothing more that getting together at the mouth of the river for some friendly competition. In those early days the boats
were almost all different but members soon realized that boats of a single class made for more excitement on the race
course. Many groups of boats created friendly but intense rivalries for a number of years only to be replaced by the bigger
and faster. PCYC’s first class of boats was the Falcon in the late 30s. The 50s had the Folksboat –a Danish designed lapstreak
beauty. The Shark was a hot fleet in the 60s and 70s with Shark Worlds held at PCYC in 1971, 1978, and 1981. The 8
metres - Thisbe, Conewego, Leif and Octavia called PCYC home in the 70s and 80s with the Worlds at the Club in 1981
and 1984. Currently we have the J24 fleet, one of the best and most active on the lake, and our Melges 20 fleet which
is increasing by leaps and bounds. These hardy sailors start to race each year as soon as they can get to the crane and
continue with the fall series until “there is ice on the deck at noon on Sunday”.
The PCYC fleet enjoyed great friendly rivalries with several clubs in earlier years, especially Queen City Yacht Club and
Frenchman’s Bay Yacht Club. PCYC has always hosted one of the most popular Open Regattas on the lake with great racing
and always a good dinner.
The Club Regatta, for members only, has brought fun to PCYC since the earliest years. Not all the events involved racing
sailboats. The annual greased pole race brought intense competition and great laughter to spectators and participants alike.
Today the PCYC fleet races almost every day of the week with the learn-to-race-practice night on Mondays, the intense
competition of Wednesday Race nights and the J24, Melges 20s on Thursdays. The season also includes the Ice Breaker
Regatta the middle weekend in May, the Club Regatta in August, the Directors Race, the Bell Clapper Trophy Race, and the
Turkey Race to end racing for the year.
To honour and record the success of our racers, PCYC is blessed with a wonderful selection of trophies, many having
been awarded continually throughout our 75 years of history. The winners’ names engraved in the plaques are a stirring
reminder of the history of our Club.
In addition to racing at PCYC itself, our members have promoted and participated in all manner of racing activities on Lake
Ontario, most notably the Lake Ontario 300 and the LOSHR series.

At the start - Wednesday night racing

Port Credit Yacht Club History 95