Death to a sailing club

These are tough times for the City of Oakland, located along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. Their professional basketball team moved to San Francisco in 2019, their professional football team relocated to Las Vegas in 2020,  their professional baseball team left after last year, and now their boating club is closing.

We don’t often see a sailing club close its doors, but when we do, it’s a sad day. After 88 years, the Lake Merritt Sailing Club has reached the end of its lifespan and is closing its doors for good. Denis Hazlewood, club commodore 2022–25, shares the news in Latitude 38 with a recap of the club’s history and course through the decades:

It was surely not the first sailing organization on the lake, but in 1937 a group of Oakland small-boat sailors formed the Lake Merritt Sailing Club. By 1952 the club had grown so large that they incorporated as a California Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation. The oldest club roster that we’ve been able to find is from 1969, and at that time the club boasted 281 members, with 255 senior sailors and 26 juniors. There were a total of 302 boats registered, representing 44 classes. – Full report