29-07-2025
‘Not some boujee yacht club.' Miami Yacht Club has mission of teaching kids to sail
A former Miami Yacht Club camper and camp counselor wept Monday for the two girls who died and the two who were critically injured when a 60-foot barge crashed into their 17-foot sailboat in the same Biscayne Bay waters where she said 'sailing changed my life.'
Katie Flood-Reiss, 29, learned to sail at age 5 at Miami Yacht Club's summer camp. Her first summer job was teaching kids at the Watson Island club. Today, she's a MYC member, and former race committee chair.
'This tragedy struck a chord because I was on those boats with those campers and we were so careful with our kids,' Flood-Reiss said. 'We were super invested in and focused on our kids and their safety.
'The Miami Yacht Club is so important for cultivating kids' independence through access to the water, and it has been dedicated to that mission for almost 100 years.'
She doesn't understand how the accident on a calm Monday morning could have happened but she does believe that the 19-year-old counselor, a young woman, and five campers ranging in age from 7 to 13 aboard the Hobie Getaway had no chance to evade the barge that ran them over near Hibiscus Island. The barge was being pushed from behind by a tugboat. Authorities did not release the names.
'In those conditions with hardly any wind it would be impossible to turn that sailboat quickly,' she said.
Flood-Reiss, a Miami Beach native, was the first sailor in her family and met her best friends and husband through sailing. The Miami Yacht Club is like her second home.
'It's a special place – not some 'boujee' yacht club – that needs to be protected,' she said.
The Miami Yacht Club was originally founded as the Southern Florida Boat Racing Association in 1927, and moved to its current location on Watson Island in the early 1930s.
The club has a long history of hosting regattas, including the annual Miami to Key Largo race, held for 70th time in March, and teaching the sport to all comers.
'Hosting spectacular views from the Venetian Causeway to Dodge Island (the Port of Miami) , a private beach, a pool and a mooring field just off our eastern shores, we can truly say we're a bit of the Keys nestled in the bustling center of Miami,' the club's website says.
The club, tucked behind Parrot Jungle, is known for its friendly, unpretentious spirit, commitment to community service and goal to educate youth and adults about recreational and competitive sailing. Membership is open to the public. The club leases its property from the city of Miami.
Through its Youth Sailing Foundation, MYC teaches classes and holds summer camp and after-school programs, with an emphasis on introducing inner-city kids to the bay. Its partners include the Overtown Optimist Club, Amigos For Kids, Genesis Hope Haven, Lotus House and Warrior Sailing.
It is one of the five local sailing clubs in the Biscayne Bay Yacht Racing Association, and an incubator for dinghy racing thanks to easy launching from its sandy beach. At its popular Wednesday Beer Can races, guests can bring their own boats or rent one from MYC's fleet.
'As stewards of public lands, it's our obligation to preserve and perpetuate access to Biscayne Bay and beyond,' the website states.
The club hosted the 2024 U.S. Olympic Sailing Trials at which two local sailors qualified for the Paris Games. Member Sarah Newberry Moore, whose affiliation with MYC goes back to her grandfather, competed on the 2024 U.S. team in the Nacra 17 co-ed catamaran.
The club sits on public land and shares its building and dock space with the City of Miami Marine Patrol and Underwater Recovery Unit. Club leaders plan to renew its lease with the city, which runs until 2027.
There are five levels of membership. Full membership, which includes use of the facilities, voting privileges and the right to lease a wet or dry slip, costs $178.29 per month plus a $3,300 initiation fee. A social membership, which includes use of the facilities, costs $94.58 per month plus a $500 initiation fee.
