SAN DIEGO— Silver Gate Yacht Club, lives on Shelter Island in San Diego and has big projects and programs going on behind the scenes. This club offers all the amenities a member is looking for but is also involved in a beneficial project called Urban Oyster, has a junior sailing program, and operates the SGYC Foundation.
Junior and senior students from High Tech High in Point Loma have been studying oyster recruitment at yacht club docks in San Diego Bay. In May, the team had placed oyster “condos” which are devices designed for oysters to recruit to in the water, and have been monitoring their progress along with water quality.
SGYC has less than five oysters, along with San Diego Yacht Club, Southwestern Yacht Club has approximately 35 oysters, and Shelter Island Marina has about 15.
The team returned to the sites for additional testing and species assessment of the inside of the condos twice during October. The students have designed research investigations based on the data they collected from those visits. Current topics of interest include the impact of temperature and oxygen on oyster distribution and competitive fouling, and the condos themselves.
In addition to the Urban Oyster program, the SGYC also has a junior sailing program. The program focuses on teaching kids the basics of sailing and not grooming them for the Olympics, a mission uncommon for a yacht club. The program is open to children ages 8-16 and offers personalized instruction in their fleet of modern dinghies and keel boats.
The SGYC was founded in 1952, and since then, the club has implemented and hosted annual signature charitable regattas such as the Wheelchair Regatta, where members and volunteers share SGYC with hundreds of disabled individuals to enjoy a “Day on the Bay” with lunch and music and the Schooner Cup.
For more information on SGYC, how to schedule a tour for those interested in becoming a member, or information about their programs, please visit https://www.sgyc.org/.
