Penticton Yacht Club and Marina (PYC) is set to celebrate its 70th year on the south end of Okanagan Lake. For over half a century, they have been a permanent fixture on the shoreline, helping locals and tourists alike get out on the water and experience what lake-living is all about.

But at their heart, they’re more than a marina—the PYC is a community on the lake.

With over 1200 members, 450 berths for boats ranging in size from 16’ to 65’ including moorage for personal watercrafts and visiting boaters, and their restaurant, The Rusty Anchor, this not-for-profit society continues to bring folks together over a shared love of boating.

And with such an important milestone this year, they’re reflecting on their past while looking ahead to a very exciting future.

At its inception, the Penticton Yacht Club only had 10 berths—a far cry from where they are today. Currently they boast marinas at both Skaha Lake and Okanagan Lake, a fully serviced gas dock that offers marine fuel as well as pop, chips, and beverage sales, and even an off-season outdoor boat storage. But what is perhaps most surprising is that they accomplish all of this while remaining the most affordable and approachable yacht club on the lake.

“We’re a working marina that’s open to everyone,” explains Alex Grant, PYC’s General Manager. “We have public boat launches, public slips, and a restaurant. We’re not a private club.”

While many might hear the term ‘yacht club’ and picture polo shirts, expensive khakis, designer sunglasses and even more designer boats, Penticton Yacht Club and Marina remains accessible to anyone as long as they live within 40.2 kilometres of the city.

“We’re more of a marina,” says Alex Grant. “We’ve just carried that heritage with us.”

While the heritage and many long-term memberships are definitely a source of pride—many members are entering 30+ years with the PYC—that elitist mentality commonly associated with a yacht club has no place in Penticton’s marinas. Here, it’s about the shared love of the water and getting everyone out on their boat.

Of course, no industry is without its challenges, especially seeing as boating expenses can add up quickly. “Boating can be cheap, but it can also be expensive,” admits Grant.

It’s no surprise younger members are hard to find…

However, one source of pride for Grant and many employees at the PYC is bringing in a young, new generation to the club. Recently, a young man in his late 20s became a member, and Grant remembers his reaction. “He said, ‘I never thought I could be a part of a yacht club,’ so seeing that excitement of young boaters is really important to us.”

Another challenge is finding space for all the folks on the PYC’s waitlist. While every employee wants to get people out onto the water as fast as they can, there are a finite number of slips, especially for larger vessels. Slip allocation is by far one of the most time consuming tasks for the team. While every year people do give up their slips, the difficulty lies in finding the right sized boat to replace it, and the most efficient way to organize the two marinas. Thankfully they have a structure for it—but that wasn’t always the case.

You might be surprised to hear that as recently as four years ago, all the slips were analogue-style and in binders. Now, with digitization, they can tell you what slips are open, what sizes, and find a match off the waitlist right away. This is not to say that the list gets much shorter, but the dedication is there.

However, there is one way they have found to get more folks out on the water…

“One of the other great things we have now is the visitors’ slips,” explains Grant. “We’ve had those for a long time but they are a big deal. We’re the only club on Okanagan Lake that has Dedicated visitor rental slips.”

The PYC has 18 visitor slips at Okanagan Lake marina and 8 visitor slips at Skaha Lake marina. This means that travellers from out of town who want to bring their boat with them on vacation are able to reserve moorage within either the Skaha or Okanagan marinas, which includes parking for their trailer (at an extra cost) while they’re berthed at the facility. You can book your spot on a nightly, weekly, and even monthly basis—with discounts for the shoulder season.

Not only does this offer visitors a spot to park their boat while on vacation, but locals can also rent those for the summer months while waiting for a year-round slip. It might not sound like a great compromise, but at the end of the day, it gets more people out on the water during the peak season.

“We’re the only people on this lake that have actual rentable visitor slips,” says Grant.

But even if you don’t have a vessel yourself, there is still a way to get involved with the PYC: social memberships.

For just $278.75 a year, you can become a social member at the yacht club and gain access to their restaurant. The deal is even sweeter when you learn that you gain a $200 voucher for The Rusty Anchor when signing up, making the true cost just under $80.

And for some locals, the real reason behind the social membership is the PYC’s Executive Chef and Food & Beverage Manager, Darin Paterson. Previously the face behind Bogners, a restaurant that used to run out of an old heritage building, Paterson has plenty of regulars who followed him once he made his way to the PYC. “Darin is very creative,” Grant says.

If you do sign up as a social member, you also get access to the yacht club to host special events like anniversary parties or birthdays, and even off-site catering. “We do a lot of weddings, galas, whisky clubs,” explains Grant. “And technically those are open to the public as long as one person has a social membership. Someone just buys it and it’s included.”

While their past and present are no doubt exemplary, the future of the PYC is also looking bright thanks to plans from the City of Penticton to revamp the area and bring in an esplanade. It almost seems as if the yacht club has only just gotten started, even with 70 years of history behind it.

It’s exciting to see a historic landmark continue to succeed in this small city, and bring in a bright future for boating culture across our valley. 

Xx,

Your Okanagan Curators

We gave Alex Grant 60 seconds to answer the following questions.

My favourite project/focus within my company is:

The future vision of the marina. The future of the yacht club and where this is wanting to go, that’s what I like.

My favourite dish in the restaurant is:

The pizza. Any of the pizzas. It’s really, really good.

My favourite way to rest and reset is:

Boating. Spending time with family. 

Three things that helped me get to where I/we am/are today is:

Family, especially my wife. Friends. Life experiences. 

Share three to five Okanagan businesses that are doing amazing things:

Terroir Kitchen. Poplar Grove. Penticton Boat Rentals for young entrepreneurship. Chute Lake Lodge. Shaughnessey’s for a boat-accessible on the lake.