Mayor Lauren Kleiman's latest Flashback Fridays column traces more than a century of yacht club Opening Day celebrations in Newport Beach, connecting the harbor's boating culture to the city's identity as it approaches its 120th anniversary in September.
The column, published Thursday, July 9 in Stu News Newport, walks through three eras of the tradition: the Newport Harbor Yacht Club's 1916 founding, the Balboa Bay Club's mid-century Hollywood glamour, and the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club's rise to international prominence in the 1964 America's Cup Trials.
"While East Coast clubs had to pack their vessels away for the winter, sailors in Newport Beach have long enjoyed year-round waters, but that never stopped us from throwing a massive, spirited party to officially kick off the summer boating season," Kleiman wrote.
The piece is part of a citywide 120th anniversary initiative. Newport Beach incorporated on September 1, 1906, and the weekly Flashback Fridays series is a collaboration between Kleiman, City Historian Laureate Bill Lobdell, the Newport Beach Historical Society, Sherman Library & Gardens, the Balboa Island Museum, and Visit Newport Beach.
Three clubs, three eras
Newport Harbor Yacht Club, at 720 W. Bay Ave. on the Balboa Peninsula, is the city's oldest. It was founded in 1916, the same year the city and Orange County began planning to dredge the harbor's sandbars for recreational boating, according to the Daily Pilot. By the 1940s, yacht-owning Hollywood stars had joined the club, boosting its reputation statewide.
The Balboa Bay Club followed in 1948. The private club quickly earned the nickname "Hollywood's Riviera," drawing Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and John Wayne for sailing and socializing, according to the club's official history. Frank Sinatra performed there at a private event in 1960.
Ten yachtsmen who each put up $100 founded the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in 1958, initially leasing space on the Balboa Bay Club grounds. The club's first commodore, Don Bussey, named it after his boat, "Bahia." The word "Corinthian" was added to avoid duplicating initials with another harbor club, according to BCYC's official history.
In 1964, BCYC member Pat Dougan entered the yacht Columbia in the America's Cup Trials with Walter Podolak and a crew drawn mainly from the club. It was the first time a West Coast entry had competed in the trials.
Harbor's economic weight
A 2018 Beacon Economics study, the most recent publicly available analysis, found that Newport Beach Harbor's commercial activity generated approximately $1 billion in total economic output annually, supported 8,394 jobs, and produced $366.4 million in labor income nationwide. The city estimates roughly 4,300 boats are docked in the 21-square-mile harbor area.
Yacht clubs, regattas, and paddle-sport businesses alone accounted for an estimated $21.3 million in economic output and 372 jobs, per the same study. More than 1,100 businesses employing about 9,200 workers operated within a quarter-mile of the harbor.
The Flashback Fridays series runs weekly in Stu News Newport throughout 2026.
