The Southern Yacht Club is located in New Orleans, Louisiana's West End neighborhood, on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. Established on July 21, 1849, it is the fifthe oldest yacht club in the United States and a founding member of the Gulf Yachting Association. Sailing Southern Yacht Club is an extremely active sailing club and is the organizing body for the Race to the Coast, the oldest point to point regatta in the Western Hemisphere. Initially raced on July 4, 1850, the race continues to this day with the course starting on the shores of New Orleans on Lake Pontchartrain and finishing in Gulfport, Mississippi. Southern Yacht Club also is host to an active Viper 640, Rhodes 19, Vanguard 15, Sunfish, 420, Laser, Optimist (dinghy) and J-22 fleet as well as multiple Handicap and Offshore Racing Fleets and several high school sailing programs. Additionally, the Southern Yacht Club has, for over fifty years, hosted Intercollegiate Sailing Association regattas including The New Orleans Sugar Bowl Regatta, often partnering with Tulane University. Southern Yacht Club is home to four U.S. Sailing Olympic medalists including Gilbert Gray who in 1932 won a Gold Medal in Los Angeles in the Star Class, G. Shelby Friedrichs Jr. won Gold in the Dragon Class in Mexico City, 1968 and most recently, John C. Lovell who received a Silver Medal in Athens in 2004 as well as numerous other national and international champions. History The Southern Yacht Club of New Orleans, traces its roots to the Gulf Coast resort of Pass Christian, Mississippi and to the year 1849, making it the second oldest yacht club in the United States. New Orleans in the antebellum era was a proud, thriving port city, banking center and cultural leader. However, during the summer months, many New Orleanians retreated to the Gulf Coast to flee the heat, humidity and yellow fever. Summer homes, hotels and boarding houses dotted the coast from Waveland, Mississippi to Mobile Bay. A favorite among New Orleanians was the Pass Christian Hotel. There, SYC’s organizational meeting was held on July 21, 1849 and the hotel became its headquarters for several years. On August 8, 1849, Southern Yacht Club's first regatta was sailed in the Mississippi Sound off of Pass Christian, Mississippi with twenty-two yachts answering the starting gun and was won by Captain Robert A. Hiern of Mobile, Alabama sailing on the sloop Undine. Activities continued at