The West End Yacht Club, known locally as the “Loyal” club, was formed in 1978 by a group of sailors in Sopers Hole, West End, Tortola. Feeling a need to add legitimacy to their races and serious parties they joined together and asked Walter and Inez Hyman of locally owned Walters’s Superete if they could meet there. It was here that The West End Yacht Club elected Morgan Sanger (Margaret Sanger’s grandson) as their first Commodore and took steps to register themselves as an official Yacht Cub.

One of their first races was the Sweethearts of the Caribbean held on the closest weekend to Valentines Day. It was dedicated to the true Sweethearts of the Caribbean, the Schooners. That was 25 years ago this year. The following year they added the Classic Yacht Regatta, which used to be held in March until the declining numbers of schooners, due to hurricanes and the relocation of many of the old classics over to Europe, called for the races to be combined.

Over the years the yacht club has gone into remission and been reborn three times as people have come and gone. Its last rebirth was in 1991. The WEYC is known for their fun low-key races, holding seven regattas a year each at the same scheduled time. Their usual start for home races uses the many islands in the western waters of the BVI as marks so you might find yourself starting outside of their yacht club, The Jolly Roger Restaurant & Bar in West End, Tortola, out around Little Thatch, Sandy Cay, the Great Harbor buoy and Great Thatch, always in a very interesting order and with different directions for each race. When yachts register they are given a ditty bag usually always worth more than the nominal entry fee and everyone always wins a prize at the Awards Ceremony Emceed by Commodore Dave Cooper. ,p.

If there are 50 entries, there are 50 prizes. This is only one of the reasons why all sailors of the BVI love the WEYC.

As the “JR” is their home so they need no budget to pay managers, bartenders or housekeeping, etc. For this reason, their budget is always in the black and they give extra monies to support the Island Sloop Program, which they support. One of the sloops in this program is Vigilant – an island sloop that was built in Tortola in 1882 and still sails annually in Foxy’s Wooden Boat Race. All BVI Island Sloops are owned by the H. Lavity Stout Community College and are maintained by the members of the Marine History Division, the members of the board of the WEYC and the KATS (Kids and the Sea) Program.