Bear Lake Yacht Club, A Brief Racing History - Story By: Paul Bradshaw

BLYC was actually started one summer night in a cabin near the lake in 1971. A group of local sailors gathered for dinner after a day of sailing on the lake. Someone put up the idea and a few beers and several hours later it had wings.
Racing was a part of the program from almost the very first day.
Previous to the BLYC a group called Utah Sailing Association had been sailing off a nearby beach, mostly dinghy’s, the year was about 1967.
BLYC was made up of sailors who moored their boats at what is now known as Bear Lake State Park located just next to Garden City Utah. Most boats fit the mold of cruisers and just a few racer/cruisers but more or less all keel boats. Most boats doubled as weekend condos as there just weren’t many lodging options in those days at Bear Lake.
Races were typically about ten miles long and of the random leg variety. PHRF was the preferred rating system that allowed a vast spread of boat types. A good turn out was about 25 boats spread over three fleets in an attempt to keep ratings tight.
Early in the eighties purpose built race boats started showing up, Hobie 33’s, Olson 30’s, and a gaggle of Santana 20’s.
Unfortunately about the same time the lake water levels receded to a point that both BLYC and the racing came to an end for about two years.
Once the racing resumed boats became bigger and faster and the slower fleets suffered. By about 2015 the slowest fleet had all but disappeared and some sport boats were starting to show up, several from PCSA members. The favored course type turned from random leg to more up wind down wind with a goal of 2-3 five or so mile races each day.
2025 was a difficult year for BLYC, like most of the other clubs in the country membership and racing was noticeably down, various reasons and one you might not think of. The keelboat racing at PCSA was becoming so successful and so much closer to the population centers that it pulled a lot of energy away from BLYC and by early winter the club announced its intentions to cut back and cease racing for the time being.
I smell opportunity!