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Snag-A-Slip Booking

Capital Yacht Club

+1 (202) 488-8110

[email protected]

http://www.capitalyachtclub.com

8 am - 6 pm

Monitored: 16 | Working: 68

Washington, DC | N 38° 52.727' / W 077° 01.476'

800 Wharf Street, SW

Washington, DC 20024

Body of Water

Washington Channel, Potomac River

General Manager

Debbie Stickell

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Rick Vicars

Vessel Type: Power LOA: 45' Draft: 5.0''

Karen Ratte

Vessel Type: Power LOA: 50' Draft: 3.5''

Thomas Schlehuber

Vessel Type: Power LOA: 47' Draft: 0.0''

Malcolm Rubel

Vessel Type: Power LOA: 48' Draft: 5.0''

Jackie Spruill

Vessel Type: Power LOA: 48' Draft: 4.0''

Last Marina Login : 09/05/24

Call ahead to confirm as prices are always subject to change.

Reservations

$3.50/ft/day for under 65', $6.00/ft/day for 65'+

$3.50 per ft.

Moorings Offered

Liveaboard Allowed

Liveaboard Fee

Payment Methods

VISA / MasterCard / Discover / AMEX

The Capital Yacht Club Marina is located on the north end of the Washington Channel, just south of the 14th Street Bridge. You would travel approximately one mile north on the Washington Channel from the intersection of the Potomac River, Washington Channel and the Anacostia River. The Capital Yacht Club will be the three docks on your starboard side between The Wharf's Recreation Pier and District Pier, with an average water depth of 20 feet. Air draft up the Potomac River is 135 feet at the 301 bridge and 170 feet at the power lines near Quantico. The new Woodrow Wilson Bridge at Alexandria, VA has a clearance of 75 feet. You can call 877-463-6992, if you need to schedule an opening.

Approach / Dockside Depth

25.0 / 20.0 ft.

Largest Vessel

Total Slips

Transient Slips

The Capital Yacht Club is a private club located at The Wharf ( www.wharfdc.com) on Washington, DC's southwest waterfront. The Yacht Club has a spacious and secure marina for vessels up to 160 feet, with deep water docks. Facilities include, but are not limited to, a clubhouse with free WiFi, large coin/credit card operated laundry facility, and spacious bathroom and showers. A full-service Club Bar./Grill for your evening enjoyment provides spectacular sunset views. Our exciting waterfront community offers hot restaurants, year-round entertainment and music venues, and shopping amenities. Most of Washington DC's attractions & monuments are in within walking distance, with the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument in view. A free Wharf shuttle bus is available to/from L'Enfant Metro. The docks have 30 and 50 amp power, and the T-head docks have single phase 100 amp and 3-phase 100 amp power. Pump-outs are available in the slip.

If you would rather moor out, there is a city-operated mooring field in the Washington Channel's large all-weather anchorage, with dinghy dock and Capital Yacht Club facilities available.

Yes; $10.00 per day

Yes; $20.00 per day

Metered Electric

Dockside Water

Dockside WiFi

Internet Access

Meeting Facilities

Pet Friendly

FedEx / UPS

Dry Cleaner

Coin Laundry

Liquor store

Marine Store

Fitness Center

Post Office

Veterinarian

Noteworthy:

Numerous facilities and amenities at The Wharf (www.wharfdc.com), within walking distance of the Capital Yacht Club.

·       Downtown Washington, DC, National Mall, Smithsonian Museums.  

·       Visit DC:   https://washington.org

·       DC Metro System:   www.wmata.com

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The Seafarers Yacht Club, organized in 1945 as the Seafarers Boat Club, and is the oldest African American yacht club in the United States.

The Seafarers Yacht Club, organized in 1945 as the Seafarers Boat Club, and is the oldest African American yacht club in the United States. The clubhouse is located on the Anacostia River north of the John Philip Sousa Bridge (Pennsylvania Avenue, SE) and just south of the CSX Railroad bridge (across from the skating rink in Anacostia Park). The Seafarers Club was organized by Lewis T. Green, Sr., a wood carver and vocational arts teacher in the DC Public Schools. Green built boats as a hobby, and in his search for a place to dock one of his boats, he contacted the Department of the Interior about this site. Told that he should establish a boat club, he did so, but waited in vain for a response from the government. Eventually, with the help of Mary McLeod Bethune and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, he was able to rent the land for the club. The site originally was called Green's Boat Yard, and club members improved the marshy land and built docks and a clubhouse.

The club soon developed a commitment to boating safety and community service. In 1965 the club merged with the D.C. Mariners Boat Club. In 1985 the group began the Seafarers Yacht Club Annual Cleanup, which has grown into the annual Anacostia River Cleanup Day held each spring.

Boat Rentals

Carefree boat club.

Enjoy the pleasures of boat ownership with none of the hassles!  Carefree Boat Club is a members-only boat club with over 80 locations in the US and Canada.  

With an annual membership, you are able to reserve any available powerboat at any time, pick it up fueled and ready, and use it with no hassle. Don't worry about dock fees, insurance, cleaning, or maintenance. 

Carefree Boat Club's friendly dock staff will assist you with all your needs, including boater safety courses and special instruction for each boat.

Carefree Boat Club at The Wharf operates seasonally from April 15-November 15. Boats are accessed via the Wharf Market Docks . Carefree Boat Club's mailing address is 600 Water Street SW, Washington, DC 20024.

Prospective members are encouraged to contact Carefree Boat Club for a free tour of their docks and boats.

Get Your Fill at The Wharf

Fresh seafood is a given on the waterfront. But The Wharf offers more, including a wide selection of distinctive choices for food, drinks, and entertainment while you eat. Watch the chefs prepare your meal. Listen to music. Or just people-watch while you savor the flavors of The Wharf.

Visit the Fish Market

Enjoy the freshest fish from one of the country’s oldest fish markets. Oysters on the half shell. Blue crabs by the bushel. Whole fishes caught that morning. And a low-key atmosphere that makes everything taste even better. Stop by for the food or the fishmongers—the Municipal Fish Market never disappoints.

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CYC was formed on October 19, 1892 by nine yachtsmen who met on the naphtha-powered launch ALERT in order to hire a watchman to keep an eye on their vessels anchored in the newly formed Washington Channel. This was not long after the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) had begun a massive dredging project that created East Potomac Park, the Tidal Basin and created many of the features of the SW Washington Waterfront that we are familiar with today. The SW Waterfront, known as the “sixth Street Wharf” since the time of the Civil War, was a working seaport, with fish wharfs, municipal piers for tobacco and farm produce, numerous ice and coal docks, towing companies and coastal steamship wharfs projecting into the Channel.

CYC’s first facility was converted from a coal scow to a two level clubhouse known as THE ARK that was moored on the Washington Channel at the foot of ninth street beginning in 1894. By 1900 the club had grown to 30 members and leased property at 700 Water Street where they built a 1 ½ story wooden building. The club continued to grow, and in 1922 CYC moved into a new clubhouse near 9th street. This building was a classic yacht club with peaked roof, cupola and second story balcony. CYC facilities at this time also included a marine railway!

From its inception, CYC was heavily involved with racing. Several regattas were held each year and CYC was a charter member of the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association (CBYRA) that began informally in 1906 and was incorporated in 1910. Racing was occasionally interrupted by war, but little else had any effect.

There was some effort in the 1940’s by the ACOE to develop the SW Waterfront, and CYC was able to lease the newly built yacht basin number 2 in 1942. This gave CYC 82 berths and some additional space for small boats. To promote further development, Congress created the Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA) in 1945 which had a major part in changing SW DC. Changes to the SW Waterfront began in 1960 when Public Law 86-736 transferred ownership of the SW waterfront to the RLA. Early development plans put CYC at great risk because they called for the removal of all CYC facilities. The new plan created a continuous seawall and promenade. Unfortunately, this meant filling in most of yacht basin number 2. This reduced the CYC dock facilities from 82 to 58 slips in 1967. CYC membership declined considerably since there appeared to be no future for the club.

In 1967 Public Law 90-176 provided CYC and other waterfront businesses a chance to continue operation and allowed the existing waterfront businesses a chance to participate in the planned redevelopment.

By 1969 CYC membership had dwindled to only 17 participants. In May of 1969 the classic CYC clubhouse and home for 47 years was torn down.  Fortunately, the first of the new CYC riparian leases was signed in June of 1969 and the lease for a shore-side parcel of land on which to build a new clubhouse was secured in 1970. The new clubhouse was completed in 1973 and interest in CYC membership gradually revived with the prospect of having a restaurant and a Clubhouse.

By 1980 there were 110 active and life members and 600 associate members, many of whom only patronized the restaurant. Unfortunately, Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA) was planning to build a new subway tunnel for the Yellow Line directly below the CYC docks. This required CYC members to move their vessels temporarily to a neighboring marina while the old docks were removed and the metro tunnel completed. Fortunately, WMATA also installed new docks with approximately 79 slips and the CYC fleet was able to return beginning in October 1982.

1984 marked both the first CYC Police/Fire fighter picnic and the first time the second floor of the clubhouse was leased to a public restaurant. Le Rivage operated on the second floor for 18 years.  A new tenant Jenny’s Asian Fusion Restaurant and Lounge, replaced Le Rivage in 2003 and operated until 2015.

CYC continues to grow as an active part of the SW Waterfront community with a membership of approximately 131 active, 17 associate, 10 community 27 life, and 10 cruising members. In past years, CYC has hosted numerous Easter Seals Cruises for Kids, Patriot’s Picnics for wounded veterans, and the Leukemia Cup Regatta activities. CYC makes its facilities available to the USCG Auxiliary, National Maritime Heritage Foundation and other community groups.

In 2002 the DC City Council formally recognized CYC for its 110th year of “preservation and progress for America’s National Waterfront and its long standing service and participation in the SW Waterfront community.”       

Redevelopment of the waterfront area began summer of 2014.  The SW waterfront area is now named The WHARF honoring its historic designation by generations of Washingtonians. CYC members are once again working with developers and the District of Columbia with the hope of preserving the past while creating a ‘true urban destination where maritime activity and commerce mix with culture and housing to create a vibrant waterfront community.’

The WHARF will stretch across 27 acres of land and 24 acres of water from the Municipal Fish Market to Fort McNair. When complete it will ‘feature approximately three million square feet of new retail, residential, office, hotel, cultural and public use areas (over 55% of the area) including waterfront parks, promenades, piers, and docks accommodating 400-500 slips. Phase I is expected to be completed in 2017.

Updated July, 2015 --LP--

35.82° N, 77.01° W

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Reservations and Rates

Reservations for transients.

The Capital Yacht Club has a limited number of slips available for guest dockage. The following form will submit your reservation request for processing. Slip availability will be reviewed and you will be contacted to coordinate your stay at the Capital Yacht Club.

Please note that reservations for July 4th can be made beginning March 1st. Keep in mind that this is one of our busiest times and slips do fill up quickly.

Submit Reservation

Transient rates.

For vessels over 65 feet LOA: $6.00/ft./day

For vessels 65 feet LOA or less: $3.50/ft/day (**Week of July 4th $5.00/ft/day**)

Discounts for vessels 65 feet LOA or less: PRYCA and CBYCA 10% Discount (provided that the other Club has reciprocal arrangements with CYC, only one discount applies)

Anchor Outs

$16 per day

Electricity

$10.00 per day per cord (30AMP)

$20.00 per day per cord (50AMP)

100 AMP is metered

• For vessels over 65 feet LOA: To be determined by Commodore
• For vessels 65 feet LOA or less: $10 / pump-out

672 Wine Club

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• How This Historically Black Yacht Club Learned to Thrive by Centering Community

In 1959, the Seafarers Yacht Club's only goal was to establish a presence on the Chesapeake. Now, it's providing services to the community.

Diane m. byrne.

Contributing Boating Editor

Diane M. Byrne's Most Recent Stories

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In 1959, four Black men who were boaters in Washington, DC, decided to take their love of the water to the Chesapeake Bay. Joseph Barr, Hugh Dowling, Ellsworth Randall and Albert C. Burwell had been part of the Seafarers Boat Club on the Anacostia River, but wanted to take advantage of the Chesapeake’s much larger cruising grounds. They decided Annapolis should be home port. But the doors of local yacht clubs were closed to them and marina owners refused to sell Black captains fuel.

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Undeterred, they created the Seafarers Yacht Club, one of the oldest Black yacht clubs in the US. At first, they met in each other’s homes. Later, the group rented a small storefront in downtown Annapolis. In 1967, they purchased an abandoned, two-room 1918 schoolhouse—the first elementary school for Black children in Annapolis’s Eastport area—and turned it into a clubhouse.

The founders organized cruises where service providers welcomed them, hosted cookouts when they couldn’t dine in restaurants, and built a swimming pool at the back of the clubhouse. Over time, as SYC grew, its mission to enjoy boating transformed into something larger, with a community-service focus that included teaching at-risk youth how to swim and boat, hosting dinners for seniors, and setting up the city’s first Sea Scouts program—think Boy and Girl Scouts on the water.

Community service has become a primary mission of the yacht club. Its programs range from summer camps to teach seamanship and swimming to local youth to a Sea Scouts chapter that has seen one member enter the US Naval Academy.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

Capt. Ade Adebisi, SYC’s immediate past commodore, has seen the club mature since joining in 2001, both in membership, which has seen an 80 percent turnover in the last 20 years, and focusing on the local community.

Adebisi first learned of the club through a chance encounter. One day out cruising, he and his family came across Dr. William Woodward, their family dentist—who, unbeknownst to Adebisi—was the club’s then-commodore. After being invited to meet the members, Adebisi never looked back. “These are accomplished individuals who come together and work towards a common goal and support one another,” he says. “We’re not just yacht-club members, we’re friends.”

The club now has 76 members, who own multiple boat types, from kayaks to cruising sailboats to 60-ft. sportfishing machines. During the summer, flotillas of member boats cruise the Chesapeake, or do weekend trips to destinations like Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. On more somber occasions, the group wears the club’s dress whites to member funerals. While the founders were all working-class men, today’s group is more demographically and racially diverse, comprised of business owners, professionals and military officers. The club’s female members are also active in running the organization, with many serving as board members.

Over the years, the club has seen business owners, professionals and military officers join its ranks. That’s reflected in the members’ boats.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

Adebisi says the club has made him a better boater, since many of the more seasoned members provide seamanship and boat-handling advice to others. “As a new boater, you’re just learning to deal with all the challenges that come with the water,” he says. “Now, you have other people around to gain experience from, and share stories.”

The current commodore, Capt. Benjamin McCottry, says camaraderie is one of the club’s main strengths. Officially, he’s been a member for six and a half years, but has been around the members “practically all my life,” back to when the 70-year-old was a child.

McCottry is most proud of how the organization gives back to the community. It hosts an annual Thanksgiving Day dinner for seniors, for instance, and uses a donated 28-foot powerboat to teach seamanship skills to local youth.

Three Past Commodores (left to right): Dr. Mel Wyche, David Turner and  Dr, William Woodward.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

In fact, the youth programs are of particular importance to McCottry and his fellow members. Since its early days, the Seafarers Yacht Club has provided swimming lessons in the club pool as part of a two-week summer program that also includes boating education.

“Drowning is the second-leading cause in the country of accidental death in children 12 and under,” McCottry says. “Not only do the kids learn how to swim and save themselves, but they also learn how to save somebody else—without endangering themselves.” Many of the youth, he says, come from homes where no one can swim.

The swimming instruction, as well as STEM-related programs and even chess lessons from a chess master to promote critical-thinking skills, all target local children ages eight to 12. They’re overseen by the club’s non-profit arm, the Seafarers Foundation. Older children aren’t forgotten, with the Foundation further overseeing the first—and only—Sea Scouts unit in Annapolis. Sea Scouts is a program of the Boy Scouts of America for male and female teens ages 14 through 20.

A group kayak around the harbor in Annapolis.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

The Seafarers Yacht Club established its unit, Sea Scout Ship 1959, in 2019. Not only has it become one of the fastest-growing units in the nation, attracting nearly two dozen members, but also it received the prestigious National Flagship Award last summer. This recognizes outstanding program quality, youth achievements, and adult commitment. One member has gone on to attend the US Naval Academy.

“It’s doing rich work,” says Major General Errol Schwartz, the Seafarers Foundation president. What’s more, he sees opportunities to expand that rich work. He and his colleagues are exploring ways to offer programs year-round, plus close the age gap between those programs and the Sea Scouts.

Additionally, he wants to focus on health issues, especially in light of the pandemic. “We want to hear from the youth,” Schwartz says. “They’ve been pent up in this Zoom environment for two years. What are some of the things that are affecting them, mentally or otherwise?”

The club officers in dress whites, honoring a recently deceased member.  Courtesy Seafarers Yacht Club

Whatever it ultimately does, this “tight-knit family,” as Schwartz calls the Seafarers Yacht Club, will continue to honor its past. “Let’s not forget the people who got us here,” adds Adebisi.

Some of the original members are still alive and the work they did to buy and renovate that original two-room schoolhouse laid the foundations for today’s thriving club. “It’s important for us to maintain that history,” says Adebisi. “We’re proud of it.”

Diane Byrne is a longtime yachting journalist, specializing in the megayacht market; she has covered the industry since 1993. She is the founder and editor of MegayachtNews.com, a daily-updated…

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