TORONTO — The Island Yacht Club (IYC), founded in 1951 on the Toronto Islands as a haven for Jewish boaters, is in talks with unnamed parties in a bid to ensure the club’s survival while retaining its historic name.
“There are more than one interested parties, and I’m confident something will evolve,” said William Kassel, the IYC’s commodore, the equivalent of its CEO. “If it does evolve, some arrangement will be made before Nov. 1.”
Kassel would not identify the parties in question, but he said talks are focused on a potential merger with a marina and with acquiring new management that would look at boosting the club’s membership.
The club’s downward spiral began in the spring of 2004. A group of kids were playing with matches, lighting the fluff that came off the trees on Mugg’s Island, when a gust of wind blew some of the burning cottony fibres under a building.
The old wooden clubhouse caught fire and burned to the ground, sending the storied club into a financial downturn that has yet to be reversed.
“We lost more than half the members at that time, and it’s been an uphill battle to get them back,” Kassel said.
After the clubhouse burned down, members had to make do with tents for three years before a permanent structure was constructed. Many left for other yacht clubs, others bought cottages and some took up golf, he said.
Membership is down to 60 voting members and another 60 social members, a far cry from the 260 voting members the club could boast in 1990, when he also served as commodore, Kassel said.
Last week, the National Post, citing unnamed sources, said the club had asked members to come up with $18,000 each to ensure the club’s survival, but Kassel declined to comment on financial specifics.
The IYC was established at a time Jewish sailors found it difficult to gain entry into other boating clubs.
Two years ago, the IYC was approached by the Royal Canadian Yacht Club with a view to merging, or to create some other arrangement.
That proposal fell through, leaving the IYC’s future cloudy.
Kassel is sure the club, which is winding down for the winter, will be up and running in May 2015 when the boating season resumes.
For Kassel, maintaining the viability of the IYC “is an emotional thing. My children grew up there. My grandchildren are there.
“You get personally attached because it’s where you spent all your summers,” he said.