Eight happy sailors laid the keel of the Great Pine Ridge Marine Association in 1964, which today, is known as the Cobourg Yacht Club. Drs. Edmond Gendron, Bill Richards, Theo Krauman, Don Macklin, Sol Margles, Phil Calnan, Ted Prosser and Ed Haynes formed the steering committee with Dr. Gendron appointed as helmsman.

The first active duty of the embryo Yacht Club was to act as hosts to the crews of the visiting yachts, which that year, had selected Cobourg as the end of the first leg of the Freeman Cup Race. Thus was launched the present Yacht Club and in September 1965 the official charter was received, making it a bonafide sailing club.

In 1967 a milestone was reached with the erection of the Clubhouse. Also that year the famous Brass Cuspidor was donated by a local lawyer, Dave Stewart, as a challenge to the Port Hope Yacht Club - the challenge was accepted and it was the beginning of the annual race between the two neighbouring towns. To the victor went the spoils; thus the classic relic has changed hands many times over the years.

In July 1969, the decision was made to purchase the famous "Red Barren" for more protective water safety measures – "Barren" by name but not by nature, as since that day, the Red Barren amongst other duties, has affected many a rescue from cold and blustery Lake Ontario.

As the membership grew, so did the choice of boats and the improvements to the facility. The old 14 boat wooden "Blue Jays" gave way to the more sophisticated and faster fiberglass Albacores, CL-16s, Lasers, Catamarans, day sailors, and keelboats. The old mooring slips in the inner harbour were abandoned in favour of a compound and keelboat moorings. The Club House was improved by the addition of indoor plumbing and a fully equipped galley, which in turn permitted the expansion to more ambitious activities including barbecues, pot luck suppers, the hosting of sailing functions such as the annual CL-16 Invitational Regatta, the Hobie Cat Association Championship Race, the Board Regattas, Steak and Sail, sailing picnics, Sunday Club Races, moonlight sails, corn roasts for visiting sailors, the one-parent bathtub race, Rochester Yacht Club Reception and inter-club races across the lake.

In 1975, Sir Sanford Fleming College in co-operation with the Cobourg Yacht Club introduced a sailing school, which has proved an overwhelming success with competent instructors. This has been an annual course and has produced many competent sailors who have participated in national regattas and have often returned with trophies as a mark of their sailing skills.

The Club however has not been without its moments of anxiety. High lake levels and vicious storms have taken their toll over the years forcing the relocation of the compound several times. In the summer of 1977, a storm of such proportions swept the area, that the keel boats were torn from their moorings and hurled against the west breakwater, smashing a venerable old racing sloop to matchwood and leaving the Red Barren high and dry on the beach.

With continued interest, increasing membership, and the long awaited improvements of the harbour area, plans were made to build a new Clubhouse. In October 1985, Mayor Mac Lees did the Sod Turning. A two-storey structure, 24’ by 48’ feet in size, with a deck on two sides, washrooms and showers, and kitchen and storage was taking shape. With a Build Grant, donations, and voluntary work by our members to reduce costs, our new Club House is a building to be proud of, and the future roll of the Cobourg Yacht Club will be that of an integral part of what must surely be one of the most interesting and outstanding leisure marine activity centres along the lakeshore.