No Boat Required!
"It Started With A Boat Ride"
In 1993, a small group of friends gathered on Herrington Lake and discussed the option of having an official club.
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Two exploratory meetings followed. The first was held in Herrington Woods, and the turnout alone made one thing clear - this idea had struck a nerve. People from all over the lake wanted in. The second meeting, held on Chimney Rock Road, sealed the deal. A yacht club would be created. The foundation was laid.
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On a crisp October evening in 1994, the Herrington Lake Yacht Club was officially commissioned. The very first event was a Halloween Party in Rocky Fork, near the dam - a fitting start for a club that would spend the next three decades throwing unforgettable parties on one of Kentucky's most beautiful lakes.
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Our first Commodore, Bob Willett, led the charge. If you were lucky enough to be on the water in those early years, you might have spotted Bob and his wife Joyce cruising the lake in their beautiful boat, "Down Time" - loyal members of the club to the core, and a living symbol of everything HLYC was built to be.
A Place To Come Home To
For the first several years, HLYC was a club on the move - a community of lake lovers who found each other on the water and gathered wherever the lake took them.
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In 1999, that changed. Commodore Frank Burns worked with Pandora Marina to establish what would become the club's permanent home - a dedicated space where HLYC could put down roots, throw open the doors, and welcome members the way they deserved to be welcomed.
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Over the years that followed, expansions, improvements, and renovations transformed the space into the modern, open-air facility the club calls home today. Dinner. Dancing. Live music. Good people and great views. It's everything a lake club should be - and it sits right where it belongs, in the cove near Pandora Marina on Herrington Lake, Harrodsburg, Kentucky. The Club is located below Marina Works - the first set of steps down to the dock at the Herrington Lake Yacht Club sign.
The Flag That Tells The Story Of The Lake
When the Herrington Lake Yacht Club was commissioned in October 1994, its very first Commodore, Bob Willett, took on a task that would define the club's identity for generations - designing the HLYC pennant.
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He didn't have to look far for inspiration. All he had to do was look at the lake.
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The greens - two shades of them - represent the rolling Kentucky hills that cradle
Herrington's winding shoreline. Anyone who has spent a summer morning out on the water knows exactly that color: the deep cedar green of the tree line at dawn, the softer sage of the hillsides as the sun climbs. Herrington's seasons put on a show, and Bob made sure the flag honored that.
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The blue is the water. Simple, honest, and true. And while anyone who has boated on Herrington knows it carries its own natural green tint, that blue in the pennant represents something bigger - the spirit of the water itself and everything it gives us.
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And the golden sun at the center? That's the whole reason we're here. Sunny summer days. Good friends. Cold drinks. The sound of a boat engine turning over on a Saturday morning. The kind of light that only happens on Herrington Lake at golden hour when the water turns to glass and nobody wants to go home.
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Bob Willett's pennant doesn't just represent a club. It represents a feeling. And more than thirty years later, when you see that flag flying at Pandora Marina, you know exactly what it means.
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You're home.
HLYC Membership Goes Farther Than You Think
Herrington Lake Yacht Club is a proud member of the Yachting Club of America - and that membership means something.
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As an HLYC member, you carry reciprocity privileges with most other yacht clubs across the United States. Whether you're traveling to the coasts, the Great Lakes, or anywhere in between, your HLYC membership opens doors at clubs nationwide.
And it works the other way too. YCA members from outside HLYC are always welcome to attend our events through our RSVP process, bringing fresh faces and new friendships to the shores of Herrington Lake.
The Oldest Of It's Kind In America
Herrington Lake is a non-navigable waterway - meaning no commercial traffic, no connecting waterways, just thirty-one miles of stunning Kentucky lake tucked into the rolling hills of Mercer and Garrard Counties.
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And right here, on this lake, sits the oldest yacht club of its kind in the United States on a non-navigable waterway.
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That's not a marketing line. That's history. And it's history that belongs to every single HLYC member who has ever thrown off the dock lines, raised a glass on the water, or watched the sun set from the deck at Pandora Marina.
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We are proud to carry that legacy forward - every year, every event, every new member who discovers what it means to be part of something this special.
