Palm Beach Gardens Model Yacht Squadron sails on Sundays and Wednesdays year round at Lake Catherine in Palm Beach Gardens ,Florida. On Wednesdays the sailing is informal and begins at 1 pm. Sunday sailing begins at 9:30 AM with the first class of the day and continues until 3 PM. Sunday sailing is formal racing with scoring maintained eight months of the year. Trophies are awarded at the conclusion of the two different series (Fall and Winter)that are held for each of our three classes.

Besides our club racing days our members compete in other areas of the country in events sanctioned by other AMYA member clubs.Our club is a member of the Florida EC 12 Association and hosts one of that groups seven two-day regattas in early February. We also  compete with our neighbors from the St. Lucie River Model Boat Club in a "Home and Away" series every year for possession of the prized "HAVACHAW CUP" ( see below) In 2005 we also hosted the Inaugural Florida VICTORIA Class Championship which was held in late February.

Membership is open to ANYONE over the age of eighteen years. Our annual dues are twenty dollars after an initial registration of twenty-five dollars which includes the first year's membership. We have one formal dinner meeting a year for the selection of officers and the awarding of awards and trophies and random social meetings throughout the season to go over rules , tactics ,building tips and basic comraderie.While membership in the American Model Yacht Association is not required for our club, it is HIGHLY recommended that new members join that fine Association as it is glue that keeps our sport together! They publish a great magazine and have a website that provides everything from A to Z about this sport.Dues for this organization are twenty five dollars a year ,which includes the subscription to MODEL YACHTING magazine. They can be reached at www.modelyacht.org

The PBGMYS operates in compliance to AMYA and ISAF rules and regulations and a copy of the clubs by-laws is available for download on the bottom of this page.

We have a Club secretary, John Biles( jebolon@aol.com ) who maintains our list of radio frequencies(along with many other duties) and he would be the person to see about what channels are available in each fleet. We have many skippers who sail in more than one class and we try to assign the same channel to each boat that he or she owns. If you are going to sail with us it would be advisable to check with him on what channel to use. Most members and visitors from other clubs have extra channels available.

Here is a map of our location.We have limited parking on both sides of the street. There is also parking available at the North end of the park on the West side. Remember, Northlake exit off of I-95. East approximately 1/2 mile (2nd light) then North on MacArthur Blvd. another 1/2 mile.

Please feel free to contact any of the people listed on the "Members" page or use the "Email Us" link for further information.

                        The History of The Hav-A-Chaw Cup

In the fall of 2000 a group of eight residents of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida got together to form a model yacht racing club. The group took the name Palm Beach Gardens Model Yacht Squadron, with Jerry Gould as the first commodore and John Biles as Vice commodore.

Gould and Biles had been in contact with Jim Robinson, Commodore of the St. Lucie River Model Boat Club, and had received tremendous help and advice from Jim and his cohorts on setting up an organization, choosing a class of boat, improving the Victoria kit ( the chosen class*) for racing and answering numerous questions on building the boats . None of the eight original members had ever built a model boat before! The St. Lucie  Group did a wonderful job and a strong and warm bond was formed between the two groups.

In April of 2001 the SLRMBC invited the PBGMYS to a "race day" at their pond in Fort Pierce and as a result of the good time and comraderie that was experienced it was decided to make it a semi-annual event held on a home and away basis. The next regatta was scheduled for November and held at  Lake Catherine in Palm Beach Gardens.

PBGMYS decided to provide a trophy which would be held by the winning club until the following regatta. In as much as the occasion called for something "out of the ordinary" in the way of a trophy, much diligent searching,an old (really old), slightly beat up brass spitoon. It was about a foot tall and had originally been a promotional piece for the Indian Chief Chewing Tobacco Co.. Thus the name HAV-A-CHAW CUP !About a ton of elbow grease was expended polishing the cup and it was mounted on an 8" square polished Mahogany base with an appropriate brass plaque on the face with small plates on the side to be engraved with the name of the winning clubs and dates in the future.

The Cup was first awarded in the Fall of 2001 and was won by the PBGMYS. The racing was extremely close and the margin of victory was only 3/4 of a point or just one first place finish! PBGMYS  held the cup again in the Spring of '02 and the Fall of '02  SLRMBC finally took the cup in theSpring of '03 and had held it until Fall of '06 , when PBGMYS took it back. The next defense of the cup will be held in October at PSL.

The scoring for the cup is arrived at by taking the top five scores for each club  and totaling their scores . The top five individuals receive trophy's. that are awarded by the host club. The HAV-A-CHAW CUP regattas are competed for by about 30 boats from the two combined clubs and competition is hard fought but fun!

                                                               submitted by JERRY GOULD, Founding Past Commodore

* The HAV-A-CHAW CUP  is now contested in SOLING 1 METERS!!

PBGMYS  BY LAWS

On February 1st, 2005 the membership discussed, voted on and approved a set of by-laws by which the squadron will operate. All members are expected to abide these by-laws and the club in turn will comply with them. The by-laws are available as a download for your viewing and copying in a MS Word document by clicking on the link below.