Harry Truman was in the White House.  World War II had been over less than two years.  Secretary of State George C. Marshall (the Marshall Plan) was TIME Magazine’s “Man of the Year”.  Less than five years prior, in 1942, German U-boats torpedoed seven Allied ships off the southeast Florida coast.  Hurricanes in the Fall caused extensive flooding throughout the county.  The population of Fort Lauderdale was beginning to swell (to about 25,000) with returning service men who remembered the area from training base days.  The dredging and back filling of mangrove swamps was creating an area of Fort Lauderdale known as Coral Ridge.

The year is 1947 and Coral Ridge Yacht Club starts from rather humble beginnings on the site of what formerly had been known as Mud Lake Island.  While at times the Club has weathered some fairly bad (internal) storms and the sailing has not always been smooth, we have survived and prospered.  Jumping to the present day, CRYC celebrated its 55^th Anniversary in October 2002.  

The Island was cleared of mangrove, a causeway was built for access, and 11^th Place was renamed Yacht Club Boulevard.  Mud Lake was renamed to Coral Bay on the south and Sunrise Bay on the north.  Original memberships, under the direction of Hal Wolfe were sold for $500.  When he sold #150 ground was broken for the first clubhouse.  It took only four years for the membership to reach 450.  At the time of this writing, there is only one family member left of the original “charter members” that is still holds a membership in CRYC. 

During the ten years between 1949 and 1959 the world was changing - Churchill, Ike, Queen Elizabeth II, Khrushchev, and De Gaulle dominated the headlines.  America was winding down in Korea and entering the Cold War.  In Broward County during this decade, Galt Ocean Mile was acquired by the same group that sold CRYC its parcel of land, Florida’s Turnpike was completed through the County, several nearby towns were incorporated including: Sea Ranch Lakes and Lighthouse Point.  And here in Fort Lauderdale, Coral Ridge Yacht Club opened its first clubhouse in 1949.  Built at a cost of $36,400 for the facility and $11,000 for docks.  In the mid 50's the original 3.3 acre parcel was expanded through the purchase of two adjacent lots but the membership had declined by a third.  In a bold move that was designed to retain current members and attract new ones, a plan was formulated to raise nearly a half million dollars to build an entirely new facility.  Plans were undertaken to demolish and build the new clubhouse.  During the six month construction period , the Club’s activities were transferred to the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel.  New Years Eve 1959 saw the formal opening of our present main facilities.

The sixties, a turbulent time in the USA, marred by the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King, also witnessed the beginning of the space program, the war in Vietnam, and of course the slogan was “make love not war.”  All of these events grabbed national and international attention.  Closer to home in Broward County, the Federal Highway tunnel under the New River opened, as did Broward Community College.  Several communities incorporated including Davie, whose charter had lapsed nearly 35 years earlier.

At Coral Ridge Yacht Club the decade of the 1960's were marked by a series of improvements and changes to the main building, outbuildings and surrounding facilities.  These included: installation of an elevator, redesign of the dining room including enclosing the screened porches, the swimming pool was rebuilt, the opening of the original Point Bar was celebrated, the docks were rebuilt (north side), and on the south water and electric lines were added - the list goes on and on.

The 70's saw Nixon resign, a chilling name Ayatullah Khomeini would come into play, Kissinger went to China, Jimmy Carter surprised many by his election, China opened to diplomatic and trade exchanges.  I-95 was completed through Broward County, which received its charter during this decade.  Because of a nationwide recession, which certainly was felt locally, it was estimated that at one point, 50,000 condos were for sale in Broward County.  CRYC celebrated its Silver Anniversary with one of the highlights being a 16 vessel cruise through Lake Okeechobee to St Petersburg.  The facilities upgrading program continued with 200' of new docks installed, the second tennis court built.  In a nod to the changing demographics of the Club, two of the three pools were filled in and replaced by a putting green, and the teen center became the Board room.  The Club had 850 members with another 80 on the waiting list!