About Us

The Dolphin Cruising Club of Tampa Bay is a group of sailing enthusiasts whose purpose is to share and promote the enjoyment of cruising while focusing on responsible, informed, and safe sailboat handling.

We are a small group of local sailors and are very informal and loosely organized. Our goal is to use our boats in and around the Tampa Bay area. During the sailing season, September through the beginning of July we try and sponsor a couple of local cruises a month. Most of our members own sailboats in the 30 foot and up range. To join one must be sponsored by an active member and currently own a sailboat. There are several trawlers that have been "grandfathered" in (former Dolphin Members who were sail boat owners but have sold their sailboat and traded down to a trawler).

Our cruises are generally weekend affairs, often with some sort of event included. This can range from just sundowners on one boat, to a clam bake on shore, to potluck dinners. We anchor out as well as head to facilities for docking. We also try and arrange an informational seminar every month. These have included a tour and talk by the Eckerd Seach and Rescue organization, a talk by a Tampa Bay Pilot, an anchoring lecture and a tour of the USCG base in St. Petersburg.

We have no clubhouse, few if any rules and only two regularly scheduled meetings (aka party) a year. An annual meeting held in late August or early September and a Christmas pot luck dinner. Annual dues help offset the costs of printing, cruise sponsorships and party supplies.

HISTORY

Dolphin Cruising Club of Tampa Bay

Established March, 1989

Two couples, neighbors and friends, got together on their sailboats during the Easter holiday in 1989, and thought of letting other sailors in their St. Petersburg neighborhood know when they were planning an informal cruise, in case they wanted to join us. That was the beginnings of the “club.”

The couples started with distributing announcements for a cruise to the Tierra Verde Yacht Club to each house in Tanglewood and Venetian Isles that had a sailboat parked behind it. Six boats from the two neighborhoods sailed to Tierra Verde Yacht Club for the very first event, held May 13 & 14, 1989. At that time, we called ourselves The Northeast St. Pete Sailboat Cruising Club.

It wasn’t long, however, before suggestions were submitted for a distinctive and appropriate name. Sunday morning, June 11, 1989, the 15 members present voted for the Dolphin Cruising Club of Tampa Bay.

Since that time the club has grown with many of the original members still active.