Diego Garica BIOT Yacht Club and Marina, Page 2

Where the Elite Meet!
The Diego Garcia Yacht Club
Page 2
(go to page 1)

(I want to thank the PPDRDG partisans on the island for their assistance in putting this page together.
In particular, Mango Razon, Mike Mashing, Mark Chandler, Gloria Barry, and Russ Smothers.)

Thanks to Russ Smothers - Regatta Commodore and Vice-Commodore of the Yacht Club, Lord of the Lagoon, and especially to the Official DGYC Photographer: Gloria J. Barry- aka PPDRDG Minister of Visual Propaganda.

"Here's a pic of my first sailboat race. I'm the one driving. That first race I only had one in the crew. We did that race non-spinnaker and won!"

"Any boat I sail I name Scumbucket. Nice ring, don't you agree? This is Scumbucket under spinnaker approaching the finish line."

"This is Scumbucket during the spinnaker takedown after the finish. I'm driving, Rick 'the only man on DG with a blackbelt in foredeck' Evans is standing on the side of the boat, Tony 'the jib' Jacquette is in the companion way pulling in the spinnaker, and Cathy 'Queen of the Bilge' Konn is just in front of me helping with lines and the takedown."

Not enough can be said for the TCNs who keep DG up and running. Fortunately, the DGYC has folks who really love their work, and the Club. They've turned it into one of (if not the) best places for R&R on the island. Here are some of these men:

Of course, amongst the transients, there are also those who spend their precious time to make the DGYC the best there is. Here's Fiona, the 2003 secretary:

Once upon a time there were two Chiefs (one a SWC with MCB-10 and the other a Brit) in the Seabee Battalion's Chief's Club in late 1974 or early 1975 and got into a conversation about the lack of good recreation for the troops. At the time no women were allowed on the island, the station library had every Luke Short and Louis L'Amour western novel in print and what was probably the largest porn video tape collection in the world (you can't make up stuff like that). Other than that there was a steady cheap supply of beer and other recreational spirits but absolutely nothing else. I was the Seabee Chief and although I have forgotten the Brit Chief's name and rate he is actually the founder, hero and who this sea story is really about. He had an idea and shared it with me and allowed me to help him because he was apprehensive about acquiring things around the Americans and I had no such problems.

He informed me that the Brit Party had two 21' Rhodes day sailers and there were several sail rigged dugouts at the plantation. He told me that he had cleared it with the Brit Rep and he could have those dugouts plus the two Rhodes to start a Yacht Club. All he needed was a little help. The following Sunday he and I sailed one of the Rhodes to the Plantation and sailed back towing the best 3 of the 7 boats that were there back near to where the concrete silo was (on the lagoon side straight across and through the woods from the bowling alley if my memory serves me and if it's still there), drug them ashore and staked them out so they wouldn't drift away if we got a severe high tide. Most tiring sailing I have ever done. The Brit Chief was an outstanding sailor and I was a fair hand. Anyway over the next few weeks he, I and a few of my troops and a few of his worked who with us to try to turn those few boats into a yacht club. I learned a few days later that Surface Ops had a Sun Fish and four Lasers that were a little larger, a little faster and a lot trickier to sail (more fun though). All those boats were under the Surface Ops building and the sails, rigging and other paraphernalia was in a Conex box next to the building. When I asked the Surface Ops Officer what he was going to do with them he asked me why I wanted to know. I told him about the "Yacht Club" and he was immediately drafted himself and donated those boats and all assorted gear we might need to the cause. Turns out he was a ring knocker and sailed on the Academy sailing team.

I gradually eased my way out of the actual work after that because my project had started working 6 hours on Sunday and pretty much stayed that way till the end of my deployment. The Brit kept on with the task and several other draftees interested in sailing and or starting a real yacht club. The site was moved to where it is now about July or August 1975. I did assist again when they moved by appropriating an ammi pontoon and a brow from the shore to the pontoon (again from Surface Ops) and got some concrete clumps for anchors for the pontoon a little while after that. I left the Island in Early September 1975.

I received my Yacht club membership card in 1979 when I came back down for a 1 year tour in Public Works. I also did 4 months on another deployment with MCB 62 in late 1981. Total D.G. Time 2 years

That sir is the true beginning of the Diego Garcia Yacht Club, believe it or not.

If you have any questions or if I can shed a light on any of the other earlier happenings, such as the 2 snow cats and the enormous snow blowers that rotted away and were finally put to rest in 1979 or about the day that it was discovered in 1979 we were within four days of running out of beer when there were close to 10,000 people on the Island at that time, let me know. I'll also let you know that the story about the Russian Submarine pens around Diego Garcia was started around the very same time and in the very same Chiefs's Club as the above conversation as a joke that caught on.