Oakmont Yacht Club holds 121st annual regatta

They held their first regatta in 1902, before the Oakmont Yacht Club became official. But the folks apparently had such a good time, they decided to form a club.

In 1903, the Oakmont Yacht Club was born, and a regatta has been held every year since.

While it’s mainly held for the Oakmont community, Regatta chairman Dom Conte said it’s free and open to anyone who wants to attend.

“It’s a fundraiser. We generate money for the Oakmont Yacht Club to help us keep going,” Conte said. “We have a lot of things we have to replace and buy, like docks and things like that.”

The pizza, sandwich and drink vendors donate money to the regatta based upon how much they make selling food. There also is an auction, a rubber duck race and live music headlined by the band Super Moon.

Though the club usually is open only to members, Commodore Taylor Kennedy said an exception is made on the day of the regatta.

“This is the one time of year that we open up to the public and do our big event,” Kennedy said. “We have food trucks, we do kids things down in the parking lot and a fishing tournament for the kids.”

While the term regatta usually refers to a boat race, and races used to be held as part of this event, that is no longer the case.

“Years and years ago, they used to have boat races for the regatta,” Conte said. “But that’s long since ended — too many rules and regulations now. You can’t really do it.”

But on Saturday, the party carried on — on land.