The Figure Eight Island Yacht Club brings dining, recreation and recurring events together in one place. Its offerings and calendar help give the island a seasonal rhythm distinct from nearby beach towns.
The island itself has no hotels or shops; dining is available at the Yacht Club. Aside from roughly 475 private homes, the Yacht Club is the only nonresidential building on Figure Eight, a private island reachable only by boat or by the guarded swing bridge that connects it to the mainland, the only private bridge crossing the Intracoastal Waterway in the region. The club's schedule includes activities such as tennis and member events. The island's home count has held near 475 for years, and the club's footprint is the closest thing Figure Eight has to a commercial district.
One Roof, Many Activities
Most coastal towns separate their functions across a handful of addresses: a marina here, a tennis club there, a restaurant somewhere else entirely. Figure Eight collapses all of it into a single building at the foot of the bridge. The Yacht Club's own list of offerings includes a restaurant serving lunch and dinner, a marina and boathouse, four clay tennis courts overlooking the Intracoastal, a pool with a cabana, a summer camp for children, and standing weekly groups for bridge and mah-jongg. Its calendar sets out the club's dining, recreation and member events.
Summer's Script
For a few months each year, that single calendar runs almost entirely for families and visitors. The kids' summer camp fills weekday mornings, the pool cabana stays busy through the afternoon, and the club throws what its own website calls a legendary Fourth of July party, complete with a professional fireworks show. The association's rules make the club's display a distinctive part of the holiday calendar. The island's homeowners association bars fireworks anywhere on Figure Eight at any time, with a single carved-out exception for the club's own Fourth of July display.
Summer also strains the parts of the island that have nothing to do with the clubhouse. The homeowners association's own seasonal notice to residents asks drivers and cyclists to use extra caution on island roads and the bridge during what it calls extremely busy summer conditions, and it reminds anyone driving a low speed vehicle that a current permit decal and a valid driver's license are required just to use the roads. Those reminders reflect the added activity on the island during the summer.
The Club Through Storms and Change
The club's history includes a closure after Hurricane Fran. A WWAY history of Figure Eight Island reports that Hurricane Fran struck the North Carolina coast in 1996, damaged homes across Figure Eight and flooded low-lying areas so badly that pumping out the floodwater took a full week. The Yacht Club itself stayed closed for months afterward. The closure affected several club activities, including dining, tennis, card games, the pool and marina, which are based at the same address. The club has since reopened every one of those functions in the same spot it has occupied since the 1970s, when it first opened as the island's marina club and was renamed the Figure Eight Island Yacht Club a few years later. The building has changed hands and weathered storms, and it continues to serve as a gathering place on the island.
What Changes When the Cards Come Out
By late September, with the school year underway, the same building's calendar has already turned over. The camp that filled weekday mornings all summer has emptied out, and the pool cabana that stayed busy through August sees far less weekday traffic. The tables that hosted young swimmers and their families now host something else, the club's standing bridge and mah-jongg groups, games that have run on the island for years. The four clay courts see a different kind of use as well, filled less by camp lessons and more by adult league play and casual matches once the heaviest heat of summer has broken.
The clearest public marker of that shift is the club's own newsletter. Its website is currently promoting the September and October issue of Shorelines, the publication that lays out the fall version of a calendar that, a few weeks earlier, was still built around swim lessons and Fourth of July fireworks. That fall calendar leads into the club's winter events.
The Same Room Waits for Winter
The club's other marquee event points at the far end of the calendar. While summer brings a fireworks show over the marina, the year closes with what the club calls a legendary New Year's Eve party, held in the same dining room that serves lunch the rest of the year. The club's calendar also includes bridge, mah-jongg and bingo.
Even the physical work of maintaining the island runs on a version of that same shared clock. The homeowners association publishes a full annual construction holiday schedule for the island, spelling out when building and renovation work is allowed to pause and resume. Island records identify David Kellam as the administrator, a role he has held since 2001.
Together, the club's fall calendar and the island's construction schedule help shape the season.
For more on daily life across Figure Eight Island and the rest of Wilmington's coastal neighborhoods, Austin Kenyon is always glad to talk shop about the island, whether or not a move is anywhere on the radar.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
