Wrightsville Yacht Club is the parent company of Wrightsville Beach Marina. The 6,000-square foot, state-of-the-art facility, to be built is designed to seat 150. Once complete, this floating restaurant, bar and terrace is expected to put Wrightsville Beach on the map like never before.
“We are a major stopping point as the fleets move from the southern locations up to New England,” says Sam Clary, Wrightsville Beach Marina and Yacht Club manager. “They’re staying in larger and larger amounts of time as our area has grown. These types of amenities are common in the more metropolitan areas, so we wanted to follow suit.”
The vision was Clary’s, who started working at the marina as a dockhand in 1987 while attending the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
“We wanted to do something that has a real wow factor and be completely unique and an opportunity to give someone an experience they will never forget,” Clary says.
A portion of the restaurant will be open to the public while other sections will be exclusive to Yacht Club members.
Longtime Wrightsville Yacht Club board member and vice commodore David Allen says there’s definitely a buzz in the air.
“Typically, at our annual meetings no members show up, but this past meeting we had at least a dozen here all asking questions about the restaurant and club. They’re excited to see this moving forward,” Allen says. “We want to make this something for the community and something that draws people in from all over the world, certainly from all over the state.”