New Commodore Aims For More Inclusive Yacht Club

Flora Digby is the Commodore of the Southern Shore Yacht Club. PHOTO PROVIDED BY FLORA DIGBY.
Flora Digby is the Commodore of the Southern Shore Yacht Club. PHOTO PROVIDED BY FLORA DIGBY.

New Commodore Aims For More Inclusive Yacht Club

By Tia Carol Jones

Flora Digby fell in love with boats after attending the Boat Show in 1989. She and her husband bought a boat and put their boat in the Jackson Park Outer Harbor. There, they met members of the Southern Shore Yacht Club. More than 30 years later, Digby is the Commodore of the Southern Shore Yacht Club, where she is the second African American woman to hold the post.

The Southern Shore Yacht Club has been around for more than 112 years, receiving its charter in 1913 but having a presence, under a different name since 1910. The yacht club is located at the Jackson Park Inner Harbor. Currently, there are 30 members of the yacht club.

Being part of the Southern Shore Yacht Club has given Digby an opportunity to fellowship with people from different walks of life, with different talents including maintaining the club, help other boaters, teach boating education, assist other boaters if they get stranded. Her husband was an officer with the yacht club, then Digby joined as a secretary of the board.

“We are actually community oriented. So, for me, service and giving back to the community is really an anchor in my life,” she said.

Serving as secretary gave Digby insight on the boaters and what they were doing in the yacht club. She has also served as Treasurer, Rear Commodore and Vice Commodore of the Southern Shore Yacht Club.

The Southern Shore Yacht Club has given back to the community by taking residents of the Lighthouse for the Blind, with boat owners offering their boats as a way to give the residents a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The yacht club has a boat building class where young people can build their own canoe and have a chance to launch the canoe in the harbor.

“It was amazing to see their faces, to know they built these things with their own hands and have a life changing experience, knowing this is something they could do that they may not have ever experienced before,” she said.

The Southern Shore Yacht Club has also partnered with the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, schools and churches in the area. They receive in class training, show them how to tie and untie the boats, show them different types of power boats and take them out on the water. The young people receive tools to be successful as well as the opportunity to learn something new. The yacht club is in the process of scheduling dates to give more young people the opportunity to experience power boating.

Digby wants the young people in the community to see more people who look like them in the power boat community. The hope is that it might spark the interest of young people to get into it. A youth camp is scheduled for July 19th.

The Southern Shore Yacht Club offers education to boaters. The boaters do not have to be members of the yacht club, they just have to be boating enthusiasts. The education includes boating mechanics, life preservers and what happens if someone falls over. The goal is that boaters will not panic if there is a situation where someone goes overboard. A man overboard test is scheduled for July. All boaters are invited to the event.

The yacht club is looking to partner with the neighboring golf course. The goal is to partner their youth programs with the golf courses youth programs. Digby wants the young people in the community to have positive experiences during the summer, which will have an impact on their lives.

Digby is proud to be the second Black woman Commodore with the Southern Shore Yacht Club. Her focus is on inclusion and ensuring everyone is welcome and everyone is equipped, while enjoying the water safely. She is also working on a girls group to give them an opportunity to experience boating.

“I want them to see people who look like them and I want it to be something else they can aspire to. Maybe one day we can have more Black female Commodores, not just at Southern Shore, but across all the yacht clubs,” she said.

For more information about the Southern Shore Yacht Club, visit https://southernshoreyc.com.


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