The History 
On Saturday, 5 January 1884, at the annual meeting of the Toronto Yacht Club, the formation of a yacht racing association of clubs around Lake Ontario was discussed. After much correspondence, on Saturday, 29 March 1884, delegates from the Toronto YC, the Royal Canadian YC, the Oswego YC, and the Bay ofQuinte YC met at the Queens Hotel in Toronto, voting their clubs to become the charter members of the Lake Yacht Racing Association.
It is believed that LYRA is the oldest association of yacht clubs on the continent; no other similar body is known to exist in North America in 1884. The original constitution stated "The object of the Association shall be to encourage yacht building and yacht racing, and to establish and enforce uniform rules for the government of all races in which the yachts of two or more clubs compete."
A prominent local businessman and banker, John T. Mott, established the Oswego Yacht Club (OYC) in 1881. The first clubhouse was erected on the shores of Lake Ontario in 1883. Eventually more space was needed and OYC built a new clubhouse in 1919, the facility now known as the McCrobie Building in Oswego. During the early years of the depression, the Club disbanded and remained dormant for nearly fifty years. In 1980 a group of local boaters re-activated the Club and soon thereafter celebrated its Centennial anniversary. During the early eighties, the club leased space from the Oswego Marina, and, in 1988, it returned to its original home, leasing space from the City of Oswego, the current owner of the McCrobie Building. In 2005, OYC moved to its present location at 19 Lake St, at the Oswego International Marina. It is one of the oldest yacht clubs on Lake Ontario, and celebrated its 125th anniversary the summer of 2006. One of the founding clubs in the Lake Yacht Racing Association, Oswego was the host of many yachting events in its early years.
