A tale of two clubs

Twenty years ago, before its failing finances were rescued by billionaire Larry Ellison and before it won the America's Cup, the Golden Gate Yacht Club was just a forlorn building at the end of a 400-metre jetty. To get there, its members had to pass by the exclusive St Francis Yacht Club, one of the more prestigious in the world.

The Golden Gate and the St Francis shared the best views of the bay - the Golden Gate Bridge to the left, Alcatraz to the right, the city perched on hills behind. But in the cloistered world of yacht clubs, they could not have been more different.

The 200 or so Golden Gate members had a key to the building, which meant that its bar was subject to the honour system, but never to last call.

"So you left Union Street with a beautiful lady," said Bill O'Keeffe, a member since 1972. "And you'd say, 'How'd you like to come down to my yacht club'?"

Dues were US$25 a month. Dancing atop the bar was encouraged. Friday night parties sometimes ended with swims in the marina, though not always in swim attire - or attire of any kind. Members occasionally lobbed water balloons or shot water guns at boats entering or exiting the marina, especially those flying the colours of the St Francis.

"It had prestige," O'Keeffe said of the neighbouring club. "We actually shunned prestige."