put in bay yacht club

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club

The Put-In-Bay Yacht Club

Put-In-Bay Yacht Club is located on Bayview Avenue and is a social club to promote the fun and brotherhood of the boating community. Power Boats, Sailboats, and numerous other water-related activities are promoted by the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club.

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club Particulars

The Put-in-Bay Yacht club dates back many years and is actually one of the oldest continually operating yacht clubs on Lake Erie. The first Commodore was none other than the famed founding father Valentine Dollar who followed Jose DeRivera and was instrumental in the development of Put-in-Bay. Throughout the summer months, the Yacht Club will host several social functions including picnics, happy hours, and boating relating events. The Regattas are popular with both teenagers and their parents.

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club History

In the early years, the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club would meet at different homes and boat launches to plan and discuss the regattas. In 1923 a home was purchased from Mr. Day a Put-in-Bay resident and Yacht Club member and that would be renovated and become the headquarters for the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club. The dock was eventually destroyed by high water and brutal Winter ice. After the War, the yacht club had refueled interest and the ladies auxiliary was formed. In the 1950 era, swimming and sail programs were added that still are popular summer activities to this day. Again in 1980, a major renovation took place rendering the Put-in-Bay Yacht club in the format we recognize it today. The popular Friday night happy hours and dinners statted in 2011 and have become a focal point for Put-in-Bay social life.

They regularly host different events throughout the Summer season including picnics, cruise outs, parties, and numerous social functions. The club has an extremely lively and friendly feel. Consider joining the club for just $295.00 a year. You would have access to their well-appointed docks, excellent facilities, and you’ll have the opportunity to make friendships that will last a lifetime.

They also host fundraising events throughout the season. Vision 2020 is their new initiative to make needed changes to the club itself. Members are invited to contribute donations to these improvements such as a new playground, mats for the kitchen and a new fireplace. The IYLA and the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club also sponsor the Sailboat and powerboat regattas that take place every year in August. This including the Power Boating Regatta, Junior Sail Regatta, Deep Water Sailing Race, and the Senior Sailing Races which has been held here for over 100 years

In the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club Neighborhood

THE Put-in-Bay Yacht Club is a short distance from downtown so docking here is extra convenient. Situated right next to The Put-In-Bay Winery , The Boardwalk, and Topsy Turvey , their location is an easy walk to town and most of the Put-in-Bay Restaurants . Also located nearby are the experienced and knowledgeable Put-in-Bay Charter Boats who can make your day fishing a great one!

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Put-In-Bay Yacht Club

Put-in-bay yacht club particulars.

The Put-In-Bay Yacht Club is a private social organization. The yacht Club is found on Bayview Avenue, near the Miller Marina. The Yacht Club facilitates all kinds of boating on the island, from power boats to sailing boats and other water sports.

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club is a brief stroll from all the downtown establishments, which makes docking there very suitable. Located next to Squaw Harbor, the Boardwalk Restaurant Complex , the Put-in-Bay Winery , and Topsey Turvey’s Bar & Grill are all only a quick trek.

They likewise regularly host events, including parties, cookouts, cruise outs, and countless other social events. Use their well-appointed docks and excellent facilities, and make fellowships and relationships to last a lifetime. The whole organization has a pleasant, amiable feeling to it. Contemplate joining the club for only $295/year.

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club History

The Put-in-Bay Yacht Club is one of the most senior on Lake Erie. Starting as the Put-in-Bay Yachting Association in 1886, their primary objective was to encourage the Inter Lake Yachting Association or ILYA. Valentine Doller, an influential Put-in-Bay businessman, was the first Commodore. The ILYA holds regattas for children and adults each summer. 

The society would meet at different boat houses throughout the island until they bought the Bay View Home in 1923 from Jack J. Day. They constructed a brand new clubhouse and boat docks. The pavilion was instantly a favored location for social events. Regrettably, ascending waters and winter ice ultimately overpowered the docks.

After World War II, many cottage lessors began holidaying on Put-in-Bay. Due to an expanded interest in revitalizing the club, a ladies’ auxiliary was formed in 1949 to aid with the resurrection.

Swimming and Junior Sailing classes were added in the 1950s, along with shower and extensive kitchen facilities.

The club continued to thrive throughout the 20th century. In the 1980s, a major renovation took place, giving us the structure we see today.

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The Put-in-Bay Yacht Club Social Calander

A focal point of the social program of the Yacht Club, the Friday Dinners started in 2001. Each Friday from 5 – 8, constituents meet to dine over roast pork, spaghetti dinners, and frequent cookouts. This continues to be a great option to get to know other associates and exchange boating anecdotes.

The Put-in-Bay Yacht Club hosts occasions every day of the week. Cruise Outs, Swimming classes for kids, and Sailing classes occur all week. Sociable events include Martini Nights, Taco Tuesdays, and Blood Mary Sundays at the Bayview Bars. Sporting events such as Football & Baseball, as well as other popular sports, are frequently seen on their giant TV.s in the relaxing lounge on weekends.

The Put-in-Bay Yacht also sponsors fundraising affairs throughout the season. Members are invited to contribute donations to things such as a new playground, mats for the kitchen staff, and refurbishing the fireplace. Vision 2020 is their new initiative to make much-needed and desired modifications to the organization.

The Regattas

The IYLA and Put-in-Bay Yacht Club also sponsor the regattas every year in August. This includes the Junior Sail Regatta, Deep Water Sailing Races, Powerboat week, and the Senior Sailing Races, which have been preserved on Lake Erie for around 100 years

(419) 285-4505

536 bayview ave, put-in-bay, oh 43456.

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Put-in-Bay Yacht Club

The Put-in-Bay Yacht Club is a private social organization that promotes boating on the island.  This includes sailing, power boating and all aquatic sports.  So, this is the group for those who love Lake Erie.

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club History

This yacht club is one of the oldest on Lake Erie.  Originally, the club began as the Put-in-Bay Yachting Association on February 13, 1886.  The first commodore was Valentine Doller.  The main intent of forming the club was to further promote the Inter Lake Yachting Association , or ILYA.  Each summer the ILYA holds regattas for both adults and children.  So, Put-in-Bay businessmen formed the club.  Initially, meetings were at various boat houses.  Then, in 1923 the club gained their first clubhouse.  The former owner of the Bay View House, Jack J. Day, sold the current day property to the association.  Soon, the club built the first club house.  Additionally, social events flourished with the new pavilion.  Also, the club once had a large dock.  However, the rising waters and winter ice destroyed it over time.

Following World War 2 there was a surge of cottage owners.  Consequently, interest in the club grew immensely.  In response, a ladies auxiliary formed in 1949.  Also, sailing and swimming programs became available in the early 1950’s. Then, in 1953 a galley and shower facilities were added.  As time progressed through the 1960’s and 1970’s, the club house was expanded and improved.  Improvements to facilities continued through the 1980’s with a major renovation.  Then, in 2001 the Friday dinners began.  This has been pivotal in building the club and the social aspects.

Become a Member of the PIBYC

Joining the club is easy.  For just $295, people can join as a Regular member.  This permits the individual to take part in club activities and use their great facilities.  Also, it gives more options when docking a boat at Put-in-Bay .  So, for a great social scene and awesome people, join the PIBYC today!

Testimonial

Thomas H:  “We had our 2 day company meeting. The ladies at the club cooked excellent breakfast and lunch for us. Great experience.”

Vicki C: “A very fine place, with very clean rest rooms and shower area, you really don’t know what they have unless you tour it. And the people there are so nice, and proud of their club.”

Sue F:  “We had fun and the Member Appreciation Day was very well thought out! Thank you so much! Bartenders were delightful and thank you Barb Chrysler for all your help in the gift shop!”

Kari F: “Put-in-Bay Yacht Club was a fantastic host for our first JBW this week. We were welcomed into their club and treated like members vs visitors. Can’t wait till next year!

Phil V:  “A great club, great bar, fun people in a beautiful setting!”

Call 216-898-9951 to book for 2024! Big summer weekends are already nearing capacity, don't miss the Put-in-Bay event you're eyeing, book now!

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Put-in-Bay Yacht Club

The Put-in-Bay Yacht Club is a wonderful place to form friendships with others that are also committed to the lake living, power boating, and other aquatic sports. Members of this private club on South Bass Island are lake lovers and enjoy the many annual social events, such as:

• Cruise outs
• Parties, and numerous others.

This club is perfect for those that believe boating and friendship go hand in hand! It is also not too far from the Boardwalk Restaurant .

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club Offerings and Initiatives

In addition to the fun activities already listed, the club is also a perfect location for your wedding reception, reunion, luncheon or other private party. If sailing and other water sports are close to your heart, nothing makes more sense than to bring your event to the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club’s clubhouse. Rentals are available to members and non-members alike subject to availability, so reach out to the club’s manager for more information and pricing! If you’re looking for an easy place to dock for the afternoon, transient guest docking is available at the 124-foot pier on the club’s waterfront, open to the public, and by reservation only. The club also offers programs for sailing and swimming classes during the summer - so plan to come out for the day! A major event for the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club is the Junior Regatta that takes place on the island, promoted by the Inter-Lake Yachting Association. This event is integral in keeping the love for sailing alive in our youth! Have you and your friends been looking for a new group activity where you can meet others your age and participate in a common sport? The club’s Junior Membership is specifically for young adults aged 21-28 and you will receive instruction on proper sailing procedure and tools for staying safe on the water. You can also expect to gain friendships that will last a lifetime, as the camaraderie of a sailing team is one of a kind! So, whether it’s booking the clubhouse for your special event, joining the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club as a Junior Member, or participating in one of our many social events, stop in to learn more!

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Put-in-Bay Yacht Club

• Put in Bay Water Sports, Boating

The Put-in-Bay Yacht Club is a private social organization located on Bayview Avenue close to the Miller Marina . They promote all types of boating on the island from sailing, powerboating, and all other aquatic sports.

They regularly host a series of events including picnics, parties, cruise outs, and numerous other social functions. The entire club has a lively, friendly vibe. Join the club for only $295/year. Use their docks, facilities, and be a part of an important Put-in-Bay institution.

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club History

The Put-in-Bay Yacht Club is one of the oldest on Lake Erie. It started as the Put-in-bay Yachting Association in 1886. The main goal was to promote the Inter-Lake Yachting Association or I-LYA. Valentine Doller, that Put-in-Bay luminary, was also the first commodore.

Every summer the I-LYA holds regattas for adults and children. The businessman who ran the association would meet at various boathouses throughout the island until they purchased the Bay View House in 1923 from Jack J. Day. They build a new clubhouse and dock. The pavilion was a popular spot for social functions. Unfortunately, rising waters and winter ice eventually destroyed the dock.

After World War II, an influx of cottage owners descended on Put-in-Bay. Due to an overwhelming interest in reviving the club, a ladies auxiliary also formed in 1949 to assist with revitalization.

Sailing and swimming programs were added in the 1950s along with a galley and shower facilities. The clubhouse continued to flourish, expanded and improving throughout the 20th century. The 1980s saw a major renovation of the club.

A centerpiece of the social life of the Yacht Club, the Friday Dinners, began in 2001. The club continues to grow as well as unveiling a new campaign, Vision 2020. Members are encouraged to give in order to improve upon the already fabulous Yacht Club.

Regular to Put-in-Bay? Consider becoming a member of the Yacht Club!

Testimonials

George P:  “This is our first time docking here. Price is better than the public docks or the keys. The staff is very friendly. The club is nice and the the bathrooms are clean.”

Vikki C:  “A very fine place, with very clean restrooms and shower area, you really don’t know what they have unless you tour it. And the people there are so nice, and proud of their club.”

Kari F:  “Put in Bay Yacht Club was a fantastic host for our first JBW this week. We were welcomed into their club and treated like members vs visitors. Can’t wait till next year!”

• http://www.pibyc.org
• 419-285-4505
• 536 Bayview Ave, Put-in-Bay, OH 43456, USA

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Put-in-Bay Boating

If you are coming to Put-in-Bay Ohio on your own private boat, or even bringing a fishing boat on a trailer, there are several docking selections to choose from: there are Mooring Buoys out in the Bay, Public and Private Docks all over downtown, and there are two Public Boat Ramps available on each end of the island.

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Put-in-Bay Yacht Club

Getting in the water, can you take your own boat to put-in-bay, can i make a reservation at boat docks or marinas, does put-in-bay have fishing charters, what private docks and marinas are in put-in-bay, where can i get fuel for my boat at put-in-bay.

Celebrate Put-in-Bay with us. Throughout the year we take the time to gather as community to celebrate our arts, our entertainment, the holidays; you name it.

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Consider all the choices available for your adventure in Put-in-Bay. Whether you want to get out and play on the water or soak in some history with friends, or maybe both..

Experience our culinary treasures. You’ll find quaint cafes, coffee houses, and our resident chocolatier intertwined with island dining experiences complete with ice cream and lobster bisque.

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Put-in-Bay Boating & Dockage

Put in Bay Ohio offers several choices for marinas with dockage, both public and private. When boating to Put-in-Bay Ohio, many docks are on a first-come first-served basis, so plan to arrive early on busy weekends and holidays. The village of Put-in-Bay maintains three large boat docks in the downtown area. Two are managed by the Put-in-Bay Village and the other known as “B” dock is managed by the DeRivera park trust. Some privately owned boat docks accept advance reservations and weekends tend to fill up early in the week.

While docking at Put-in-Bay’s public marinas, you may be required to “raft off” from up to 2 to 4 vessels. Plan ahead and bring your boat bumpers, and always practice courteous boat rafting. In particular, please try to be polite if coming back late night when others may be asleep already.

While docked at Put-in-Bay, golf carts, bicycles and mopeds may be rented for your transportation needs by the hour, day, or overnight for several days at a time from Island Club Golf Carts , located in the central island area, or at Put-in-Bay Golf Cart Depot on the end of downtown close to the Reel Bar. Or if you just need a quick trip, call a Put-in-Bay Taxi and get there fast.

Public Boat Dockage Information

Village of put-in-bay public docks known as “a and c” docks.

• Midweek daily and overnight rates are $2.00 to $2.25 per running foot.
• Weekend rates are $2.50 to $2.75 per running foot.
• Rafting is mandatory by direction of dock master.
• Jet skis and rubber rafts are an additional $10 charge per day.
• Upon arrival contact dock master on marine channel 9.

DeRivera Park public docks known as “B” dock

• Midweek daily and overnight rates are $0.80 per running foot.
• Weekend rates are $1.95 per running foot.
• Dockage fees are from time of arrival until 11:00 am the following day.

Peach Point Located at the Oak Point State Park

• 1/4 mile west of the Public Docks
• Daily rate from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm is $15.00
• Overnight rate is $20.00
• All vessels must register upon arrival.
• Website: http://parks.ohiodnr.gov/southbassisland

Private Boat Dockage and Marinas

The boardwalk docks at the boardwalk waterfront restaurant.

• Located next to the “A” dock, the westernmost public dock.
• Members are served first, non-members by availability.
• Contact dock master on marine channel 10 when entering the harbor.
• Fuel Service available.
• Daily and overnight rates are $1.40 per running foot.
• No Weekend Reservations
• Phone 419-285-6183
• Website: http://www.the-boardwalk.com

Park Place Boat Club

• Located next to “C” dock the eastern most public dock by the Jet Express.
• Reservations accepted when guaranteed by a member.
• Rafting is at the discretion of the inward boater and the dock master.
• Yearly Membership Fee: $700+tax.
• Phone: 419-285-6183

Miller Marina

• Located .3 miles west of the Boardwalk Docks near the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club. No reservations accepted.
• Daily Rate $2.00 per running foot
• Overnight rate $2.50 per running foot
• Phone 419-285-5902

Put-in-Bay Yacht Club

• Located .2 miles west of the Boardwalk Docks.
• The 124-foot pier is open to the public and is available by reservation only.
• Daily and overnight rates $1.75 per running foot for the general public and for AYC & ILYA members.
• A $20 day rate (four hours maximum) is available space permitting.
• Other facilities on site, such as the launch ramp, are free to PIBYC members and members of I-LYA or AYC affiliated clubs. We charge a $10 ramp fee for non-members.
• Phone 419-285-4505
• Website http://www.pibyc.org

Public Mooring Buoys

• Located in the western side of the Put-in-Bay harbor in front of the Boardwalk Restaurant. Available for watercraft 52 ft. or less.
• Midweek day rate is $25 and overnight rate is $30.00.
• Weekend day rate is $30 and overnight rate is $40.00.
• Red Top buoys are $30-$50 depending on day and time.
• Transportation to and from shore provided by the Boardwalk water taxi service.

Boating Related Links

• Middle Bass Ferry (Sonny-S Ferry) Sonny-S Boat Line Inc. is a water transportation company dedicated to providing safe and reliable passenger ferry service between the village of Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island, Ohio and Middle Bass Island, Ohio.
• http://www.boatingontheweb.com
• https://ohiodnr.gov/wps/portal/gov/odnr/rules-and-regulations/rules-and-regulations-by-division/state-parks-and-watercraft/boating-rules/ohio-operating-laws
• Put-in-Bay Yacht Club The official website of the Put-in-Bay Yacht Club
• I-LYA (Inter-Lake Yachting Association) Information on membership and activities.
• Offshore Powerboat Racing Information on powerboat racing (https://www.offshoreonly.com/).
• Sailinglinks – promoting sailing
• The Racing Rules of Sailing (ISAF)
• Basic Boating Safety Certification Course (NASBLA)
• NOAA Navigation Charts
• United States Sailing Association
• All About Boats.Com
• US Army Corps of Engineers, Detroit
• Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab (GLERL)
• National Data Buoy Center

Area Yachting Clubs

• All Ports Yacht Club
• Alum Creek Sailing Association
• Bay Point Yacht Club
• Bayview Yacht Club
• Buffalo Yacht Club
• Catawba Island Club
• Commodores Cruising Club
• Detroit Regional Yacht-racing Assoc.
• Detroit Yacht Club
• Edgewater Yacht Club
• Erie Yacht Club (http://www.erieyachtclub.org/)
• Ford Yacht Club (http://www.fordyachtclub.com/)
• Grosse Point Sail Club (http://www.gpsc.org/)
• Harbor View Yacht Club
• Jolly Roger Sailing Club
• Lake Shore Sail Club
• Mentor Harbor Yachting Club
• North Cape Yacht Club
• Port Clinton Yacht Club
• Port Huron Yacht Club
• Presque Isle Yacht Club
• River View Yacht Club
• Sandusky Sailing Club
• Swan Boat Club
• Toledo Yacht Club
• West Shore Sail Club
• Western Reserve Yacht Club
• Windsor Yacht Club

Don’t see your club here? Please e-mail us to add yours. We are always happy to update club or marina information and will often only ask that you have a link to our Put-in-Bay resource on your website as well.

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By Rachel Corbett

• Aug. 28, 2024

Jorge Colindres, a freshly cologned and shaven lawyer, handed me a hard hat to take the elevator to the 14th floor of what is now the tallest building on the Honduran island of Roatán — nearly twice what the local building code allows. When construction is complete, Duna Residences will house 82 units overlooking a jungle of palm trees, the Caribbean Sea and several other new buildings that the Honduran government considers illegal.

Listen to this article, read by Frankie Corzo

If Próspera were a normal town, Colindres would be considered its mayor; his title here is “technical secretary.” As we looked out over a clearing in the trees in February, he pointed to the small office complex where he works collecting taxes and managing public finances for the city’s 2,000 or so physical residents and e-residents, many of whom have paid a fee for the option of living in Próspera or remotely incorporating a business there. Nearby is a manufacturing plant that is slated to build modular houses along the coast designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. About a mile in the other direction are some of the city’s businesses: a Bitcoin cafe and education center, a genetics clinic, a scuba shop. A delivery service for food and medical supplies will deploy its drones from this rooftop.

There’s not much else to see yet. But the Delaware-based company that founded this experimental town in 2017 has raised $120 million in investments — including from venture-capital funds backed by the Silicon Valley billionaires Peter Thiel, Sam Altman and Marc Andreessen — to transform the territory, about twice the size of Monaco, into the most developed start-up city in the world. Built in a semiautonomous jurisdiction known as a ZEDE (a Spanish acronym for Zone for Employment and Economic Development), Próspera is a private, for-profit city, with its own government that courts foreign investors through low taxes and light regulation. Businesses can choose a regulatory framework from a menu of 36 countries or customize their own.

A California company offers a Montessori education for approximately 60 students. Security is provided by a private firm of armed guards. An arbitration center staffed by three retired Arizona judges handles dispute resolution. (In order to enter the jurisdiction, I was told I needed to sign an “agreement of coexistence” binding myself to 4,202 pages of rules, violations of which would be subject to the jurisdictional authority of the arbitration center.)

Próspera has become particularly well known for the zone’s experimental medical facilities, which run clinical trials unburdened by F.D.A. standards. The week of my visit, Patri Friedman, grandson of the economist Milton Friedman and the founder of a start-up-cities fund that invested in Próspera, had a chip with his Tesla key implanted into his hand. On a previous trip he brushed his teeth with genetically modified bacteria purported to prevent cavities. Another time he was injected with a protein booster intended to make him “stronger and faster,” as he put it at a conference in Roatán that weekend.

“I can tell you when Próspera became most real for me,” Friedman told the audience. “When I sat down to fill out my informed-consent forms that said, like, ‘This agreement is adjudicated under the laws of the Próspera ZEDE; any disputes are arbitrated by the Próspera Arbitration Center.’ Like, you are under a different set of laws.”

There are more than 5,400 of these special economic zones in the world, ranging on a spectrum from free ports for duty-free trading all the way to the special administrative region of Hong Kong. About 1,000 zones have cropped up in just the past decade, including dozens of start-up cities — sometimes called charter cities — most of them in developing nations like Zambia and the Philippines. Some have actually grown into major urban centers, like Shenzhen, which went from a fishing village to one of China’s largest cities, with a G.D.P. of $482 billion, after it was designated a special economic zone in 1980.

Each zone offers a degree of escape from government oversight and taxation, a prospect that has excited libertarian and anarcho-capitalist thinkers at least since Ayn Rand imagined a free-market utopia called Galt’s Gulch in “Atlas Shrugged.” Today, escalating clashes between the government and Big Tech — like the S.E.C.’s regulatory war on crypto, or the Federal Aviation Administration’s repeated investigations into SpaceX — have spurred some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to seek increasingly splintered-off hubs of sovereignty. And with government dysfunction preventing reforms even in wealthy cities like San Francisco, locked in a decades-long affordable-housing crisis, and New York City, which just lost out on as much as $1 billion when Albany scrapped a 17-years-in-the-making congestion pricing plan that would have funded public transit, it’s not hard to see the appeal of starting from scratch.

In promotional materials, Próspera markets itself to “21st-century pioneers” craving not just laissez-faire policies but also “good times and Caribbean vibes.” Direct flights from Miami and Houston can transport these digital nomads to Roatán in less than three hours. Then, from a chaise longue on the beach, they can register a business with the tap of a button. Although only one residential building has been built so far, a forthcoming eco-condo was during my visit courting buyers seeking “more personal freedom” and less “political drama.” Próspera’s original investment plan projected that by 2030 the city would be home to 38,000 residents, and that foreign direct investment in the country would top $500 million by next year.

But plenty of other people find Próspera’s goal — “building the future of human governance: privately run and for-profit” — unsettling. Critics have described it as a neocolonial state within a state, or an example of corporate monarchy, where yacht-owning C.E.O.s exploit land and labor in a poor country. Keller Easterling, the urbanist and architectural theorist, considers Próspera a city in name only, akin to “say, Mattress City.” Really, she says, the zones are low-tax, deregulated marketplaces.

As we peered over the edge of the tower’s rooftop, I considered the story of a subcontractor who was working at the apartment tower at night two months earlier. The power had gone out, and he walked to the edge of the floor to yell down to his crew to turn on a generator, but took a step too far and fell to his death. If companies choose their own regulatory frameworks, as they do in Próspera, who holds them accountable if they endanger or harm one of their employees?

“Próspera ZEDE has its own set of labor systems,” Colindres said when I asked him about it later. He told me the worker’s family was compensated appropriately — receiving at least as much as was required under Honduran law — but he declined to disclose details. If an independent investigation took place, its findings have not been released to the public. After all, the point of a place like Próspera is that there isn’t really a “public” to speak of.

This lack of transparency is one common criticism of Próspera, and today, it’s unclear whether this experiment can continue. In recent years, vehement opposition from the Honduran government and neighboring communities has imperiled Próspera’s future. Now its fate — and that of the private-cities movement writ large — hangs in the balance of a high-stakes case before an international tribunal.

There are about three dozen charter cities currently operating in the world, according to an estimate from the Adrianople Group, an advisory firm that concentrates on special economic zones. Several others are under development, including the East Solano Plan, run by a real estate corporation that has spent the last seven years buying up $900 million of ranch land in the Bay Area to build a privatized alternative to San Francisco; Praxis, a forthcoming “cryptostate” on the Mediterranean; and the Free Republic of Liberland , a three-square-mile stretch of unclaimed floodplain between Serbia and Croatia. Many of the same ideologically aligned names — Balaji Srinivasan, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Friedman — recur as financial backers; Patrik Schumacher, principal of Zaha Hadid Architects and a critic of public housing, is behind several of their urban (or metaversal) designs.

Srinivasan, the former Coinbase chief technology officer and now an adviser to Pronomos Capital, Friedman’s fund to build start-up cities, argued in his 2022 book “The Network State” that these new business-friendly hubs would soon compete with nation-states and, one day, replace them. “The Network State” was inspired, he said, by the state of Israel. “That country was started by a book,” he tweeted in 2022, referring to Theodor Herzl’s 1896 manifesto, “The Jewish State.” “You can found a tribe,” Srinivasan said on a podcast. “What I’m really calling for is something like tech Zionism — when a community forms online and then gathers in physical space to form a ‘reverse diaspora.’”

The concept might have stayed on the fringes of libertarian and neoreactionary forums had Paul Romer, who would go on to be the chief economist of the World Bank and win the Nobel Prize, not made charter cities the subject of an influential 2009 TED Talk. He projected a photo of students in an African country doing their homework under streetlights, explaining that their government required the electric company to provide power at such low prices that the company decided not to service the homes in their area at all. When the president tried to reform the system, he went on, consumers and business leaders pushed back, and ultimately, nothing changed. Romer argued that charter cities would give developing countries a chance to prosper by ceding uninhabited territory to wealthier nations to develop.

This ruling country would act as a “guarantor” to the host country and write its own laws and regulations, which would attract private companies to invest and build the cities. In turn, jobs, technology and educational opportunities would pour into the host country, which would share in the revenue, too. Locals would stop leaving for richer countries, migrants would come to the zone, a virtuous cycle would take hold and students wouldn’t need to do their homework in the streets. “The city can be built,” Romer said in his talk. “And we can scale this model. We can go do it over and over again.”

Around the same time that Romer was delivering his TED Talk, Honduran soldiers stormed the home of the country’s left-wing president, Manuel Zelaya. They led him outside at gunpoint, still in his pajamas, and put him on a plane to Costa Rica. Zelaya had been planning to hold a public referendum on reforming the Constitution, which his critics saw as an attempt to illegally extend term limits. Shortly after the coup, the military held another election; it put into office the conservative candidate Porfirio Lobo, who lost the previous contest to Zelaya. Several nations, including the United States, questioned the legitimacy of an election staged by leaders of the coup.

President Lobo’s chief of staff, the Harvard-educated lawyer Octavio Sánchez, saw Romer’s TED Talk and thought it was just what Honduras needed to achieve economic prosperity. Sánchez arranged a meeting in Miami among Romer, Lobo and the president of Congress, Juan Orlando Hernández. Lobo told Romer that to do something as significant as he proposed — to create a zone that would replace Honduran laws with those of a wealthier nation — they’d need to amend the Constitution.

Romer visited Tegucigalpa soon after. Honduras, a country where over half the population lived in poverty and 75,000 people left each year for better opportunities in the United States, was an ideal testing ground for his vision. When Romer returned home, he recorded a follow-up TED Talk titled “The World’s First Charter City?”

A tumultuous three years followed: Romer and the oversight board he helped set up were sidelined, and the Honduran Supreme Court initially rejected the constitutional amendment. But Congress, led by Hernández, dismissed the four opposing judges in what some critics called a “technical coup.” (Hernández, who succeeded Lobo as president of Honduras, continued to have a career marred by corruption and was recently sentenced to 45 years in a United States federal prison for drug trafficking.) In 2013, Honduras amended its constitution to allow for the creation of autonomous zones, following China and the United Arab Emirates.

I met Colindres outside his office on a “Wellness Wednesday.” Catering staff had set out fruit and granola bars on the counter of an open-air cafeteria at the city’s headquarters, a small complex of three interconnected buildings on a manicured tropical lawn. A guard in black combat fatigues with a double-barreled rifle paced near a porch swing. Colindres, who is 31, peeled an orange as he began to tell me about his family’s history in Honduras. One of his grandfathers fought in the Honduran armed forces against communism during the Cold War. Later, his uncle, the president of the chamber of commerce, was taken hostage by Communist guerrillas. Colindres’s hero is the family’s capitalist success story: his great-grandfather Constantino Marinakys, who immigrated from Greece after World War I and built a fortune, in part by opening grocery stores during the country’s banana boom in the early 20th century.

In the late 1800s, Honduras owed immense debt to Britain, and began offering land and financial incentives to attract foreign investment. Eventually, U.S. banana companies, like Cuyamel and United Fruit (now Chiquita), built railroads, port infrastructure and other projects in exchange for land. By the beginning of World War I, O. Henry had named the country the original “banana republic.” The six largest banana companies owned more than a million acres of fertile land on Honduras’s northern coast, and in 1911, one orchestrated a coup to install a puppet government.

Where many see a story about exploitation, Colindres describes one of private-sector productivity. As workers migrated to the coasts to work, the plantations grew into small cities with their own housing, schools, hospitals and stores. “Back then there was very poor infrastructure, and so when the banana companies came everything had to be done,” Colindres said. “No roads, no electricity — all of what we consider public infrastructure in Honduras, it was put in by the private sector.”

Colindres’s political views started hardening as a teenager living through the coup of 2009. He went to law school and came to the conclusion that he’d have to leave Honduras for the United States if he wanted to have a fulfilling career. But then came news that the ZEDE constitutional amendment had passed. Honduran law preserved national authority over a few fields, like criminal law, but granted the zones broad freedom to establish their own courts, fiscal policies and labor and environmental protections.

In 2014, as required by the amendment, Juan Orlando Hernández appointed a group to oversee the ZEDEs. Early members included a granddaughter of the final Austrian emperor and a band of Republicans from the U.S. that included the former Reagan speechwriter Mark Klugmann, the anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, the former Reagan aide Faith Whittlesey, the libertarian economist Mark Skousen and Ronald Reagan’s son Michael Reagan. A couple of years later, Honduran lawmakers heard about an Arizona entrepreneur named Erick Brimen who was lobbying Washington to make creative use of the U.S. Constitution’s Compact Clause to pass a bill establishing low-regulation “prosperity zones.” Brimen was having a hard time implementing his vision in the States, so took the Hondurans up on their offer to develop a zone like the one Romer imagined, but run by a private company rather than by another nation.

Brimen, who grew up in a wealthy family in Venezuela until he moved to the United States at 12, met Gabriel Delgado, a Guatemalan entrepreneur who had already identified a couple of plots of land in Roatán as potential sites. In 2017, they decided to work together, with Brimen acting as chief executive and Delgado heading up fund-raising and real estate development. They secured early investments from Friedman’s Pronomos Capital and an unnamed investor “behind” SpaceX. But their success in establishing the first ZEDE, they said, is due in part to keeping their ideological beliefs quiet. “Instead of saying we are trying to create a libertopia,” Brimen told the libertarian magazine Reason in 2021, “we shifted the conversation away from advancing a political ideology toward, yes, liberty, but as a tool to development.” After a brainstorming session, Brimen came up with a name that might accomplish that: Honduras Próspera, Inc.

When Colindres heard the news that the project had broken ground, he reached out to Brimen, who expressed interest in his 2019 paper “Make Honduras Great: Charter Cities as a Development Program.”

“He said, ‘I also want to make Honduras great,’” Colindres recalled. He promised Brimen his support. “Let me bring all my contacts and all my clients and everybody to join,” he told him. “And then that’s what I did.”

Próspera has now incorporated 222 businesses into the ZEDE, including an outsource staffing agency and scores of experimental medical centers. Minicircle, founded by two young biohackers, offers a product that they say might cure Alzheimer’s and suppress all tumors; Symbiont Labs manufactures implants that turn people into “self-sovereign cyborgs”; the Bay Islands Fitness and Transformation Center offers affordable semaglutide injections; and the Global Alliance for Regenerative Medicine provides stem-cell treatments. (A man sitting next to me on my flight from Roatán showed me severe burns on his arms that he’d come to treat at the clinic.) While I was visiting, a “pop-up city” called Vitalia used a dome it had erected on Próspera’s grounds to host events for biotech innovators who want to “make death optional.”

Much of the activity at Próspera takes place not in the area where the Duna tower stands and Colindres works but a 15-minute drive away at Pristine Bay, a green, gated golf community and beach club. Starting in 2021, Próspera began incorporating parts of the resort into the zone. Down by the tennis courts, I saw Vitalia’s white-tented dome, though organizers did not allow me to attend any of its events. Reason wouldn’t grant me access to a conference it was hosting at the hotel either. So I hung out by the pool, and down the street at AmityAge Academy, an old restaurant that a Slovakian math tutor had turned into a Bitcoin education center and cafe.

That’s where I met Zussel Ramos, at the time AmityAge’s 25-year-old lead educator, next to a bookshelf stocked with Ludwig von Mises’s “Bureaucracy,” Ayn Rand’s “Capitalism” and Jordan Peterson’s “12 Rules for Life .” I bought a coffee — the barista let me pay with “fiat” paper money on a one-time basis — and then Ramos took me on a tour. On the walls downstairs hung a Bitcoin mining machine, a portrait of Guy Fawkes astride a bucking green stallion and a map of Roatán with colored squares of paper marking the dozens of businesses that now accept Bitcoin, largely thanks to Ramos’s door-to-door persistence.

Ramos told me she couldn’t wait to move to Próspera — probably to the Duna tower. Then she’d apply for physical residency, giving her the right to vote for ZEDE leadership — one vote for every square meter of land she owned, under the current rules. For now, very few people actually live full time in the ZEDE, which is a checkerboard of territory across both the island and the mainland. It started out with 58 acres in Roatán, but since a ZEDE’s territory doesn’t need to be contiguous, it has added 385 acres in La Ceiba on the mainland, followed by another 239 acres of Roatán’s Port Royal and then 322 acres of Pristine Bay.

Just how much land the Próspera ZEDE plans to absorb is the source of much of the conflict that now vexes the project. Early promotional images sparked outrage for depicting the north coast of the island dotted with skyscrapers, futuristic houses and yacht-filled ports, rather than the wooden shacks and jungle that exist there now. One image that forecast the growth of Próspera from a village to a town to a city made it look as if the project had “started engulfing the areas around it,” says Ricardo González, a legal consultant for Honduras Próspera Inc. “It was taken literally” by the people who lived in those areas, he says, but it shouldn’t have been. “Everything is voluntary, we cannot just pick up your land and say now it’s part of us.”

But it is also true that the ZEDE law allows the Honduran government to compel landowners to sell to a zone, so long as they are paid fair market value for the property. Brimen insists that Próspera would never take advantage of that provision, because it violates the sanctity of private-property rights, and that the company has self-imposed “the highest possible limitations on this in its charter.” Nevertheless, the provision’s existence set in motion a spectacular series of events as Próspera began incorporating land.

The Duna tower stands next to a fork in the road, with one path leading to the Próspera gate, manned by guards carrying guns and contracts, and the other winding down a dirt path to a small fishing village called Crawfish Rock. Roatán, thanks to its thriving tourism industry, generates more money than many parts of Honduras, but Crawfish Rock — home to a Black, English-speaking community (Roatán is a former British colony) — is an exception. Turquoise and peach houses sag and lean on stilts, their roofs patchworks of corrugated-metal scraps.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, vice president of Crawfish Rock’s patronato , or community board, it was 2019 when the first Próspera representatives came to the community, informing them of plans to develop a nearby resort. “It’s quite normal for us to have this kind of restricted, gated community popping up,” Cárdenas said. The island is full of them. They also wanted to do community development, they told her, and offered small-business loans to Crawfish Rock residents. But then odd things started to happen, Cárdenas said.

Próspera stationed armed guards on the road. Then Brimen tried to form a new patronato that Cárdenas said was stacked with Próspera employees. (A Próspera representative disputed this.) In 2020, Cárdenas received a voice message from someone in the community that said, “This project is not a normal project.” So she and Luisa Connor, the president of the patronato, began to research Próspera. They learned about the ZEDE law and about the involuntary sale of land. “By no means did they explain to us” what a ZEDE was, Connor says. “They came as a normal resort they were going to build next to the community.” (A Próspera representative disputed this, saying the company held multiple town halls describing the project to residents.)

Distrust spread among members of the community, who felt they had been lied to about Próspera’s intentions. In September 2020, Brimen tried to address the conflict by organizing a meeting in Crawfish Rock. Connor wrote a letter asking him to postpone it, because Covid was spreading rapidly on the island and the hospitals there were full. Brimen, who says he was invited by village elders, held the meeting that evening anyway, accompanied by guards. He stood on a second-story porch reading into a microphone the parts of the ZEDE law pertaining to land expropriation. “That’s when all hell broke loose,” Cárdenas said. People rushed up the steps, some shouting that he should leave, others to let him speak; shoves were exchanged, and Brimen’s MacBook tumbled off the railing. He yelled at people to back up and stop violating his right to social distance. Trucks of police officers arrived.

Brimen later said that, before he was interrupted, he was trying to point out the ways the law restricts, rather than promotes, the forced sale of land. But a video of the encounter circulated throughout Honduran media, and the fear of expropriation became a galvanizing message used by anti-ZEDE groups on the mainland and the other Bay Islands. From that point on, the narrative changed from “ZEDEs are bad because they are violating constitutional rights,” González says, to the more forceful “ZEDEs are bad because they’re going to take your land.”

A national protest movement was born, and prominent politicians turned against the project. In 2021, Xiomara Castro, the wife of the ousted President Zelaya, made repealing the ZEDEs a central promise of her election campaign. The zones became associated with the corruption of Juan Orlando Hernández, the president at the time, whom many Hondurans now revile. Castro won with a clear majority. In 2022, Honduras’s Congress unanimously repealed the law and passed a constitutional reform that would abolish the three existing ZEDEs. “Never again will we carry the stereotype of the banana republic,” Castro declared to the U.N. General Assembly a few months later.

There was one problem, however: Congress, mired in competing legislative priorities, failed to ratify the reform. Furthermore, the original ZEDE law guaranteed the companies 50 years of legal stability — no matter what changes were made after a zone was founded. The net result is that Próspera is in a state of legal limbo.

Delgado seemed bewildered by the staunch opposition to Próspera. How had his dream to enrich Central America become a political piñata? “We’re not crooks,” he told me. “We’re just guys trying to get something good done.” He said he was inspired to help found Próspera after reading Machiavelli’s writings on the impossibility of reforming a system from within. “The idea is that if you go to a place where nothing, nobody has a stake, there’s no entrenched interests, you can make really deep reforms that won’t affect any of the players,” he said. Years of dysfunction and corruption would be replaced by radically simple governance. A free market and political stability would attract top innovators and investors from the West while empowering Latin America’s legions of microentrepreneurs — the guys on the side of the road selling oranges or “a chicken leg in a bag,” Delgado said — to grow real businesses.

Crawfish Rock, home to a Black, English-speaking community. Conflict with Próspera over the ZEDE law sparked a nationwide protest movement.

But in seeking to sidestep politics, Próspera instead ran straight into them. The endemic corruption in Honduras, the sort of thing Próspera was supposed to combat, was also what enabled its creation and has plagued its pursuit of legitimacy. For Hondurans, the prospect of American capitalists promising prosperity may instead resurrect fears of exploitation and dispossession. Despite Próspera’s fantasy of exit, it uses roads, hospitals and ports built by the municipal government, and it shares an economy and ecosystem with its neighbors in Crawfish Rock. The national government that granted its right to exist, meanwhile, may still take it away.

In 2022, the government began stripping Próspera of some of the special privileges it was granted under its predecessors. It halted the company’s tax-exempt customs service, allowing the zone to continue to import goods only if it paid the same duties as the rest of Honduras. Colindres said that the National Banking and Insurance Commission also pressured Honduran banks to shut down accounts of Próspera businesses and bar lenders from financing its projects. Duna Residences, for example, “was going to be financed by one of the biggest banks of Honduras,” Colindres said. But once President Castro came to power, the financing evaporated and the building was delayed. “The third tower would already be under construction if they hadn’t done that.”

At the end of 2022, Honduras Próspera Inc. and its affiliates filed an astronomical $10.775 billion lawsuit against the state in a World Bank tribunal called the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Próspera is thought to have a good chance of prevailing in part, critics say, because the court is biased toward corporations, which can bring suit against nation-states but cannot be sued by them.

A win for Próspera could demonstrate sufficient legal stability to attract investors and set the precedent for new cities around the world. If it loses, start-up city founders will need to look for new legal strategies. Colindres said that his mission now is to try to persuade the government, “whether this government or the next government,” to stop “harassing” the banks and let them finance Próspera projects. That could be the government of Juan Orlando Hernández’s wife, Ana García de Hernández, who would soon announce her candidacy for the 2025 presidential election.

With building delayed, the view from the Duna tower’s rooftop looked like little more than a construction zone — a patch of dirt littered with piles of two-by-fours and wooden pallets. There were as many sheds as finished buildings. Still, some think Próspera may already be too far along to fail: There is simply too much capital already invested, too many commitments made, to have them torn apart in Tegucigalpa. The government is making “emotional arguments more than anything else,” González told me. “If they had the legal right to do what they’re trying to accomplish, they’d have already done it.”

Read by Frankie Corzo

Narration produced by Tanya Pérez and Krish Seenivasan

Engineered by Anj Vancura

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A perfect storm led to Bayesian sinking, experts say

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Who is Mike Lynch? UK entrepreneur among those missing after superyacht sinks off Sicily

Tornado formed over unusually hot water

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Tragedy strikes: Scramble to find survivors after Bayesian yacht sinks off Sicily coast

Search continues, but shift to recovery phase approaches

Italian authorities said the Bayesian was probably at anchor when the storm struck, meaning it couldn't maneuver and ride the waves, according to Mitchell Stoller, a captain and maritime expert witness. Other ships in the area that turned on their engines rode out the storm, he said.

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Schanck said another key question concerns the position of the keel, a heavy weight underneath the boat that acts as a counterbalance to keep it upright, when the ship sank. When lifted, "that's going to affect the stability of the vessel, because, obviously, you've now raised the center of gravity of that vessel," he said.

The Bayesian was floating over 160 feet of water at the time, deep enough that the keel would likely be deployed. But the fact that "the vessel heeled over so heavily makes me question that," Schanck said.

The cause of the disaster may not be known until the ship can be examined in more detail, experts say. Prosecutors in a nearby town have already opened an investigation.

Schanck said investigators will have plenty to work with once the operation moves into a recovery phase.

"The vessel is intact and in good condition on the seabed," he said. "There's a lot of eyewitness accounts from other vessels in the area and the shore."

As the search entered its second day on Tuesday, the rescue effort may shift in that direction soon. "I suspect, later on, today or tomorrow, we'll probably see some mention of a recovery operation being stated," Schanck said.

The decision to would depend on whether rescuers find signs of life in the ship and air pockets or survivable spaces, Schanck said. At this point, survivors on the water's surface looks unlikely. "My professional opinion is that the casualties will be located within the vessel," he said.

"There is a risk versus benefit in all maritime search and rescue incidents," he said. "Where we start transitioning to a recovery phase, that line shifts."

Contributing: Reuters

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.