After devastating fire, Wicomico Yacht Club reopens 18 months later

"It's very important to our membership that we get back to our normal lives again," said Commodore Peter Hanulak.

Dozens of community members, delegates, crew members and more spent their Saturday morning celebrating the new and improved Wicomico Yacht Club.

"It's a proud, proud moment for all of us to see what these gentlemen have done and the first mates that have supported them and I'm very proud of everybody," said Peter Hanulak's wife Donna Hanulak.

After serving the community for more than 50 years, owners of the Wicomico Yacht Club saw all of those memories go up in flames after a fire destroyed the facility back in 2016.  

"18 months ago we had a fire at our old building and it was very devastating. Pretty much we had lost our home," said Peter.

"Fire departments from all over came and put it out and about 4 hours later it started up again and at that point it was a hole in the ground," said Donna.

After that devastating fire, community members came out in full support raising money for the yacht club to begin construction on a new facility.

"After 59 years our fire burned us 18 months ago and we have had a dedicated group of members and committees and community support to help rebuild and get us open again," said Donna.

Officials add the re-opening of the yacht club means everything to them.

"It made me tear up a little bit just to have everybody here, and being back together and the comradery was just unbelievable and that's what's really important to me more than anything else is that we're back together," said Peter.

Officials say the yacht club opened just in time for Memorial Day weekend as they expect to have over 1,000 visitors come to celebrate the holiday.