The club's annual Atlantic Race Week and Lipton Cup regatta regularly drew sailors from around the world, competing in multiple classes.

Gowanus Creek, and the Erie Basin in Red Hook, Brooklyn served for several decades as a center of the New York sailing and yachting community, and several important boat yards were located in the area.

As time passed, however, increasing industrialization in the area led many to relocate to other sites around New York Harbor and, indeed, locations in Long Island Sound.

The club attracted New York socialites and aristocrats, including prominent members of the Auchincloss, Dodge, Elsworth, Fish, Gould, Hoagland, Iselin, Vermilye and Voorhees families, among many others.

Sir Thomas Lipton, J.P. Morgan and the Earl of Dunraven (the British challenger for the America's Cup, with his yacht Valkyrie) were among the club's prominent members.

The race was initially proposed on September 18, 1903, at the Sea Gate club-house during a dinner to commemorate the retirement as club Commodore of Robert E Tod.

The AYC's entry, the yacht Thistle, a schooner built in 1901 by New York's Townsend & Dourney, and owned and skippered by Robert E Tod, finished 10th.