Gatineau River Yacht Club

The club was officially opened on September 2, 1962, with an initial membership of five Chelsea residents: Gerry Byers, Pat Evans, Ivan Herbert, Allan Richens and John Winfield and a fleet of their five boats.

The original clubhouse was a small white cottage at the bottom of Gleneagle Road, off Route 105, which was rented in the spring of 1963.

The initial membership chose the club's blue and white burgee with 'G R Y C' surrounding a circle of rope, with an anchor at the center.

Club members erected the three-level clubhouse on a rocky hillside, out of a wood frame, plywood sheathing, and ribbed metal the colour of tree trunks during the summer and fall of 1978 for $21,000.

Club members Ed Quipp and Pat Evans built the original lighthouse, which was delivered to the island by pontoon barge.

For birdwatchers, species in or passing through the area include Arctic tern, black tern, New World blackbirds, black brant, Canada geese, common goldeneye, common merganser, common tern, double-crested cormorants, great blue heron, green-winged teal, gulls, killdeer, northern pintails, rails, red-throated loon, ring-billed gull, songbirds, spotted sandpiper, swallows, loggerhead shrike, least bittern, and wood ducks.

The fish species in the Ottawa River near BYC include brown trout, small mouth bass and walleye.