by Joyce Deaton
Overlooking picturesque Coquina Harbour at mile marker 346 on the Intracoastal Waterway is a cheerful marina that has become a home away from home for many Grand Strand boaters. At 714 Highway 17 North on the land side, Myrtle Beach Yacht Club offers a wide variety of services for its members and transients traveling the ICW.
“It’s really just a marina with a lot of amenities,” says dock master Bud Coonfield. But the club is far more than that to its 140 members. Billing itself as the purveyor of “Lowcountry charm and gracious hospitality,” it functions as country club, swimming hole, backyard and more. For its 13 long-term transients, it’s something very close to a home.
Marina services include 153 slips, many rented out by their member-owners, starting at $399 monthly. There’s space for “everything from a 28-foot pontoon to a 65-foot sport fishing boat,” says Coonfield. The club’s docks can even handle a 90-foot yacht that’s passing through. Slips are available for purchase from the mid-$70,000s to $250,000.
The marina offers a full complement of services including a boat ramp, haul-out and dry storage, fuel, electrical and water hookups, laundry, restrooms and showers. With a pumpout station at every other slip, boaters can empty their tanks without having to move their boats. The well-stocked ship’s store sells oil, charts and guides, ice, soda, beer, ice cream and supplies, as well as Myrtle Beach-themed apparel. There’s wi-fi and Internet access, complete with printer. But there’s far more there. This is Coonfield’s lair, and he routinely helps travelers and members with an astonishing array of assistance – from special-ordered parts to tee times on local golf courses to taxis and car rentals. If you’ve had enough boating and long for a little terra firma, he’ll help you find a motel room within walking distance of the docks. If you feel like a chat, come by and share a cup of free coffee and learn from Coonfield’s storehouse of local lore. Besides time spent in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, he’s been down south more than 40 years (long enough to sound like a Southerner) and has worked at several Grand Strand marinas.
Outside you’ll f
ind a three-mile boardwalk for walking or running, and a swimming pool with plenty of room for sunning and two grill areas. With a bridge-free passage through Little River Inlet to the Atlantic, the marina is a great take-off point for offshore fishing. Upstairs over the ship’s store is the surprisingly elegant Officers Club restaurant. Though the dress code is casual, it’s strictly white tablecloths and fine dining. Memberships are available for the restaurant only at $30 per year, and it attracts so many local diners that you’ll want to make a reservation. Transients or one-time locals can come as guests.
No ordinary marina fast food here. With everything from light fare to steaks, the club features hand-cut certified Angus beef, fresh chicken and seafood dishes, homemade soups, bisques and appetizers, salads and desserts. At every turn of the menu there are unexpected choices: Appetizers include citron shrimp and fried oysters with Dijon cream sauce. A favorite salad features mixed greens with warm mozzarella cakes, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, carrots and pecans. In a twist on the time-honored steak au poivre, the club’s “Ménage au Poivre” features medallions of beef, chicken and pork sautéed with peppercorn cream. There’s even a vegan entrée. With a full-service bar and an extensive wine list, the club is an oft-chosen spot for wine tastings and holiday parties. It’s open from 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and from 4 to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
One of the Officers Club’s advantages is its second-floor spot overlooking picturesque Coquina Harbour and the Governor’s Lighthouse. This well-tended development grew from a mid-1980s mining project that removed coquina from the ocean floor and created the harbor. A type of sedimentary limestone, coquina was formed during the Pleistocene Ice Age about 1.8 million years ago, continuing until about 11,500 years ago. It formed near marine reefs from the shells of small marine clams, combined with crushed oyster and mollusk shells, fragmented fossils and coral. Coquina has been found along the East Coast from Florida to Fort Fisher, N.C., as well as many other places around the globe. Used as a building material in Florida for more than 400 years, coquina was found to be a good choice for forts – especially in the days of cannon artillery – because it is relatively soft. Cannon balls would sink into fortress walls rather than shattering or puncturing them.
When it’s first quarried, coquina is soft and easily cut into desired shapes, though it has to dry out for a year or more before it becomes hard enough to be used in construction. “Coquina is very common around here,” says Coonfield. “When you hear about a project dredging the mud out of a channel, that really means dredging it down to the coquina. It’s often used to make asphalt roads.”
Though the mining company’s original plan was to create Coquina Harbour as one development, the area ended up being sold in several different parcels. As a result, Coquina Harbour today includes an array of condominium residences and rentals, hotels and restaurants, as well as two other marinas – Coquina Yacht Club and Light Keepers Marina. Luxury boat dealer Captains’ Choice Yacht Sales uses the harbor for sea trials, and the Holiday Inn & Suites provides temporary quarters for landlubbers. The Coquina Harbour Resort development, which has been announced but met with local opposition, plans to build the area’s first high-rise condo tower.
All this activity makes for great boat-and-people-watching from the pool deck or restaurant at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club. Maybe that’s why the regulars tend to stay around, says Coonfield. “We have a little bit of everybody – folks who come up from Florida and stay all winter, some local people who come on the weekends and stay on their boats and use the pool, the grill and picnic areas. Some go fishing. It’s a friendly place. We like kids, adults and old people. Everybody’s welcome.” Relaxing with a cool drink on the deck of the Officers Club to watch the sunset over Coquina Harbour, it’s hard to think of a lovelier spot.
