About the Great Lakes Cruising Club (GLCC)
Who We Are
If you cruise the Great Lakes, you may see a distinctive burgee with five interconnected chain-links that form a complete circle. 
It identifies the boats’ owners as members of the Great Lakes Cruising Club (GLCC). We proudly fly those burgees from the bow staffs of our power cruisers, or from the spreaders of our sailboats.
And we do get around. GLCC members take their boats far and wide on North America’s five Great Lakes and their tributaries. We are found on the water from Duluth to Quebec; from Chicago to Buffalo; and from Toledo to Toronto. Some members are partial to the legendary North Channel, while others prefer cruising the secluded wilderness of Lake Superior’s North Shore.
The club has more than 2,500 members in the U.S. and Canada. We are known to be a friendly bunch of serious boaters, who warmly welcome new members. We are willing to share our love of the lakes and our knowledge about how to cruise them.
As a GLCC member, you can be sure that you and your family will be welcomed anywhere you cruise on the Great Lakes.
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Early GLCC members. GLCC members count over 400 harbors as their home ports, and each member keeps an eye out for the distinctive GLCC burgee, and will make a visiting club member feel right at home. About 200 members serve as GLCC Port Captains. |
Since 1934, our members have explored all of the Lakes and their connecting tributaries, including the Mississippi, the Tennessee-Tombigbee, the Erie Canal, the Trent-Severn Waterway, the Rideau Canal, and the St. Lawrence River. Some have also done the Great Loop, and others have crossed oceans. Members at a recent GLCC Rally. |
To celebrate our Great Lakes Cruising Club's 80th Anniversary, a book entitled Sharing Distant Shores was printed and mailed to each membership. To view the book please click here.
What We Do
We help each other.
The GLCC was founded in 1934 to share cruising information among its members. It is still our core purpose. Our famous Log Book and Harbor Reports contains decades of detailed observations by our members, who have personally visited the areas, anchorages, harbors or waterways described in the individual reports.
That information — over 1000 separate reports — is available through this Web site to our members. If you are not yet a member, you can see a sample here.
Not all places have restaurants, grocery stores, medical facilities, and fuel docks. Just as when the club was founded, there are still wilderness and uncharted areas of the Great Lakes. Our reports are sometimes the only ones available for a particular location, including this anchorage in Lake Superior, this harbor in the McGregor Bay, or this anchorage in Georgian Bay.
The harbor reports are viewable, printable, and saveable to your computer for off-line use while cruising.
Unlike commercial products, our harbor reports are constantly updated. They are maintained by our members in this "wiki" format on the Web. All GLCC members are, of course, encouraged to contribute their own observations, so we can continue to keep the reports up-to-date and state-of-the-art.
About 200 harbors have GLCC Port Captains. These dedicated individuals take special care of visiting members, and represent the club in a variety of ways. They are a great resource, especially when you are cruising outside your normal area.
Our collective experiences on the vast Inland Seas also provide great material for boating discussions and stories, wherever we get together. Besides our annual Rendezvous, we have rallies, flotilla cruises, and social events. However, most GLCC meetings just happen, because several members just find themselves in the same anchorage at the same time. We like having fun together.
Please click on the video screen to learn more about GLCC and how our comprehensive Log Book & Harbor Reports can be used on the water.
Click to A Bit of History.
Click to Join Now.
If you are already a member of GLCC looking to register for the website, click here.