Ask a longtime Windward resident where the neighborhood's social calendar comes from, and most will say "the lake club" or "the yacht club" as if they're interchangeable. They're not. One is a volunteer-run boat club that gates most of its parties behind a household membership. The other just changed its name, added a marina perk exclusive to Windward addresses, and still hasn't settled on how many tennis courts it actually has. Knowing which club is throwing which event this fall is the difference between showing up to something you can walk into and missing something you needed a membership card for weeks ago.
The Yacht Club Runs on a Members-Only Door, With Four Exceptions
The Lake Windward Yacht Club is not a marina operator or a public rec department. It's a resident-run social club, open only to people who live in Windward, and most of its calendar is built for dues-paying members: Martini Night, a Chili Cook-off, informal raft-ups on the water, and a Football Tailgate Tie-up where members watch college football on a big screen from the lake or the shore. Annual dues run $150 per household, due by the end of January, and membership is the price of admission to that side of the calendar.
But four events on the LWYC calendar are open to the entire Windward community, membership or not. That distinction matters more this time of year than any other point on the calendar:
- Annual Fishing Derby — typically the third Saturday in May, already behind us for 2026
- Red White & Blue Boat Parade — early July, also past
- Witches of Windward — a charity event held in early October
- Holiday Boat Parade — the first Sunday in December
That leaves two open-door dates still ahead this season: Witches of Windward in early October, and the Holiday Boat Parade in December. Everything else on the fall calendar, the Oktoberfest gathering, the tailgate watch parties, the Windward Newcomers Boat Tour that runs through September, sits on the members-only side of the ledger. If you're new to the neighborhood and want on that tour, or want a seat at the tailgate, the move is joining the club, not waiting for an invitation to appear in your mailbox.
What's Actually Happening on the Water Right Now
September is newcomer season on Lake Windward. The Yacht Club runs and provides transportation for the annual Windward Newcomers Boat Tour, a members-hosted introduction to the lake for households who've moved in recently. It's not a marketing event or an open house. It's residents showing other residents where the coves are, which docks belong to which streets, and how the lake actually gets used once the moving trucks are gone.
From there, the calendar moves into the stretch built around college football and the turn toward fall: the Football Tailgate Tie-up, watched from boats or from land depending on where you park yourself, and the club's Oktoberfest gathering, which follows the same volunteer-run, members-first format as everything else on the LWYC docket. None of this shows up on a Windward HOA newsletter or a real estate listing. It shows up in a member's inbox, which is exactly why most of the neighborhood's actual rhythm stays invisible to anyone outside it.
The Other Club Just Went Through a Rebrand
Here's where the confusion usually starts. What most Windward residents still call "the lake club," the tennis and swim facility on Lake Windward Drive, isn't operating under that name anymore. It's now the Racket Social Club at Windward Lake, and the rebrand brought a specific perk with it: marina memberships limited to Windward residents, giving them the option to lease a monitored boat slip with its own dedicated charging station. That's a resident-only line item, separate from anything the Yacht Club offers, and it's easy to miss if you're still going by the old name.
The club's own materials haven't fully caught up with each other. One page describes 20 lighted tennis courts. Another lists 18, split across hard, Har-Tru clay, and four indoor courts, plus 4 padel courts and 6 pickleball courts. Whichever number is current, the takeaway for residents is the same: the facility's footprint is still being finalized post-rebrand, and it's worth checking current court and program counts directly before you plan around a specific number.
Membership runs two tracks for 2026: a Social/Swim membership at $60 a month, and a Full Facility membership at $155 a month, billed monthly rather than as a lump annual fee. The aquatics side includes four resort-style pools and a water slide, and it's also home base for the Windward Waves, the neighborhood's competitive swim team that races in the Atlanta Swim Association league each summer season.
Two Clubs, Two Different Doors
| Lake Windward Yacht Club | Racket Social Club at Windward Lake | |
|---|---|---|
| Membership | Windward residents only, $150/household/year | Social/Swim $60/mo, Full Facility $155/mo |
| Open to non-members | 4 events/year (Fishing Derby, July 4th Parade, Witches of Windward, Holiday Parade) | Marina slips reserved for Windward residents; club programs generally member-based |
| Fall focus | Newcomers Boat Tour (Sept), Tailgate Tie-up, Oktoberfest, Witches of Windward (Oct) | Tennis, pickleball, padel programming; aquatics center; Windward Waves swim team |
| Recent change | None reported | Rebranded from Windward Lake Club; added resident-exclusive marina memberships |
The two clubs don't compete for the same dollar or the same night. The Yacht Club is about the water itself, boats, docks, the lake as a shared backyard. The Racket Social Club is about courts and pools, with the marina perk as a bridge between the two worlds for residents who want a slip without joining the boat club's social calendar. Most of the confusion in the neighborhood comes from treating them as one membership when they're really two separate doors with two separate price tags.
Planning Notes for the Rest of the Season
If you're mapping out what's left of fall in Windward, here's the practical version:
- Now through the end of September: Newcomers Boat Tour season for LWYC members. If you moved in this year and want on the tour, reach out to the club directly rather than waiting for a general announcement.
- Sometime this fall: Football Tailgate Tie-up and Oktoberfest, both members-only LWYC events with dates typically confirmed closer to the date on the club's own calendar.
- Early October: Witches of Windward, the one open-door charity event on the calendar this fall. No membership required.
- Ongoing: Racket Social Club programming runs through the season regardless of the yacht club's calendar. If you're weighing a marina slip, that's a resident-only perk worth asking about directly, since it's not listed at the same visibility as the pool and tennis memberships.
- First Sunday in December: Holiday Boat Parade, the other open-door LWYC event and the traditional close to the boating season on Lake Windward.
None of this changes what Windward is on paper: a lake community in Alpharetta built around water access, tennis, and a golf-adjacent lifestyle. What it changes is how a resident actually uses that lifestyle. The neighborhood runs on two separate membership structures, each with its own calendar, its own price, and its own small print about who gets in without paying dues. Knowing the difference is the kind of local knowledge that doesn't show up on a property listing, but it's exactly the kind of thing that makes living here feel different from just owning here.
If you're weighing a move into Windward or already call the lake home and want a clearer read on how the neighborhood's amenities, HOA structure, or resale patterns actually work in practice, Dawn Camarda Group can walk you through it. Book a complimentary market consultation and get the version of Windward that doesn't show up in the brochure.
