Sag Harbor Yacht Club Quietly Sponsors Fourth of July Fireworks

Come Saturday night, at about 9:30, when darkness descends across the East End, the annual Sag Harbor Fourth of July fireworks show will begin from a barge moored outside the breakwater.

But many among the thousands of people who will flock to the waterfront or climb on board one of the hundreds of boats that gather in the bay won’t have a clue that the annual display is a gift to the community from the Sag Harbor Yacht Club.

The club has been hosting the fireworks since 1998 at the instigation of the late John Ward, who was a club director and former commodore, according to current Commodore Rob Camerino and club member Steve Novak, who leads the effort to pull off the annual show.

“It was really a show for everybody,” said Camerino. “John Ward always put community first.”

Before the yacht club took over the show, Ward used to oversee the annual fireworks display for the village, shooting rockets off from the end of Long Wharf, which was not paved, recalled his daughter, Brenda Ploeger. There was a lull for several years after the village stopped hosting the show, and the yacht club began to sponsor it, she said.

Novak said the fireworks, including hiring a barge and paying the laborers who set up the show, now cost about $50,000 a year.

“We don’t solicit, but we have a member or two every year who sends in a donation for the fireworks,” said Camerino. The club foots most of the bill for the annual extravaganza from the revenue it generates renting dock space and selling fuel.

Just as they may not know who foots the bill, the spectators who “Ooh” and “Aah” during the show probably don’t know how long it takes to pull together.

Novak said the smoke has barely cleared when he holds his first talks with Scott Cooper of Grucci Fireworks, who works with the club on the show, to set a date for the following year. Formal planning begins in earnest shortly after the New Year, when Novak firms up dates, applies for a permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, seeks permission from the United States Coast Guard, informs the Federal Aviation Administration, reaches out to East Hampton and Southampton Town marine patrol, and asks the village for permission.

If you don’t act fast, Novak said, one element or another could fall through, jeopardizing the entire production.

This week, Novak met with Coast Guard, town and village authorities to make sure everything was ready from their perspective when Saturday’s show begins.

Come Saturday, a team of laborers will begin loading cases of fireworks from Long Wharf to the barge supplied by Wilson Docks of East Quogue starting about 8 a.m. They will spend the rest of the day setting up the barge for the display, with a couple of food breaks scattered throughout the day. After the show, they will unload the barge, finishing at 2 or 3 a.m. Sunday morning.

That’s a lot of work for a show that lasts about 18 minutes, from the first rocket to the last of the grand finale.

But there’s a reason the show is short, Novak said. “You’ll find that for the first 10 to 12 minutes of a fireworks show, people are enthralled,” he said. “After about 12 minutes, people start to have conversations, and they aren’t paying attention.”

Novak said he and Camerino were invited to watch the show from a large yacht one year. “To see everyone coming together, by land or sea, is just stupendous,” he said. “The lights from the boats just spread out across the harbor.”

Camerino said the community has come to depend on the annual show, with businesses typically packed that evening. “The yacht club is not the kind of organization that will pound its chest,” Camerino said. “We like to give back to the community and we always will.”