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May you have fair winds and following seas!
The Oklahoma State Sailing Club (OSSC) takes pride in bringing Oklahoma State University students, alumni, and staff out to Lake Carl Blackwell and introducing them to the world of sailing! Our club is comprised of over 127 members, 3 Catalina 22s, a Neptune 24, a Sunfish, 3 Lasers, and a fleet of 6 Club 420s. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, our club has been on its way to returning to its former glory as a competitive club in the Southeastern Intercollegiate Sailing Association (SEISA).
We have worked hard on rebuilding our club image, rebuilding our fleet, and making administrative changes to make our club ready to be better than it ever was.
There is one important tool we own that we are in need of YOUR help to get our race team back on its feet!
The most important boat that a sailing club can have, apart from its fleet of race boats, is a safety boat. Safety boats have a big job in a club besides being a good platform for coaching during standard practice. Safety boats have the important task of being able to respond quickly to sailors in distress, tow disabled sailboats, and in the worst-case scenario, safely and quickly bring an unconscious sailor back to shore during events such as a regatta. Additionally, safety boats must have a strong motor to keep up with fast sailboats!
Over the past few years, our safety boat used a motor off of a club Catalina 22 and it showed that it struggled in the role of safety boat with its lack of power. Over the summer of 2022, our commodore found the boat's original motor which sat for over 20 years, and brought it back to life after a full restoration. Unfortunately, that motor quickly showed its poor health once again due to it sitting for several years unused. Evident by its stalling by the pressure of the underwater exhaust and struggles to reliably start cold while following starting procedures. Additionally, with how collegiate sport clubs operate, club officers have a high turnover rate where every year there are new officers. Over time, instructions and skills for operating a stubborn motor such as ours will be lost and officers will not use a boat that has a "non-functional" motor or one that is extremely hard to start.
Modern motors are far easier and more reliable to start thanks to modern fuel injection technology and electronic computer systems. Although this adds more parts to maintain the motor, we find that these modern motors that are used in rescue and commercial applications are best suited as a club safety boat. With your help, we can obtain a modern 25 hp, 4-stroke outboard motor from Mercury, Yamaha, or Tohatsu, as they are reputable brands for rescue and commercial services, often seen on many club safety boats. We will be able to operate better, faster, consume far less fuel, last longer, and improve our race team training by providing reliable equipment to instructors and safety officers!
Every gift is important to us! For your gift, we will send you a personalized thank you letter to let you know how important your gift is to us!
$150 is the amount of fuel we go through in roughly a year. This gift can help us offset our fuel costs and still be able to go towards our new motor!
Just as a cruiser sailboat is able to reliably sail across oceans, your gift will certainly help us reach closer to our destination of receiving a new motor!
This regatta features the most technologically advanced class of sailboats, and their size is larger than many cruisers and smaller than J class boats but their performance matches that of most racing dinghies! Introducing that same world of technology to your gift, we will give you a shout-out on all our social media pages!
These are impressive boats with the largest racing monohulls built from the ground up to compete against other nations.