The Carolina Sailing Foundation (CSF) is a 501(c)3 charitable foundation.  It was chartered in 2003 by the Carolina Sailing Club, primarily through the efforts of the late George Smart.  The foundation's purpose is to promote sailing and the sport of sailboat racing in Central North Carolina. The Carolina Sailing Club (CSC) is the sole member of the Foundation and most Foundation officers and workers are volunteers from CSC.

The Carolina Sailing Club, Our Parent Organization. 

The club conducts races in small sailboats on lakes in central North Carolina.  Formal race weekends and the Governor’s Cup Regatta are held from April to October on Kerr Lake. Informal races are held on Saturdays year round (weather permitting, of course) on Lake Jordan.  The club also sponsors a one-day, OPTI-only regatta for kids between 8 and 15 years old.  It conducts a number of social activities, many of which include educational presentations on various racing topics. The currently active fleets are Flying Scots, Isotope Catamarans, Lightnings, Tanzer 16’s, Thistles, and a handicap fleet. 

Additional information on the Carolina Sailing Club can be found on their website at http://www.carolinasailingclub.org . 

Foundation Objectives. 

The specific objectives of the Foundation are to promote sailing and sailboat racing and to sponsor sailing and sailboat racing classes and regattas (racing contests) for the general public in central North Carolina at a reasonable cost. 

Plans for 2008

The plans for our Junior Sailing Program for 2008 are to continue to grow our very successful Opti program by conducting Learn to Sail and Learn to Race classes, by sponsoring race weekends and regattas for the kids and Family Fun lakeside campouts for the whole family, by improving the kids' sailing and racing skills through coaching sessions, and by enabling the kids to test their skills in out of town regattas. 

Thanks to a very generous donation by the Nicholson family, in the fall of 2005 we were able to purchase two new 420's and a double-decker trailer for use in our High School Sailing Program.   These boats enabled our team to conduct practice sessions for the first time and to participate in additional regattas.  As a result, the team had a significant growth surge in the 2005 fall semester and its regatta performance improved.  We anticipate further growth this spring and are planning a number of Sailing and Racing classes for those that are new to sailing.

Until this year, our fund raising efforts have focused on the members of the Carolina Sailing Club (our parent organization).  This year we plan to do outside fund raising to raise money for a second instructor's boat, additional 420's for the high school sailors, and an additional Flying Scot for use in the adult classes.  All of the items are needed if we are to continue to grow.

We are also doing or planning to do a number of things that will help us today and make it easier for us to continue grow in the future:

We promote the foundation by participating, with CSC, in local boat shows.  We also share a booth with the Wake County Parks and Recreation Department at the Camp & Education Fair in Cary.  (Many of our classes are taught at their park on Lake Crabtree.)

We have established this website to make information about the foundation more accessible.  As the year goes on, we plan to expand the content and make the site more informative, more attractive, and easier to use.

We are currently developing a three-year plan for the foundation.

We also plan to establish a number of databases, including donors and potential donors, junior sailors and their parents, and sailing instructors.

The Future of the Foundation – Our Vision.

Over the next five years or so, we envision CSF growing from the small operation that it is today into a full-fledged Community Sailing Program similar to those that have developed in other parts of the country in recent  years.  We see the foundation as the major hub of sailing and sailboat racing activity in central North Carolina, an organization which:

·        Provides programs for all people in central NC who have an interest in sailing and sailboat racing – youngsters, older kids, and adults.

·        Provides affordable training programs (classes, workshops, summer camps and seminars) on a variety of sailing-related topics.

·        Sponsors sailboat races for local sailors and annual regattas which attract sailors from beyond central NC.

·        Owns and maintains several types of sailboats which may be chartered at a reasonable cost for use in classes, races, regattas, and for recreational day-sailing.

·        Owns and maintains a fleet of motorboats and related equipment as needed to conduct classes, races, and regattas.

·        Operates a lakeside facility which acts as a sailing center for the people of central NC and is the primary hub of the foundation's activities. 

·        Provides financial assistance where appropriate to forward the foundation's objectives and where a financial need exists. 

·        Takes the lead in coordinating sailing-related activities with other organizations in central NC, such as scouting organizations, area parks and recreation departments, the American Red Cross, and local high schools, colleges and universities.

·        Promotes sailing as a fun, safe, life-long, inexpensive sport.

·        Includes ongoing fund-raising to help maintain existing programs and to support future growth.

·        Encourages volunteerism in the performance of the foundation’s activities, wherever possible, including the administration of the foundation itself.

Obviously, there are a number hurdles which must be overcome if we are to realize our vision.  The major obstacles we have identified are:

·        Obtaining a physical site on a lake that is suitable for our purposes.

·        Developing the site to include a building with classrooms, conference rooms, offices, restroom, and storage facilities; boat storage; boat launching and recovery area; docks; etc.

·        Obtaining additional sailboats and motorboats.

·        Obtaining the capital funds needed to finance the above

·        Attracting the additional personnel needed to make these things happen and to operate the program.

Obtaining a physical site is the critical next step.  We are currently looking for a site on Lake Jordan which will meet our needs.  Once we have leased the land, we plan a major capital fund-raising campaign to obtain the money needed to develop the site and to obtain additional boats.  As the sailing center starts to become a reality, we expect to be able to find interested, competent volunteers, contractors, and salaried employees to help us grow the program into an asset of which the Triangle and all of central North Carolina can be proud.

To learn about ways that you can help us with our ongoing operations or in making our vision become a reality, go to "HOW YOU CAN HELP".

Foundation History. 

2002.   CSF informally began operation in the fall of 2002 before final approval of the foundation had been received from the IRS.  The Carolina Sailing Club sponsored a Learn to Sail weekend for young kids.  Spencer Wiberley, Sales Manager of McLaughlin Boat Works, brought 6 Optis over from Chattanooga and taught the class for us.  The Opti is a 7½ foot single-handed sailing dinghy designed specifically for teaching young kids how to sail.  The kids loved the class, and we were off and running.

2003.   CSF operations began in earnest in the spring of 2003.  Because of our limited resources, we decided to focus initially on young kids (ages 8 to 12) and to include older kids and adults as our resources grew. 

With money from a generous initial grant, the foundation purchased 4 used Optis.  We built a trailer for the Optis, and began teaching Learn to Sail classes for the kids on Lake Crabtree.  Other people in the area that owned Optis made their boats available so that we could teach 8 kids per class.

In conjunction with CSC’s race weekends at Kerr Lake, we held coaching sessions to improve basic sailing skills and to introduce the kids to racing.  Two of these weekends included campouts.

We also formed a local Opti Racing team for the more experienced sailors, and they attended several out-of-town regattas.  Three members of the team sailed in the Orange Bowl Regatta which is held on Biscayne Bay in Miami between Christmas and New Year’s and attracts 500+ kids.

2004.   In 2004, the Foundation bought a fifth Opti and continued to expand the activities begun the previous year.  We taught more kids how to sail and had increased participation at our Kerr Lake weekends and at out-of-town regattas.  We also hosted our first local Opti regatta as part of CSC’s Governor’s Cup Regatta.

The Foundation also helped sponsor two regattas: the Governor’s Cup Regatta at Kerr Lake and the Oriental Sailing Social in Oriental, NC.

A highlight of the year was the founding of a regional high school sailing team which races 420's, the two-person boat of choice for high school sailing.  The team is a member of ISSA (Interscholastic Sailing Association), which is the national organization for high school sailing teams.  They participate in high school regattas in the Southeast.

2005.   In 2005, we experienced exponential growth in our Junior Sailing Program.  The foundation bought its sixth Opti, and several other Opti's were purchased by parents of kids in the area, bringing the total number of Optis in the Triangle to 16.  The Carolina Sailing Club sponsored the first annual Jolly Jordan Regatta, a one-day Opti-only regatta.  The regatta attracted boats from Lake Norman, Columbia, SC, and Southport, NC.  The kids had a ball.

But the big story is the growth in participation.  In 2005, the participation in our junior sailing events grew from 70 participants in 2004 to 175 participants in 2005.  The high school sailing team has grown from 14 students in 2004 to 20 student in 2005.  In the first semester of the 2005-2006 school year they have already had more regatta participants than they had in the total 2004-2005 school year.  In addition, this year they are conducting practice sessions and are participating in local races with the Carolina Sailing Club.