Oasis Sailing Club

By LEN BOSE

While traveling around the harbor this week, I came upon a place that gave me relief from my troubling situations. No, I am not referring to the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club bar, but rather two particular Catalina 34s sailing out of the harbor most every day of the week. I then came to learn about the Oasis Sailing Club (OSC) at www.oasissailingclub.org.

The OSC has been around for some 43 years and is a part of “Friends of OASIS,” which supports and shares in the operation of the OASIS Senior Center in conjunction with the city of Newport Beach. If you do not know about Newport Beach’s Senior Center, Google “Friends of OASIS.”

Now here is the best part: The OSC has two sailboats at the city’s Basin Marina. Members can sign up for day and evening sails and the occasional overnight sail aboard one of the two Catalina 34s.

So you might ask me what is the “ketch?” No, there are no ketches (a commonly used sailing term, for those who didn’t, um, catch the play on words). To join the OASIS Sailing Club, it’s just $42 for the monthly dues, and sailing is free. The cost of joining Friends of OASIS is $15 per year for a single membership; $25 for a couple and $300 for a lifetime membership per person. Compare that to my Harbor 20 cost of $600 a month, just for slip rent. Ask your accountant if it’s tax-deductible. 

While talking to my good friend Chris Hill, a skipper member of the OSC, I asked if members need to find a skipper and then form a party to go sailing. He replied, “They don’t need to form a party...we do it for them!”

The boats need a certified (by OSC) skipper and a mate (or two skippers) to sail. The sailing schedule for the following month is posted online and in person at the OSC monthly meeting. Skippers and mates sign up first, because without them the boat won’t sail. Then the calendar is made available to all OSC members who, on a first-come, first-served basis, sign up for dates they want to sail.

The skipper has the right to limit the number of crew members to six, while some take up to eight. So, when people sign up, they can see who the skipper will be and who else has signed up to sail. Some choose their sailing by date, others by friends or skippers with whom they prefer to sail. There are groups who go sailing together on a regular basis, bringing food and libations to share and enjoy.

I then asked Hill about some of the other social events the club schedules each year. He mentioned the summer picnic, Oktoberfest, Christmas party, St. Patrick’s Day Party and Opening Day.

I wondered if the OSC offered any seamanship lessons. “We’re not a sailing school and often refer members who have no sailing experience to OCC for initial training,” Hill said. “For those who have some sailing experience, we have a mate candidates training program, where they can enhance their sailing and seamanship skills to eventually become an OSC mate, and in some cases, a skipper. The club has members who came from being new members who knew nothing about sailing, to becoming mates and skippers.

“We also offer seamanship training sessions on anchoring, boat systems, docking/undocking, man overboard and maneuvers, such as heaving and figure 8s. Of course, most of the skippers are very happy to share their knowledge, so informal education happens all the time.”

Another challenge I noticed while reading the OSC website, was the “Eva Challenge Series” where an OSC member takes one of the club boats out and around the oil platform “Eva,” then back to the harbor entrance. The record stands at three hours and 34 minutes, but I would have to think with the 2007 Catalina 34 added to the fleet this record will fall soon.

I asked if the OSC would fill up and limit its membership. At this point, that has not been a concern. I also should point out that any member of Friends of OASIS and the OSC can sign up for a sail. You do not have to know how to sail, you just need to want to be on the water.

This deal ranks up there with the Newport Aquatic Center and the Balboa Angling Club as being one of our harbor’s best kept secrets. I can’t think of a better way than spending an afternoon sailing around in the ocean with your friends, and it would be safe to assume the club will be more than willing to have volunteers come down and help with the maintenance on the boats.

Another thing for our local yacht clubs to consider is giving reciprocal privileges to the OSC members, and for some of our local marine industry members to show this group some love. 

Sea ya!

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Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport.