Membership Information
We want to share some information about our sailing association with you. Hopefully, you have or will be taking a tour of our facilities very soon and are truly interested in the sport of sailing.
We have a wonderful club that is volunteer run and supported. We count on each of our members to help us keep the costs low and the club functioning. We absolutely enjoy the property that we have overlooking the lake and the dock area that we lease from the State. We have lots of room for our parties and for our children to enjoy while we are racing on Sundays. We have a full calendar of events from April through October.
Some specifics . . .
Cowan Lake Sailing Association has about 165 member families, of which about 135 are active members and the rest are either junior members or sustaining members. The lake is a public state park and our facilities are immediately adjacent on private land.
We currently have a few remaining dock slips available. If you don't use a lift in your slip, the Harbormaster will install a stern mooring for our cost of $50, if you request it. The launching ramps are at the park marina, just around the bend from the cove that contains our dock slips.
We have an active racing program every Sunday afternoon. Holiday weekends we have club regattas and a party one evening. There are several active fleets racing (Thistles, Highlanders, MC Scows, Lightnings, Snipes, Flying Scots and Lasers as well as Optimist Prams and Sunfish (mostly for the Junior sailors). We have a great training program for Juniors and Teens, as well as some Adult Training. About a third of the Club members are mostly interested in day sailing vs racing.
The current fees for a full membership are $365 annual dues, $250 capital fund (one time charge), dock fee is $253.00 or a storage rack at 44.00 (a straight pass through to the State from whom we lease the slips). Annual dues and capital fee are subject to 7% state tax. Each full member has a dock rental obligation until none remain, at which time those who prefer to dry sail off a trailer may apply for dockless status. Those requests will be honored on a seniority basis.
We offer a junior membership for young families (under 28) for $150 plus tax. They are obliged to rent a dock or rack. The capital fee is deferred until they become a full member at age 28.
We also offer an associate membership available to co-owners when the other member is a full member or non-owners such as regular crew who wish club privileges beyond just being a guest of their skipper. The annual fee is $250 plus state tax. They may not rent a dock or keep a sailboat at Cowan Lake.
There is also a youth membership for children under 18 who wish to participate in our junior program and whose parents are not members. Minimum age is having their 9th birthday in the calendar year. They must own or have available a Pram, Sunfish or Laser to use in the junior program.
We are a self help organization and try to outsource as little as possible to control our costs and keep the price of membership affordable. Therefore each member has obligations for 2 work parties and at least 2 race committee or safety committee duty dates, during the course of the year.
We would love to welcome you as a new
member to our sailing club. For
more information, please call or email our Membership Chairman, Judy Hearn,
513-232-0963
happythistle@aol.com