N.C. State has over 40 club sports, many of which have a proud history of intercollegiate competition. However, there is no club that boasts a longer history than the sailing club. According to treasurer Scott Ryan, the club has existed for more than five decades.
“That’s right, we’re the oldest club, we’ve been around since the mid 1950’s,” Ryan said.
The club has been very active in both recreational and intercollegiate sailing, and while the racing team gets most of the exposure, the majority of its members simply enjoy the sport as a hobby.
“We encourage everyone who is interested to come out and try sailing,” Ryan, a junior in textile engineering, said. “The main goal is just to spread the enjoyment.”
There are four main aspects to the club — sailing education, recreation, racing and social events. The sailing club, which calls Lake Wheeler home, requires no experience from its members and even provides training on how to sail.
“People come up to me all the time and say how they want to sail but have no experience,” Ryan said. “We have our own boats and will gladly teach people how to use them through both our basic and advanced training programs.”
A basic certification allows you to sail at any time, provided you sail with another person who also has at least a basic certification. This certification is attainable after completing a four-day learning session and a swimming test.
In the recent years the sailing club has been gaining in popularity. Ryan Boyle, a former commodore and president of the club, said membership has increased by over 20 members in the past two years.
“We’ve been getting bigger every year since I joined,” Boyle said.
Currently the sailing club boasts over 60 members, and that number is likely to grow in the coming years.
With the increase in membership, the future of the sailing club’s competitive racing team looks bright as well. Typically 12 to 15 club members, who are picked by the commodores, will represent the school at sailing races, or regattas.
The racing team competes in the North Point Division of the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (SAISA). Schools from all over the Southeast provide competition including Tennessee, North Carolina, Duke, Vanderbilt, Georgia, UNC-Wilmington, and the Citadel.
The team has been very competitive in recent years. During the 2003-04 season, the club racing team placed 3rd in their division. The effort earned the sailing club the honor of Club Sport of the Year from Campus Recreation.
According to Boyle, a senior in textile engineering, the club has seen success in competition until the 2007-08 season. Last February, the club hosted a regatta, finishing 8th out of 10 teams competing. He said it was the first time in several years that the team failed to qualify for the national tournament — finishing just one slot below the final qualifier.
“While this year wasn’t necessarily our best, the past few years we’ve been among the top tier in the North (Point) Division.”
