Hi everyone! I’m Claire Lindeman, Clemson Sailing’s past Secretary and Vice Commodore. I could not be more excited to serve as the organization’s Commodore this year.
I grew up in Atlanta, GA, sailing on Lake Lanier and then Lookout Mountain, TN sailing on Lake Chickamauga. Sailing has always been very special to me as I’ve continually found my closest friends through the sport. Clemson Sailing is no different. I joined the program the second week of my freshman year and immediately felt welcomed. I was amazed at our club’s emphasis on having a spot for any person at any level of sailing.
At the time, I didn’t realize it was possible to love the sport any more. However, this club has allowed me to gain a new respect for sailing in a way I couldn’t have expected. These expectations certainly didn’t include the possibility that the dedication of my friends and I would contribute to the eventual quadrupling of the member count by my junior year.
We have over 430 members this semester, a new record for any previous spring semester. I am so excited about this call to expand our program. Our most important project towards providing sailing opportunities to all our members is investing in a new dock.
Unfortunately, Lake Hartwell is attempting to claim our dock. After 20 years, the structure’s floats are saturated, and its metal is corroding. Two contractors have come to assess it separately, and both told us it has less than a year before Hartwell succeeds and the dock sinks. After many meetings and discussions, we have arrived at a design for this dock. We are so excited to be working with 2003 Clemson Sailing Commodore Liam Cunningham and Kroeger Marine on this project! Our plan has been quoted at $130,000, so we are eagerly beginning our fundraising journey. We know we can make it using many years’ worth of careful savings, unique fundraising opportunities, and help from interested families and alums.
I have already been so impressed with our officers’ readiness to make this capital improvement a reality. Every one of them has carefully looked at their role to find ways to save money and has shown fantastic initiative to help in our fundraising efforts. I can’t wait for all this work to come to fruition this summer and for our members to return to a new and improved dock next semester. Our members’ families will be able to see it for themselves this fall during our annual Parents’ Weekend, and our alums during Alumni Weekend.
This new dock has allowed us to take our experiences with the current one and improve on them. Most excitingly, this new space will allow us to add six more dinghy boats in the future. My two years of teaching Learn to Sail showed me the limits imposed by too few boats; many interested sailors had to wait a semester before we had space for them. With six more boats, we will be able to invite 48 more sailors into the program each semester. This expansion is just one of the many improvements we look forward to in our new space.
As monumental as this is, the board and I save many of our efforts for keeping our programs and events up to par. This semester we look forward to continuing events like Clemson Life Day, formal, and our Home Regatta, where we will welcome 11 other universities’ dinghy race teams to our docks. We are also finding new ways to help our 430+ members engage with our club, including a Field Day, a March Madness Racing Series, and a partnership with Clemson Ski to clean up Lake Hartwell.
I can’t wait for you to see our progress this year. With the dedication and passion I’ve seen not only from our officers, but our general members as a whole, I know that you will be amazed.
Fair winds,
Claire Lindeman
