A Message from Our 2024 Commodore

Hello Everybody! 

My name is Connor Witt. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a senior electrical engineering major from Reston, Virginia. This is my fourth year in the club, and after serving in both executive and officer roles, I am thrilled to take on the rewarding responsibility of being Commodore. This club has been the most impactful aspect of my college experience, so I am ready to give back to it as much as I can.

I remember coming out to my first Learn to Sail on a sunny Sunday morning my freshman year. Music was playing out of the shed, upperclassmen were relaxing out on the Hobie, and it was then that I knew I had found my home at Clemson. Finding any possible event to come to, I was determined to make Clemson Sailing my life. Now, after nearly four years, I have done just that, gaining many lifelong friends and experiences along the way that I wouldn’t trade for the world. 

We remain the largest club sport on campus, with over 425 active members, and we continue to refine and elevate our members' experiences. Our sailing programs (Learn to Sail, Learn to Race, dinghy race team, keelboat race team) are thriving, and our social events (formal, semi, tailgates, Fridays at four, etc.) are as exciting as ever. We are now developing avenues to expand these programs and increase our members' access to sailing. 

Currently, we are beginning a Learn to Big Boat program this Spring. This program will not only give Ripple the love and attention she deserves, but will also provide Learn to Sail graduates with useful sailing skills lasting beyond college. Secondly, our keelboat team has expanded to include a second J24! “Blind Date” was kindly donated to us by Jeff and Amy Woodard down in Charleston. With this new boat, we have opportunities to race more regularly and have officially become CORA members to compete in their regattas. Recently sailing well in the Frostbite Series and in SCOR, our keelboat team is on the come-up, so stay tuned! 

One of my goals for this year is to spend more time at the docks. To encourage this, the executive board has committed to holding at least one work day each month. Keeping our home in good shape is very high on my list of priorities. With improvements such as a new flower bed and a repair of our flag pole, we have big plans to increase our “curb appeal”.  

The main priority on the to-do list remains the Dock Project. After a year of university politics and miscommunications, we are ready to proceed with our dock plans. We have requested Army Corps approval and are ready to start building as soon as we have the permit. A great big thank you to all of those who contributed to our GoFundMe over the past year. Without your help, this project would not be possible.

With this new dock we will be able to safely continue our sailing programs and provide room for their growth. There are still lots of exciting developments ahead for the Clemson Sailing Club! I look forward to continuing on with ClemsonLife Day, the Spring Tiger Town Trophy, Sailgates, and all of the other wonderful traditions we have built here at Clemson. If you need me, I’ll be out sailing in the sunshine, but feel free to reach out to me at witt4@g.clemson.edu anytime. 

Enjoy it,

Connor Witt

Fall 2023 Dock Project Update

To the generous donors and supporters of our dock project,

I am writing to share with you the reason for the delay of the construction of our new dock. I understand any uneasiness concerning the timeline. I share this disappointment. We truly have been working consistently towards the goal, but as is evident in a recent publication in The Tiger, we have experienced unforeseen developments concerning our club’s position on campus which have delayed our united excitement for a new dock.

Please see that article here: https://thetigercu.com/16478/news/underwater-waterski-and-sailing-clubs-excluded-from-new-watersports-facility/

First and foremost, I want you all to understand that no part of your donation has left our donation fund. We have saved each of your gracious donations intently so that we can collectively achieve our goal; we have not spent one penny on anything else.

Next, to explain the delay. As you can read in the recent Tiger article, we have been excitedly awaiting a move across the cove to a new club watersports facility these past seven months. However, we were recently told by another watersports club leader that these plans that originally included Club Waterski, and Club Rowing, and our club no longer accommodated any clubs but Rowing. With the uncertainty surrounding this new plan, Campus Recreation had been hesitant to work towards Army Corps approval for the new dock until we are sure of our club’s placement on campus. This halted our progress and was the reason we paused our fundraising efforts.

As it became increasingly clear that the original plan to build a Watersports Facility including all three sports had been removed from University Facilities' short term plans, Campus Recreation began to take steps towards getting our new dock built, as they understand the urgent need to replace our current sinking dock. Two weeks ago, Campus Recreation received verbal approval from the Army Corps to build our new dock in our current location. This set our efforts to build a new dock back in motion. Since then, we have met with the contractor that will build our dock, Kroeger Marine. One of our past Commodores (2005-2007), Liam Cunningham, is a representative of this business and has worked closely with us to produce the best possible dock plans. In this past meeting, we reviewed the choices we made last semester including materials for the new dock and dimensions. Kroeger is now working on engineering drawings for the dock that will be submitted to the Army Corps for final approval, while Campus Recreation finalizes the legalities of our new dock’s placement with the Clemson legal teams.

If you have not donated but are able to, we could still really use your help. The ramp on our current dock has broken twice in the past few months. The second break happened over the Thanksgiving Holiday and is likely going to cost us four times more to fix than the first break; up to $2000. The current dock’s safety and function need to be maintained for our sailing programs over this next semester. Additionally, we also have not quite hit our financial goal for the new dock. If you are able and willing to help us through the final stretch of this project we would be so grateful. You can find the link to donate at the bottom of this letter.

All in all, we aim to begin the build by the summer. I hope this transparency showing what we have been going through makes it clear to you that we have not stopped working on this project, and excites you as it does me that we are back on track to making our new dock a reality. Thank you again for your generous donations; without them there would not be a new dock to fight for.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have about this process at cblinde@clemson.edu .

If you have not donated but would like to, you can do so here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/clemson-sailing-dock-fund?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_content=undefined&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer&utm_term=undefined

Fair winds,

Claire Lindeman

Commodore

A Message from Our 2023 Commodore

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

Spring 2022 Dock Update

Hello there!  - As we welcome Spring, we are continuously working on improving the Sailing Club! This past year one of our larger projects was replacing  the carpet on the dock as the old carpet was torn and rotting leaving our 420E’s more susceptible to damages. Club members pitched in to help replace the carpet with a special outdoor marine carpet. This upgrade should help to ensure our hulls remain safe while being stored out of the water. 

Recently, we have made some new additions to the fleet along with some new hardware for the 420E’s. They have undergone various improvements and repairs  - Six of the 420E’s have had jib halyards replaced and their centerboard lines have been replaced. A big thanks to Walker Mullin for replacing all of the bumpers on the front of the 420Es to ensure they do not get damaged in the event of an accident.

Finally, with the help of a former commodore, Cameron Rylance, a few of our officers have resurfaced the old swim dock that has been out of commission for a few years. Our members are very excited to use this dock as the weather gets warmer. The swim dock will be a great addition to Fridays at Four and increase the number of members we can safely have out on the water. 

A huge thank you to our generous donors! The club continues to pride itself on responsibly using your donations to attract new members and enhance the experience of our existing members! We look forward to updating you on our new projects!