When you join the Navy Patuxent
Sailing Club (NPSC), you will have access to a fleet of great boats for you to
sail, your own clubhouse, a picturesque marina with a large basin to learn and
practice, directly on a beautiful river with coves and towns and other marinas
and restaurants for you to visit, opening onto a majestic bay where you can
cruise to distant locations and ever greater adventures! Your club can be a place for you to improve
your basic sailing abilities, hone your more subtle techniques, increase your overall
confidence on the water, and share your knowledge with others. What would that be worth?
Your Navy Patuxent Sailing Club is
like no other. Hosted on the Patuxent Naval Air Station, your club
enjoys the support the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation organization and
infrastructure. When combined with the enthusiasm and dedication
of NPSC’s all-volunteer leadership, administration, instruction, and maintenance,
this
allows the club to offer you tremendous benefits at costs a mere fraction of
what you might pay to rent a for-profit boat, or purchase and maintain your own
boat, or the even the costs to sail with another club with a different support
structure.
Here is a summary of the benefits
of Club membership:
·
Access to a wide variety of boats,
large and small, well suited for experienced and novice sailors alike, ready
for a wide variety of different sailing adventures
·
Great instruction and learning,
including world-recognized ASA instruction and certification, NPSC-specific
large-boat training, and ubiquitous informal coaching at all levels
·
Convenient boat reservation and
checkout systems, open to all club members 24/7
·
Convenient all-inclusive on-line billing
for boat rental, club membership, instruction, and other events
·
You do not need any certification,
training, or experience to sail with us (only to act as “Skipper”)
·
Significant opportunities to
include non-member guests in most club sails and events
·
Cruising on large boats over-night,
from simple weekend get-always to multi-day adventures to the annual Norfolk
Harborfest (spring) and the Baltimore Schooner Race (fall)
·
Racing opportunities spanning the
spectrum from informal small boat races, to local week-day evening race series,
to medium-distance Chesapeake Bay races, and the famous over-night Governor’s
Cup
·
Social Sails, where the sailing is
secondary to the socializing, the food and drink is discussed more than the
wind, and the sunsets are always memorable.
Social Sails are offered at an unbelievably low nominal participation
fee
·
Continuing education programs on
topics like small boat racing, boat systems, sail trim, navigation, weather,
safety, etc.
·
Many annual special events (Open
House, Fouled Anchor Race, Pirate Raid, Christmas Parade of Lights, Sailing
Fever Banquet, etc.)
But the best part is the people you
will meet, sail with, learn from, and help to grow in turn. Sailing is fundamentally a team sport like no
other, and whether in friendly competition or heart-felt camaraderie, you might
search the high seas a great many seasons and never discover a better group of
people to sail with.
You will find a group of people who
share a passion for sailing, and collectively strive to foster safety and
seamanship in all we do. But also people
who truly enjoy the wind and the water, and work together in constant pursuit
of the real reason we sail: fun.
What do we ask in return? Besides the modest annual membership fee, and
good sportsmanship and citizenship (leave the boat better than you found it,
please!) there are no absolute requirements.
We ask only that you participate more as a club “member” than an
MWR “customer,” and that you contribute
something in whatever way you can, whenever you can. There is no volunteer hours requirement, but
almost everyone volunteers in some capacity.
We have monthly meetings to share
information, plan events and improve the club’s operations, and smaller more
specialized meetings and work parties for things like training, cruising,
racing, or to perform simple maintenance on the boats. Our members’
ideas and participation are valued, and that is why your club can be so much
more than a place to rent a boat. This
is truly a club where you will find no strangers, just shipmates you haven’t
met yet.
Contact any of the officers listed
under “who we are,” or stop by any club meeting the second Saturday of every
month (details elsewhere on this site) or just go click on “Member Signup”
right now!
See you soon.