Oklahoma City Boat Club

The OCBC has a long and commendable history of racing, starting from its founding. William F. Crosby designed the Snipe in 1931, coinciding with the founding of the Oklahoma City Yacht Club on Lake Overholser. This boat was relatively easy to construct and many thousands were built by individuals and by commercial companies over the next 30 years. Several of our early members became proficient in racing Snipes and entered the Nationals in 1963. Beginning in 1962 Steve Taylor was selected as the Race Committee Chairman for the Snipe Nationals and ruled over that event for the next 14 years. Other centerboard boats, such as the Flying Scot, were raced on Lake Hefner as well.

Because Lake Hefner is situated at or near the highest elevation in Oklahoma County and lack of obstructions to the winds, average wind velocities are high, often too high for comfortable or safe centerboard sailing. For example, for two years running in the 1970s the annual Snipe Regatta had to be cancelled because of high winds. This led several committed Snipe sailors to purchase keelboats.

The first keelboat fleet formed was the Victory Fleet, followed by the Luder 16s and 21s. Then came the larger Kittiwake which grew to 15 boats. (Incidentally, OCBC formed Kittiwake Fleet No. 1). As the boating industry has grown over the years and new designs come onto the market, new one design fleets have waxed and waned at OCBC. In the '70s and '80s we have seen the growth and decline of the following fleets, Irwin 23, Santana 21, Santana 22 and the Santana 20. Very competitive racing occurred within these fleets. More recently, the major fleets have been the J-24s, J-22s, and the Catalina 22, 25 and 27 classes.

Wednesday night races are with out a doubt the most popular series in OCBC’s racing program. The series, run from May through September, draws sixty or more competing boats to the starting line every week. The Race Committee provides four separate starts, grouping the fleets to make for the best, fairest and safest competition for all competitors. With a 6:00 harbor gun and 7:00 for the first start, competitors can get a in a good hour long race, put their boat up, socialize with other competitors (bench-racing) and still be home by 9:30 or 10:00, there is no better way to break up the work week.

In addition to keelboats active centerboard racing has been carried out using the Sunfish and Laser classes. These boats have been popular with the youth program and the women's program.