Cal Sailing Club Introduces Sailing on the Bay
Ever wonder about those dazzling sails buzzing around on the Bay? The Cal Sailing Club (CSC) monthly Open House/Introductory Sail gives you a chance to find out! Cost: zero. Fun: limitless.
Latitude 38 was on hand last Sunday, September 22, under an azure, cloudless sky, to support and witness adults of all ages, singles, families, and plenty of smiling children (must be 5 years old and accompanied by an adult) enjoying perhaps their first experience on a sailboat! The end-of-summer heat was pleasantly tempered by substantial breezes while dedicated members of CSC conducted 195 members of the public on free introductory sailing cruises through the South Sailing Basin in Berkeley. The sails were aboard their fleet of small and nimble dinghy sailboats, and larger keelboats.
Sailing and windsurfing are often regarded as elite sports for the financially privileged; not so in Berkeley, CA, where CSC, a volunteer-run cooperative, has for decades made water sports available to all. Long known as The Beating Heart of the Berkeley Marina, Cal Sailing Club welcomes everyone through low-cost and no-cost access to membership, and ongoing free community events such as the aforementioned monthly open houses, and youth rides.
Almost all Open Houses are held from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday afternoons (and sometimes on Saturday to coincide with other activities at the Marina). Sign up in front of the clubhouse between 1-2:30 p.m.
Countless salty S.F. Bay sailors got their start by learning how to sail at CSC. The club boasts 1,100 annual active memberships and 19,026 members since 2009, and last year alone gave 2,942 lessons in both sailing and windsurfing.
Latitude 38 is passionate about getting more people out sailing, and the monthly CSC Open Houses are a great way to (sometimes literally) get your “feet wet” in the noble sport. CSC has given over 1,380 free rides to the public this year, a number that is up 10% from 2023.
If you want to be one of the lucky visitors to experience superb views of the Golden Gate and the Berkeley waterfront during CSC’s monthly Open Houses, you can do so from April to November. The last Open House of the year will be on Sunday, October 20 — come on out, and you can pick up your free copy of the latest edition of Latitude 38 while you are there!
CSC is just east of the Shorebird Center, at 124 University Ave. on the Berkeley Marina, facing Emeryville, about ¼ mile before the Berkeley Pier. There’s plenty of parking for cars and bikes, and AC Transit stops just opposite the club. Be sure to ask the bus driver if the bus goes to the Marina. More info can be found on CSC’s website here: https://www.cal-sailing.org/.
Where does sailing take these sailors? You can read about Marie and Yalcin, who met sailing at CSC, bought a boat, and sailed from Berkeley to France, in our August 2022 and June 2024 stories written by CSC grad, volunteer and Latitude 38 contributor Heather Breaux.