The Cape Coral Sailing Club is celebrating 35 years of stimulating interest and activities in sailing.
The group promotes boating safety, and enhanced sailing and cruising, and racing. Most importantly, the members promote a sense of community and fun.
New Commodore Sharron Thompson said during a club luncheon and salute to club commodores at Tarpon Point Wednesday that members often sail as far south as the Dry Tortugas, and north to Tampa Bay.
She and her husband, Bill, have been part of the club for better part of a decade.
She said the two of them lived on their boat — a 41-foot sailboat — for eight years.
Full-time life on a boat made getting groceries and and laundry done difficult, Thompson said. It was also difficult getting ready for work sometimes, too.
“I left all my shoes in the trunk of my car and had to change before I went into work,” she said.
Thompson serves as commodore for a one-year term.
She said jokingly the club members “twisted her arm” into becoming commodore.
“It’s like being the president of any other organization,” she said. “It’s a fun job … but I have a terrific set of officers who make it easy.”
Membership in the club is comprised of individuals and families with sailboats and powerboats of all shapes and sizes.
The club has evolved over the years to include activities for everyone, including picnics, dances, cruises, beach parties, pot luck dinners, nautical-themed flea markets and canoe and kayak trips.
Club publicity chairman and 2007 commodore Chuck Bergman said the club often takes trips to the keys, or north to the Sarasota and Tampa Bay area.
Bergman said his uncle was a long-time commodore of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.
Bergman also owns a vintage 33-foot sailboat.
He said the boat is similar to the one captained by his uncle.
“It looks like that boat,” Bergman said. “That’s what I always looked for in a boat.”
For more information on the Cape Coral Sailing Club, visit capecoralsailing-club.org.