2022 SAILING SCHEDULE IS PUBLISHED12/18/2021
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Hi everyone -

I hope you are having a great Holiday season.  After a little bit of a delay, the Sailing School schedule finalized and registrations are now open.  You can register by going to the website or directly here: https://sailsaratoga.org/register/camp/4GXzjFv9MN/class

Last year registrations didn't open until the early Spring, but the popular childrens' classes were completely full within 1 day, so please register your kids, grandkids and their friends as soon as possible.

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Thank you again to everyone who donated old sails to the Sailing Foundation this fall. As in the past, we give all the sails to Seabags of Maine to recycle them into various bags. In return for all of the clubs donated sails, SeaBags provided us with a number of different bags made from our very own sails for use as a fundraiser. This year, we got a number of different bags:
2 Ensign Large Totes
2 Laser Totes
1 Laser Duffel
1 Flying Scot Tote
4 small bucket bags (2 Ensign and 2 Scot)
Generic totes from Seabags retail for $160 on up plus tax and shipping. Their duffel bags go for $195-$245+ and the standard bucket bags go for $45+. This is without the cool fleet insignia and even cooler SLSC provenance! As a fundraiser for the Foundation, we are asking for $150 for the totes, $175 for the duffel and $40 for the buckets. Please reach out to Mark Welcome to purchase a bag.
If you have old sails that you would like to donate for next years collection, please let us know. As always, thank you very much for all the ongoing support of both the Sailing Foundation and the Sailing School. We simply couldn't function without it.

​The Saratoga Lake Sailing Foundation is extremely happy to announce that we have received a grant for $8,500 from the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust.  This grant will be used to replace the last 3 of the older Club FJ sailboats used by the SLSC Junior Race program.  This is in addition to the grant which we received last year from the Alfred Z. Solomon trust to replace the first 3 boats so our Junior racers go into 2020 with a complete new set of Club FJ’s all made possible by the Alfred Z. Solomon trust.

​In honor of Mr. Solomon and his generosity to our programs as well as the Saratoga community as a whole, the Junior Race program began awarding the Alfred Z. Solomon perpetual trophy for the SLSC annual FJ Horse Race Regatta.   The winning skipper and crew names of each years Horse Race is engraved on the trophy which is kept at SLSC in the Trophy Room.
 
The Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) was established to benefit nonprofit scientific, medical, educational, cultural, religious, and charitable organizations by funding project and programs in memory of the Trust’s founder, Alfred Z. Solomon. Mr. Solomon, a leader in the fashion industry, a horse racing enthusiast, and a philanthropist in Gansevoort, N.Y. and New York City, died on Sept. 4, 2004, at the age of 104, and founded the Trust in his Last Will and Testament.
 
We would like to personally thank Victoria Garlanda and Harry Snyder, trustees of the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust for their continued support of our efforts.

We are pleased to announce that the free Invitation to Sailing lessons for Malta residents will be returning in 2020. Last Thursday the GlobalFoundries Town of Malta Foundation held their annual awards presentation and we are pleased to announce that they will be supporting this program again this year.  We at Saratoga Lake Sailing cannot thank them enough for their continued support of our Free Malta Sail Days for 2020!  As many of you know, the Town of Malta Foundation has supported us for a number of years and this program has introduced hundreds of residents to the joys of sailing. 

The sailing schedule for 2020 is now online and the SLSC Sailing School is taking registrations at  http://www.saratogasailingschool.org/registration.html 

If you have a group of 9 or more residents (perhaps a bunch of neighbors and friends?) who would like to all try sailing together and have a great evening on the lake, please just reach out to us at [email protected]  and we'll be happy to set up a date for just your group.

We're looking forward to seeing you on the lake in 2020!

First and foremost, we must apologize for the lack of updates this year.  As many of you know, we are an all volunteer organization, so there are times when we get a little overwhelmed with all the activities (Foundation, Sailing school, work, life, etc.).  On the plus side, it is good to be so busy as it usually means all sorts of good things are happening!  Such is the case here, as we had a very busy year:

New fleet of racing boats: 
Due to the generosity of the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust, the Foundation was able to assist the SLSC Junior Racing team with the purchase of a new fleet of Club FJ sailboats. In honor of Mr. Solomon and his generosity to our programs as well as the Saratoga community as a whole, the Foundation established the Alfred Z. Solomon perpetual trophy for the SLSC annual FJ Horse Race Regatta. The winning skippers this year were Senja Matson and Izabella Czajkowski, congratulations!

Sail Donation program:
Thanks to the many SLSC Club members and others from the community who donated old sails to the Foundation.   We in turn traded them to the Sail Bags of Maine company who recycled them and turned them into new bags.  In return, we received a number of tote bags which we were able to sell to raise money.  We still have a few Flying Scot logo bags for sale.  We are continuing to seek donations of old sails in any condition so we can continue the program next year.

Boat Donation program:
The Foundation is continuing to accept donations of sailboats for either use in local sailing school programs or for resale in order to raise funds.   This year we accepted donations of a number of boats including but not limited to 2 Kestrels, a Laser, a Victoria 18, a 470, an O'Day Daysailor and currently finalizing the donation of a Herreshoff catboat. 

While the season is winding down, we have sold several donated boats recently.  We still have a number of boats which we are looking to sell, including the Victoria 18, several Flying Scots, a 470, a Hobie 16 and a Phantom.  If you are interested in donating or purchasing a boat, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Volunteers:
As you can imagine, all of these programs take some time to administer and we are always looking for assistance.  Currently the Foundation is actively seeking people to help with grant writing and also to help oversee the boat donation program.  If you are interested, please reach out to us at [email protected].
 
As always, we appreciate all your support.
 


 

​The Saratoga Lake Sailing Foundation is extremely happy to announce that we have received a grant for $13,500 from the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust.  This grant will be used to replace 3 of the Club FJ sailboats used by the SLSC Junior Race program.  This is part of an ongoing plan to replace the entire fleet of FJs in the racing program as well as associated equipment used for travel to and from regattas.  The Junior Race team currently races using six Club FJ sailboats built in the 1980’s.  While these boats have served the team well for a number of years, they have reached a point where they need to be replaced.  This would not have been possible without the support of the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust.  In honor of Mr. Solomon and his generosity to our programs as well as the Saratoga community as a whole, the Foundation will be donating the Alfred Z. Solomon perpetual trophy for the SLSC annual FJ Horse Race Regatta.   The winning skipper and crew names of each year will be engraved on the trophy which will be kept at SLSC in the Trophy Room.
 
The Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) was established to benefit nonprofit scientific, medical, educational, cultural, religious, and charitable organizations by funding project and programs in memory of the Trust’s founder, Alfred Z. Solomon. Mr. Solomon, a leader in the fashion industry, a horse racing enthusiast, and a philanthropist in Gansevoort, N.Y. and New York City, died on Sept. 4, 2004, at the age of 104, and founded the Trust in his Last Will and Testament.
 
We would like to personally thank Victoria Garlanda and Harry Snyder, trustees of the Alfred Z. Solomon Charitable Trust for their support of our efforts.

Do you have some old sails that you’d like to get out of your house?  We do too! 
The Foundation is always looking for new ways looking to try and raise some money to support local sailing.  Our goal for this winter is to raise money to go towards upgraded FJ’s for the SLSC Jr. Race program.   As part of that effort we are working with Sea Bags Maine to collect old sails that are no longer being used and trade them in towards the new bags that Sea Bags creates using recycled sails.  The Foundation will then be offering the new bags for sale to raise money for the newer FJ’s.
 
We hope this is a win/win for everyone as you can get rid of old unwanted sails and we can raise some much needed money for better Jr. Race boats (while the Purple Monsters have served the team well over the years, they are getting quite tired).
 
All you need to do is shoot us a note at [email protected] and let us know what you have to donate.  If you are local and can drop them off at the Club, great!  If not, we can arrange to come to you and get the sails.   We can provide a  donation letter for tax purposes. 
 
While we're on the subject of donations, we also do accept donations of sailboats as well.  To date we have accepted donations of well over a dozen boats from both SLSC members and non-members. Some of the boats that are donated will be used by either the SLSC Sailing School or individual fleets when they are appropriate. Other donated boats are cleaned up and fixed in order to be sold to raise money for other Foundation efforts, such as supporting the new fleet of junior boats for the sailing school.

Please keep in mind that we simply can’t accept all boats that are offered to us, as we are a volunteer group and project boats that require a lot of work before they are usable or can be sold are hard for us to accept. If there’s any doubt, please reach out and we’d love to take a look and discuss. The Foundation is a 501(c)3 charitable organization so we can offer a donation letter for tax purposes. 

Thank you for all your support!

As has been discussed, our current main focus is on fundraising in support of the purchase of a new Junior Fleet for the SLSC Sailing School. In addition to this site, we have launched a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SailSaratogaFoundation/ ) where we are currently accepting online donations. At this point, the Foundation has committed no less than $22,000 in the form of a grant to the Club to offset the purchase price. If you are considering donating towards this effort and have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us and we'd be more than happy to discuss the new fleet and our plans for the season. Other programs we are working on include:

Sailboat Donation Program
In addition to monetary contributions, the Foundation also accepts donations of sailboats. To date we have accepted donations of well over a dozen boats from both SLSC members and non-members. Some of the boats that are donated will be used by either the SLSC Sailing School or individual fleets when they are appropriate. Other donated boats are cleaned up and fixed in order to be sold to raise money for other Foundation efforts, such as supporting the new fleet of junior boats for the sailing school. There are multiple ways that you can help with this program:
     1. Donate a boat: If you have a boat that you would like to donate, please contact any Foundation board member (Mark Welcome, Greg Tkal, or Peter Hudson) to discuss. Please keep in mind that we simply can’t accept all boats that are offered to us, as we are a volunteer group and project boats that require a lot of work before they are usable or saleable are hard for us to accept. If there’s any doubt, please reach out and we’d love to take a look and discuss. The Foundation is a 501(c)3 charitable organization so we can offer a donation letter for tax purposes.
     2. Work on boats: We can always use help cleaning up and prepping donated boats for sale. We will be looking for assistance in the spring to uncover boats and get ready to try to sell them this spring.

     3. Buy a boat: We hope to have a number of boats available for sale this spring. They will all be posted to the “on the Block” section of the SLSC web site as well as this web page.

Employer Donations
A number of local companies have programs where they will donate cash to non-profits who are supported by their employees. Many of these programs are donation matching programs whereby the employer matches any donations that at employee or retiree makes to a qualified non-profit. Still others will donate cash to non-profits where their employees donate time as a volunteer. We have been fortunate to have many SLSC members donate their time to the Foundation (cleaning boats, teaching, promotion work, etc.) and also have their employers donate money to us on their behalf. Please check with your employer to see if they sponsor programs such as these.

ADK Outdoor Expo
The Foundation will be funding the booth at the Adirondack Outdoor Expo on March 17th and 18th to promote local sailing. We are always in need of sailors to help staff the booth and talk to potential sailors. This is being coordinated by Vice Commodore John Smith who can be reached at [email protected] If you have any questions at all, please feel free to reach out at [email protected] and thank you for your support!

As 2017 comes to a close, we are beginning to look forward to the 2018 sailing season.  Our major initiative for 2018 is to assist the SLSC Sailing School as they look to replace their fleet of Junior Learn to Sail boats.   Their current fleet of O'Pen Bic's and Lasers has served them extremely well.  However, many of the boats date back to the 1970's and 80's and are in need of replacement for a number of reasons, safety and maintenance requirements being chief among them.  In addition, there are a large number of new sailboats that are specifically designed for schools and feature low maintenance construction and extremely flexible rigging options to suit a wide range of students and skill levels.
During 2017, the Sailing School researched the available boats, test-sailed a number of them with instructors, students, SLSC Board members and interested SLSC members.   In the end, they settled on a fleet of Hartley 12.2's as well as one RS Quest that can serve double duty as a junior boat and also be used with those adults who would like to learn on a smaller dinghy.  
The purchase of this new fleet of boats will cost approximately $48,000, which is no small investment for a non-profit program that prides itself on keeping camp costs very accessible.  The Foundation would like to help offset as much of these costs as possible through appeals to SLSC Club members, past student families, sales of donated boats and grants that may be available.   We hope you will join us in supporting this worthy cause.