Lake Keepit Sailing Club – General Building Fund

Lake Keepit Sailing Club

Lake Keepit Sailing Club was established in 1960 and was built and run by volunteers since that time. The Club runs Learn to Sail courses during school holidays in spring and summer each year, run by accredited trainers and volunteers from the Lake Keepit Sailing Club assisting. The Club encourages the parents to participate in the Learn to Sail courses with the children as this normally allows for the whole family to be involved and continue sailing after the course.

Lake Keepit Sailing Club is the only sailing club in the Northwest area of NSW that provides the Discover Sailing Centre with accredited sailing instructors that promotes Learn to Sail courses, which focusses on families, to encourage Women and Girls to participate in sailing on the lake. The club is a registered not-for-profit organisation and is run entirely by volunteers. The club objective is to promote sailing for everyone and to provide boats, so that families can learn the fundamentals of sailing without having to purchase a boat first.

The volunteers are spending hundreds of hours a month on club improvements, with new women's change rooms to provide better access to experience sailing in a safe environment.

Why is the Club raising funds? We need your help.

The focus of the club is to provide facilities for Women and Girls to participate more in sailing by providing access to everyone to participate in Learn to sail courses at Keepit Dam at a discounted rate using the club boats and Club House facilities. The current bathroom facilities are less than adequate for the needs of women and girls.

The Club members have been volunteering for over two years building and renovating the Clubhouse again to provide additional toilets and showers for girls, women, boys, and men as well as an access bathroom on the middle deck that will all be a new modern facility to accommodate more people to participate in sailing and enjoy the club facilities.

To complete the bathrooms, there is new infrastructure that is required to comply with the building specifications with a new Fire Hydraulic System, more electrical with emergency and exit lighting, and plumbing with an upgrade to the septic system. The club still has more water proofing, tiling and bathroom fit out to complete the current project when funds and volunteers are available. There is also a set of stairs from the middle deck to the top deck to provide internal access. The Club must provide another access door at ground level for wheelchair access and a ramp to obtain the Building Occupational Certificate.

The Club has invested funds raised by the members with a great achievement in getting the bathrooms to this stage with the wall just recently plastered by local tradesmen. The first stage of the electrical and plumbing has been completed. The Club is now in need of more funds to progress with completing the women’s bathroom first than progressing to all the other components of the building.

The Club House is also in need of general repairs and maintenance with some timber that has aged and been damaged by birds on the outside of the building over the past 64 years. The club members are willing to volunteer their time to complete the work given available funds to purchase the materials and tradesmen required to keep the historical clubhouse in good order for future needs.