Boating on Lake Hefner

Organized boating activities came to Lake Hefner in 1946. The Oklahoma City Boat Club moved to Lake Hefner from Lake Overholser, before any water flowed into the reservoir, and began construction of their new harbor and docks. A sailboat rental/lesson concession on the east shore immediately north of the Boat Club followed in the 1960s. In 1971, the Central Oklahoma Sailing Association, an unlimited and open membership sailing club, was founded at the Sailorama rental concession. It later moved to the Marina and grew to over one hundred members.

From that organization, the Hobie fleet emerged as a club in its own right and moved to Hobie Point in the 1970s. A second catamaran organization known as the Oklahoma Catamaran Racing Association was formed. This organization soon grew to 120 members and was sponsoring several national class regattas annually, with production budgets reaching $4,000.00, bringing an estimated 200 sailing crews and over 4000 vendors and visitors to Lake Hefner each time. The home port of this organization became known as OCRA beach and was located on the east shore of Fireman's Cove east of the Municipal Harbor.

Another sailing group developed for board sailors began on the east shore. Known as the Central Oklahoma Boardsailing Association or C.O.B.A., this organization has varied in size from 200 to 400 active members. The extreme fluctuations in size have been traced to the uncertainties and interruptions caused by highway construction and lake development plans.

Today, dozens of active one design class and handicap racing fleets are active at Lake Hefner. These fleets are either members of larger organizations or are functioning as independent sailing clubs. Sailing programs were also established by the Boy Scouts of America, The Girl Scouts of America and The American Red Cross all of which are currently active at Lake Hefner. Beginning in 1989, sailing programs were severely disrupted by low lake water levels, and many boats were permanently moved to other lakes and some major regattas were relocated to Edmond.