The Ocean Cruising Club

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Welcome to the OCC

A Vision for the Future: this attempts to define who we are as the Ocean Cruising Club, and what we stand for. 

The people in the Ocean Cruising Club represent the distilled essence of the cruising community, a potent combination of accomplishment, experience, idealism, eccentricity, generosity and humility. The sole qualification for full membership, the only ticket to entry, entails stepping aboard your boat, casting off the docklines and making a continuous ocean passage of at least 1000 nautical miles, measured along the rhumb line, in a vessel under 70 feet.

It is open to anyone aboard, either as skipper or certified as competent by the skipper.

There are two additional classes of membership; associate for those aspiring to cross oceans, and senior for those who have set their anchors ashore at a venerable age. Membership is about achievement, and the OCC welcomes those who qualify without restrictions; to this end, it has always enjoyed a high proportion of experienced and competent female sailors amongst its ranks.

Founded in 1954 by the late Humphrey Barton, the Ocean Cruising Club exists to promote long-distance cruising, in all its forms. From its earliest days, the OCC has celebrated those amateurs who dared to brave the ocean in small boats, and many of its early members are now legend: founder Hum Barton, Francis Chichester, David Lewis, Bill Tilman, the Reverend Bob Shepton, John Guzzwell and famed boat designers Rod Stephens, Bill Crealock and Colin Mudie are some of the many names on the books. Still to date, many of the world's most adventurous sailors have chosen OCC membership.

The only way to contribute is through assistance to others you meet along the way, through encouragement and mentoring to those who hope to follow in your wake. Just like the cruising community, the OCC is international, representing amateurs from every economic, political and social stratum. Everyone comes in as an equal; no one is judged except by Neptune: everyone fails sometimes.

But a cruising community has no fixed address:  it forms and reforms in different places at different times. In the same way, the OCC has no fixed premises, regarding the oceans of the world as its clubhouse. However, members sailing under the distinctive blue and yellow burgee with a stylized Flying Fish offer camaraderie and welcome, not just aboard but also ashore. A worldwide network of Port Officers and Roving Rear Commodores assists members in their passages and cruising, radio nets provide links and information, an active facebook page and lively online Forum connects members globally. Organised rallies and cruises in company, get togethers in different areas of the world are a great place to both meet like-minded people and assist those dreaming of heading off. A mentoring scheme makes use of both current cruisers and those who have retired to ensure that those leaving on a first passage are competent and well set-up.

The people in the OCC understand what it means to have a dream. More than that, they understand the exacting requirements of dreams; they accept the potentially devastating costs and have experienced the incalculable rewards.

To be a part of the OCC is to be a part of group of people who have said ‘yes’ to adventure and to life and who will welcome you if you choose to do the same.

Do you have your own sailing blog? How about adding the OCC logo to your page and hot-linking it to create another connection for OCCers?

New: an OCC Kids FB Page, a closed facebook group for sailing kids looking for other kids sailing.

Fabulous new video clip on OCC Maine Rally 2012 from Dan Alsonso and Kathy Reckling, new members!

A great video clip from Mark Holbrook on the OCC Youth Sponsorship Programme