Not too late to be first mate

Nita MacCracken was in her late 60s when she first put her hands on the tiller of a sailboat.

But 15 years later, the Laguna Niguel resident is sailing like a pro, enjoying sailing as a first mate almost every Monday. MacCracken is a member of the Friends of Oasis Sailing Club, which takes to the sea seven days a week, even during winter.

On her first time out, skipper John Kraus let MacCracken take the wheel immediately.

“He lets you right away be in charge of the boat,” MacCracken said about her first time aboard a sailboat. “And I thought, heck, it’s a big ocean out there and there’s nobody to hit, I guess I can do it. Then you get a feel right away of the boat and of sailing, and it was just so freeing out there.”

Everything she needed to know to become a certified first mate — a mate helps the skipper aboard the boat — she said she owes to Kraus, a Newport Beach resident, who is a skipper and former commodore in the sailing club.

“Nita MacCracken is my usual mate, and she didn’t know a thing about” sailing, Kraus said. “So I taught her what I knew, and she became the second certified mate in the club, and she’s really good, as a matter of fact. I don’t even have to tell her what to do, she knows before I even say it.”

The club began in 1986 at the hands of John Feeley. In the club’s infancy, members used a 25-foot sloop to cruise around the Pacific right outside Newport Harbor.

In 1988, a member donated a Catalina 27-foot sloop to the club and christened it Oasis.

Fast-forward to 2006 and the club has grown from about 15 members to about 100. The club now has two 30-footers — the second of which was christened Oasis III last week after the money for it was donated to the club.

The club made about $10,000 in improvements to the Newport 30 sailboat, including adding a global-positioning system unit and a proper head.

“The purpose of the sailing club is to make sailing available to a lot of us who have owned boats or sailed before and who decided not to go through all the hully-gully of owning one,” Kraus said.

The club’s goal is to bring people with common interests together.

“We really enjoy going out and always have a lot of fun out on the boat,” Kraus said. “Our members are very compatible with one another.”

For MacCracken, it was a good way to meet people when she moved to Orange County from Northern California after she became a widow.

“I’ve become good friends with the people who I sail with…. When you’re sailing that long with these people, you get to know them because you’re out all day with them through all kinds of weather and all sorts of incidents that happen when you’re sailing,” MacCracken said. “You get to know them pretty well — all while relaxing and just talking about life.”

MacCracken and Kraus try to sail every Monday, but the 17 skippers and 11 mates can go out every day. Both boats are docked in Newport Harbor.

The Friends of Oasis is a nonprofit corporation that raises money, enlists volunteers and organizes clubs and functions for the Oasis Senior Center in Newport Beach.