Lansing Sunfish regatta

this coming Saturday, Lansing Sailing Club is hosting their Sunfish regatta. this is the home lake for the Michigan State University sailing club.

retirement goal?

I saw this posted on the Sunfish Forum.

mid-life crisis? or perhaps just a solid retirement plan? either way that looks like a fun combination.

sailing log: Father’s Day 2021

two years in a row means it is tradition, right? for our 1st sail of the year was Father’s Day, I took all 4 boys down to Ford Lake near Belleville, Michigan. it was a lot of just drifting along, but still a great time with the boys.

my 2nd son chose to fish from the shoreline, but the other 3 boys all joined me out on the water – my oldest son on the Minifish and me on the Sunfish with the 2 youngest sons.

it was a hot and humid day, and sadly very little wind. plenty of jet-ski traffic around us as well.

the lighter winds allowed my youngest son to explore on the Sunfish.

he even pretended to be a pirate and jumped over to board the Minifish and sail with his older brother for a while.

3rd son took the tiller and mainsheet for a while.

all told, a great time. just hope for better winds the next time.

it’s miller time

Sunfish sailboats: the champagne of small sailboats.

for Sunfish sailor Bruce N., his interest in sailing started at a young age with a little help of a young lady:

One day a young female – 20ish, noticed that I wasn’t going in the water and took pity on a thirteen year old boy. From that moment on I knew I was in love. She had 13 foot EPS Snark. She took me out for about an hour sail and I knew I was hooked, sail is the only way to go! Later that summer the base offered sailing lessons, which I took. Unfortunately the girl and her Snark were never to be seen again.

Bruce’s introduction to the Sunfish sailboat came a few years later, when he was one of two winners to receive an entire Sunfish sailboat via a promotion by radio station WGRX in Baltimore. the caveat: the boat came with a branded sail, yellow in color, labeled “Miller Genuine Draft”.

photo by Bruce N.

[I was aware of several versions of branded Snark sailboat (Kool, Coke, 7Up, etc), but this is the 1st time I’ve seen a Sunfish with a branded sail.]

Bruce loved his free Sunfish – he called it “Free Breakfast”, and he car-topped it and sailed it all over the place to local lakes, rivers, and more. several times he has made the 250+ mile trip to participate in the long-distance Sunfish regatta – the Hampton Roads Sunfish Challenge. he finally broke down and got a trailer after 17 years of car-topping. over the years, he taught his children to sail with him, instilling in them the love of sailing as well.

photo by Bruce N.

erie open regatta

the Erie Open Regatta is coming up in a few weeks – June 5th and 6th at Erie Yacht Club in Erie, PA.

This Sunfish regatta may not be a District Championship or a World Qualifier, but come sail anyway at one of the nicest venues on the Great Lakes!

official notice of race is here.

3 versions of the modern Sunfish sail

here’s a new photo from Julian S. showing all 3 versions of the Farrar Sunfish “modern” sail that the Sag Harbor sailors are developing – you can see how they’ve made changes from the Mk 1 to Mk 3 sail.

pictured right to left:
#11 is Mk I
#1.62 is Mk. II
#888 is Mk. III
Behind 888 is a standard Sunfish sail