As part of the Club's mission to promote sailing and water sports instruction, a group of members formed the Crooked Lake Sailors in 2010 to provide sailing lessons and classes for both adults and youth. Information on the 2023 Adult and Youth Sailing Classes
can be found at www.crookedlakesailors.org Please join us for our Photo Scavenger Hunt/Fun-raiser - date TBD. Please click HERE to see how your donations can help this amazing program! |
2024 Spring Newsletter
Hello Members, Prospective Student Sailors, and Instructors:
We are looking forward to a fabulous sailing season! Each year we look for small ways to improve the sailing experience for our kids and this year is no different. At Crooked Lake Sailors (CLS), we sail to have fun, dispel fears, build memories and develop friendships.
This year the major change was hiring Ellie Graham as our Director of Instructors. Ellie has been with CLS since she was 8 years old, she became a junior instructor at age 14 and at age 16, she became a US Sailing Level One Certified Instructor. Ellie races with her family every week on Little Traverse Bay and also enjoys competitive dancing, field hockey and skiing. Ellie is currently attending Boston College majoring in Finance and Psychology. She is super excited about her new position as director and will bring this excitement to our program. Ellie has been busy throughout the winter months preparing for the 2024 sailing season. She has updated our website, developed a new T-shirt design, and hired new instructors. Thanks, Ellie, for working hard to get a jump start on our 2024 sailing season!
The Crooked Lake Sailing Classes will begin Monday, June 24th and continue through the week of August 5th. We have a good number of youth who have already signed up for our upcoming season; so to insure a spot for your child, please sign up early. We are thrilled all our instructors from last year will return and they will be joined with two recently recruited instructors. Most of our instructors are US Sailing, Level One certified.
CLS also offers a 3-week class for adults (18+ yrs), open to beginners interested in learning basic sailing ability, or more experienced sailors who'd like to sharpen their skills. Utilizing 2-person, 15 ft Harpoon boats with a main sail and jib, students will master skills such as knot-tying, rigging, capsize recovery, maneuvering and other sailing skills, all with an emphasis on safety and overall fun! Those interested can also learn to rig and sail smaller Sunfish and other
sailboats .The adult class is taught by two experienced instructors from 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm Tuesday and Friday evenings from June 25 through July 12. The class is limited to 6 students, targeting a 3:1 student to teacher ratio. Pricing is $325 per student. For more information, please contact Todd McKinney at toddmcknn@gmail.com or 858-243-7014.
Justin Steckley has formally joined our group as President. Justin is volunteering his time to help us with a number of activities including: administrative responsibilities, marketing, and several other tasks as needed. Justin is the father of Sebastian, one of our senior instructors and has 2 younger sons that are active in CLS. Justin is a local Petoskey resident and we welcome his assistance, input and energy!
Thanks to Max Mckinney, our former president and director of sailing, you can now order your favorite CLS swag directly off our website (www.crookedlakesailors.org) We will continue to add new items, so stay posted.
We will have a number of activities this season for our students and their families. For yacht club members and all CLS students and families we have our Friday hot dog lunch at 12:30 each week. One of our favorite activities is our Fiasco Day, which will take place on July 6th. CLYC members and our CLS students are encouraged to join in the fun; you may opt to bring your own sailboat or borrow one of our Sunfish boats. The CLS instructors set up a buoy course with very few rules, hence the term “fiasco”. After the race, there will be an award ceremony and ice-cream social. More information about the “Fiasco” will be forthcoming.
Our Fourth of July breakfast and participation in The Alanson Parade have been a big hit for our members and our CLS instructors. Look for us in the Alanson parade!
Finally, Crooked Lake Yacht Club will host a “Kids Party” on July 20th for all members’ children, more details to follow.
In closing, I would like to thank all the folks who have contributed their time, energy and effort so our sailing program can continue to thrive for the youth in our community as well as member’s children and grandchildren.
For questions, please visit our website at: www.crookedlakesailors.org (go to contact us) and/or contact the CLS phone @ 231 622-1605.
Sincerely,
Skip Magrum, Director of CLS
2024 CLS Bochure
CLYC Sunfish Racing Series - 2023 Recap and Results
CLYC Members,
We have now finished our Sunfish Racing series for 2023 and we have crowned new champions!
Our season consisted of racing every Wednesday and Saturday afternoons through the middle of the summer. We had very strong participation this year, with over 40 different people sailing in at least one race. Our youth racers (16 and under) we active, too, with 14 different sailors.
This season was typical Northern Michigan—we had all kinds of weather conditions from not enough wind to too much wind (and many capsizes!). Through it all, the participants built their sailing skills while having a great time on (and off) the lake.
This season we benefitted from a new program that allowed racers to borrow boats from Crooked Lake Sailors if they weren’t being used for instruction. This brought out several people who may not have their own their own boats, but were interested in racing. In addition, we are allowing members to store personal Sunfish in storage racks through the racing season, which is ideal for people who may not live on the lake but would like to join the fun. If you are interested in either of these options for next year, please let me know.
Without further ado, the season results area as follows:
In the Open (Adult) division, Keith Erke claims the title as season champion, followed by Todd McKinney in second and Jeannie Canada in third. Keith sailed a very consistent series to earn the title and his victory should inspire all of us to continue racing Sunfish well into our 70s! Jeannie gets a special shout out—she’s steadily improved over the last several years and her performance really came together this year for a podium finish.
In the Youth division, Teddy Hartzell came out on top followed by Juaquin Steckley and Cabel Clark. Teddy showed mastery each race day by competing very well with the adults and winning the youth division comfortably. In the battle for second, Juaquin edged out Cabel by just a single point! I was so pleased to see our youth sailors improve through the summer.
Thanks to our race committee (Elizabeth Fletcher and Ellie Graham) for running great races and to all CLYC members for your support. Our sailing program, is focused on fun and is easy to get involved in. If you or anyone you know has any questions or would like to get involved with sailing next summer, please reach out to me.
Thanks,
Michael Graham
CLYC Rear Commodore
 | Empty SailA young sailor sits quietly, His sailboat still, No wind to guide him at will. He waits patiently for a breeze, To carry him across the seas, But the water remains calm, As if holding him in its palm. Yet the sailor does not fret, For he knows he'll get there yet, With determination in his eyes, He'll navigate the waters, wise. And when the wind finally blows, His sailboat swiftly goes, Riding the waves with grace, A young sailor on a daring chase. |