Oktoberfest was a fun time at the club. Guests dined on bratwurst, smoked sausage, sauerkraut, and hot homemade pretzels. Oompah band music filled the air and people were dancing polkas in the club.
Don’t miss the upcoming Sail-A-Bration and Commodore’s Ball.
All members are invited! Don’t miss the biggest party of the year!
Almost 90 members and guests came to Waukegan Yacht Club on Saturday, November 16, to celebrate the 2019 boating season, our racers and Commodore Jim Hellquist. The club opened at 6pm and our guests started to gather for cocktails and appetizers.
Dinner was served at 7pm. The buffet of mandarin orange salad, roast beef, chicken piccata, grilled vegetable medley and mashed potatoes was generous and delicious.
The sail awards were given out at 8pm. Among the winners were crews of Sirocco III, Spitfire, American Dream, Unplugged, FasTen, Elecktra and Lucille Marie. Click here to check out all the awards.
After the awards were completed, the band Sons of Chicago kicked off the dancing. The dance floor was full of revelers most of the evening.
Members and guests dressed in black and white and came to celebrate one of the BLUES, a truly American forms of music!
Dinner was Shrimp or Chicken Jambalaya and Red Beans and Rice and hot and moist cornbread!
The Waukegan Yacht Club hosted the annual Last Race Race the culmination of our racing season. This race has been held every year for many years since the club was founded. The race is sponsored in conjunction with the Kenosha Yacht Club who hosts the racers at their dock wall for drinks and dinner.
Fifteen boats participated this year, half coming from Wisconsin. Most arrived at the club around 0900. The club was opened and a bartender served the racers as they arrived. Many of the boats had to leave earlier from Kenosha to make it to Waukegan in time for the start.
The boats tied up along side the dock wall picking their spots carefully so they could get a good start at the proper time. The Last Race Race uses a Le Mans style race start. All skippers have to come inside the club and wait for their starting time, determined by a reverse PHRF calculation. The fastest boats are given starting times staggered to take into account their typical speed over distance.
Unplugged, a Waukegan boat, is readied for the start
The racers came in all sizes and the smallest was actually an 18-foot Buccaneer, which actually finished well up in the pack.
Racers came in all size, big and small, like this 18 ft Buccaneer.
The weather was cloudy with blustery winds coming from the southwest. Waves were one to two feet. Many boats launched their spinnakers after leaving Waukegan harbor or deployed spinnaker or whisker poles to sail wing on wing north.
The wind hit 15-20 knots at points in the race and running downwind the boats hit hull speed or better if flying their spinnakers. Many reported surfing on the fast moving waves. All the boats were moving quickly and promised to arrive in Kenosha in record time.
The following results are final. We have received confirmation of finish times by several participants. One racer noticed that our original handicapped starting times were incorrect due to an incorrect distance used from Waukegan to Kenosha. After correcting the error we applied the resulting difference to all finish times to achieve the following standings. We apologize for the previous error. Congratulations to all the participants in this fun race! If you notice your corrected time is wrong please contact Sail@waukeganyachtclub.com and we will update the results as soon as possible. (Updated 9/28)
| Place | Boat | PHRF | Corrected Start | Actual Start | Difference | Finish | Corrected finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DERAILER | 165 | 10:41:02 AM | 10:39:36 AM | 0:01:26 | 12:38 PM | 12:39 PM |
| 2 | JOAN CLAIRE | 153 | 10:43:48 AM | 10:42:00 AM | 0:01:48 | 12:50 PM | 12:52 PM |
| 3 | UNPLUGGED | 168 | 10:40:21 AM | 10:39:00 AM | 0:01:21 | 12:54 PM | 12:55 PM |
| 4 | MADCAP | -30 | 11:25:53 AM | 11:22:00 AM | 0:03:53 | 12:53 PM | 12:56 PM |
| 5 | PATRIOT | 150 | 10:44:29 AM | 10:42:36 AM | 0:01:53 | 12:58 PM | 1:00 PM |
| 6 | KOOKABURRA | 132 | 10:48:37 AM | 10:46:12 AM | 0:02:25 | 1:02 PM | 1:04 PM |
| 7 | RHEA | 213 | 10:30:00 AM | 10:30:00 AM | 0:00:00 | 1:07 PM | 1:07 PM |
| 8 | SIROCCO | -3 | 11:19:40 AM | 11:13:12 AM | 0:06:28 | 1:01 PM | 1:08 PM |
| 9 | SERENITY | 153 | 10:43:48 AM | 10:42:00 AM | 0:01:48 | 1:10 PM | 1:12 PM |
| 10 | TAKEDOWN-2 | 90 | 10:58:17 AM | 10:54:36 AM | 0:03:41 | 1:09 PM | 1:12 PM |
| 11 | LUCILLE MARIE | 186 | 10:36:12 AM | 10:35:24 AM | 0:00:48 | 1:14 PM | 1:14 PM |
| 12 | CARAMAR | 207 | 10:31:22 AM | 10:31:12 AM | 0:00:10 | 1:16 PM | 1:16 PM |
| 13 | SMOKIN’ J | 87 | 10:58:58 AM | 10:55:12 AM | 0:03:46 | 1:15 PM | 1:19 PM |
| 14 | FREEDOM | 201 | 10:32:45 AM | 10:32:24 AM | 0:00:21 | 1:24 PM | 1:24 PM |
| 15 | CLARA MARIE | 204 | 10:32:04 AM | 10:31:48 AM | 0:00:16 | 1:29 PM | 1:29 PM |
Boat Name:
Friday, September 27, 8:00pm
Come watch the worst movie about sailing ever made.
Contest and Games!
Win a prize for finding all the errors and goofs.
Club is open for dinner and drinks
The 2019 Waukegan Yacht Club race results are now posted on the site. It took a while to compile the results because some of the racers had not submitted complete racing applications earlier.
The Pig and Corn Roast on Sunday celebrated the First Annual Mayor’s Regatta. Spitfire was declared the winner of the regatta and received an award directly from Waukegan’s Mayor, Sam Cunningham. The mayor participated in the race by sailing on Sirocco 3. Unfortunately, some boats forgot to mark their times of finish and could not be scored.
Once all the racers made it back to the club the Pig and Corn Roast formally began.
The tables were bursting with wonderful food, including Pulled Pork, Barbecue Ribs, Baked Beans, Creamy Hash Brown Casserole, Corn on the Cob, Taffy-Apple Salad, bread and muffins. Even the Mayor joined us for a wonderful meal.
The meat was traditional pit barbecue cooked at the club by member volunteers in a smoker using Apple wood chips.
Over 60 people went through the line and no one went away hungry. All the food was delicious and everyone had a great time.
The event was topped off by free shots of Mount Gay rum provided by the Regatta winner. If you didn’t stick around you missed out!
We want to give special thanks to our members who volunteered to prepare and serve the amazing dinner and run the Mayor’s Regatta:
Thanks go to Viki Rollins, Don Pound, Jeanne and Russ Valin (and their friend Karen), Susan and Jim Maivald and Howard Larson who helped to set up the tables and cook and serve the food. Thanks to Denise Lapins who made the Creamy Hash Brown Casserole and Taffy-Apple salad. Yummy!
More thanks go to Bob Christenson and Howard Larson who volunteered to operate the committee boat during the Regatta and Mark LeVan and Jim Hellquist who worked with the crew to set the race marks. You guys did an amazing job! If you see any of the volunteers around the club, give them a kind word.
Volunteers make this club work! Please consider lending a hand soon. There’s lots to do around the club and it won’t get done without you!
The Waukegan Yacht Club Cruisers completed a successful cruise to St Joseph, Michigan this Sunday. The weather was perfect and the lake provided no surprises.
Three boats had planned to cruise on Friday, but one had to drop out for personal reasons. The Cruisers departed from the fuel pier around 1100. The wind was fresh from the northwest and the boats were able to achieve hull speed for the first 20 miles. Unfortunately, the wind dropped to 3-4 knots and the cruisers resorted to their engines for the remainder of the journey.
The boats covered the remaining 40 miles in good time and arrived just after midnight Eastern time at the entrance of St Joseph. The boats docked at the St Joseph River Yacht Club shortly afterward and watched in amazement as a huge lake freighter backed out into the channel. From the conversation heard on channel 72, the freighter had actually waited until the cruisers had passed safely out of the channel.
Dawn found the cruisers in good spirits and ready to explore the town. Some discovered a breakfast venue nearby and then crossed the drawbridge into downtown St Joe. The main street was alive with people shopping and dining at the local restaurants. A farmer’s market was still in full swing in a park overlooking the lake.
A couple of WYC members flew over to St Joe and met the cruisers for dinner at the Yacht Club. Everyone had a wonderful meal and enjoyed the great company.
Sunday morning came early and the cruisers were up and ready to go. The sun was bright and the sky partly cloudy. The wind was fresh again this time from the southwest. As soon as the boats passed the last lighthouse sails were up and they were off toward Waukegan at hull speed.
The wind held most of the day until the boats came within 10 miles of home. Engines were revived and the last short distance passed quickly.
The first cruiser entered harbor around 6:00 pm. After the boats were tied up and closed down, the cruisers met for a celebratory dinner at Casa de Samuels on Belvidere in downtown Waukegan. A fitting end to a wonderful adventure.
You do not need to be a member of the Waukegan Yacht Club to cruise with us. All motor and sail boats are welcome. Come join the fun!
If you want more info, send an email to sail@waukeganjosephconrad.org.
The First Annual Mayor’s Regatta started at 1100 am with seven boats participating. The race was hotly contested as the boats raced around the innovative “W” course. The W shape was to honor the yacht club’s home in Waukegan for the last 92 years. Spitfire was declared the winner of the regatta and received an award directly from Waukegan’s Mayor, Sam Cunningham.
The mayor participated in the race by sailing on Sirocco 3. Unfortunately, some boats forgot to mark their times of finish and could not be scored.
The Mayor’s Regatta has been added to the club’s official schedule and is sure to become one our popular traditions.
