July 2022 Papoose Article

The Yacht Club’s annual Fireworks Picnic was the second party of the season for us – preceded in June by the Gabor Cup Regatta race and party. More to come – so watch for news on our webpage. The Sailing Lessons for both juniors and adults are our major events for July. Many graduates of the lessons have gone on to join our Club and enjoy sailing our Club-owned boats. We have several Sunfish and Snipes which can be used by members whenever they are not being used for the sailing lessons. A good way to continue learning about sailing is to join a racing boat as a crew member. We schedule races every Sunday afternoon from May to October, and will be holding some weekday early evening sailing events as well. We will post that information on our webpage www.LakeMohawkSailing.org and the LMCC Members Facebook page.

This month we have a story about finding crew, submitted by Rich Miner, who has had many different crew in his 44 years of sailing on Lake Mohawk. Here are his Crewing Chronicles:

This is a story of serendipity, or more precisely how luck seems to find you when you’re looking for it. In 1978, one year after we moved to the lake, we were invited to a Yacht Club party and learned that Tom Allen, a Lightning builder, was coming through town that evening with a boat he’d built and raced and he’d like to sell it. We bought it and the next morning several yacht club members put it together for us since we didn’t know much about Lightnings, and then when almost finished they left to get their own boats ready for the Sunday racing. Young Jim Nolan walked over to us and asked if we needed a crew since his skipper hadn’t shown up. We said we needed instructions more than crew at that point, so he finished setting up the boat for us and off we went to the starting line in time to join the race. Jim coached us through those first two races – even sailing the spinnaker for the first time - and we didn’t finish last! We had just joined the Yacht Club and have been racing Lightnings ever since. We sailed the Allen boat until 1993 when we bought our current Lightning from Nickels Boat Works.

A Lightning needed 3 crew members to be counted as racing. Club members often got their kids and friends to race with them. One Sunday, in another serendipitous example when we didn’t have a crew, teenager Sharon Daniels said, “Why don’t you try next door and ask Terry Singleton.” So I rang the doorbell of the old farmhouse next to the club, Terry came to the door, I asked if he would crew. He looked down at what he was wearing, which was pretty rumpled, and said “Yeah I guess I’m ready” and he walked out the door and crewed with us for the next several series and our first Metropolitan Lightning Districts Regatta.

At one Yacht Club winter party, we were lamenting our lack of crew for the next season and a club member offered his two teen sons. Other skippers overheard and started bargaining over the boys. For the next few years both Allen and Teddy Freeman crewed with us and other Club members on and off, sometimes showing up sleepy and barefoot, but they learned fast and were very good crew.

Some years later, knowing we needed a crew, Bill Cook of the Nyack Boat Club suggested that I call Bill Devlin, who was living in Dover at the time. So I called Bill and he sailed with us on and off the lake for five years, including winning the New Jersey Lightning Championship on Greenwood Lake. Then Bill and his wife Marilyn moved to Lake Mohawk and he bought his own Lightning to race.

In another example of serendipity, Edgar Braendle walked down to the Yacht Club one Sunday morning with his 3 year old daughter Lena on his shoulders and we started talking. Edgar said he had two sailboats in Europe and just wanted to crew here. For the next several years, Edgar crewed with us, including sailing the Magnus Pedersen Regatta at the Nyack Boat Club on the Hudson, before his work in oncology research took him to faraway places. Similarly, Ken Potts came over to the Yacht and told us about his sailing out of Shelter Island, and he sailed with us for about five years. Our current crew, Bob McNamara, also came down to the Yacht club one Sunday. We chatted for a while, showed him our Lightning and he started crewing with us.

What skippers are looking for in a crew member is someone willing and able to sail regularly on Sunday afternoons and of course have sailing experience or at least be athletic and eager to learn. Some skippers need 2 crew members so families and friends might sail together. Here are some pictures of crew recruits from our Jr. Sailing Program and friends. You don’t need to join the Yacht Club or even live in the Reservation to be a crew. I hope this story encourages some Papoose readers who want to sail to get in touch with us and try crewing. Send emails to: LakeMohawkSailing@gmail.com

Until next month, Smooth Sailing and God bless America!

Submitted by Gail Miner