HISTORY

Lauderdale Lakes Sailing Club
lauderdalesailingclub.com
MC Scow Fleet 55
2023 (56th year)

The Lauderdale Lakes Sailing Club has its roots in a group of friends
who were interested in sailing and began racing a variety of boats on
Green Lake in the 1960’s. In 1968, five of these individuals, Chuck
Bradley, Gordy Ward, Cal Beiswanger, Herb Stone and Bud Wiser each
bought a Melges M-16 boat from Zenda, Wisconsin (Melges Boat
Works, a.k.a. Melges Performance Sailboats) and began to race on a
regular basis.

In 1970, Skip Cartland bought a summer place on the lake and joined
in. Skip, an airline pilot, and a serious student of sailboat racing,
organized this group into what is now the Lauderdale Lakes Sailing
Club. Skip knew the rules, formalized the starts, and set up the
handicap system that has been used for more than 20 years. If there
is a single person responsible for the Club becoming organized, it
would be Skip Cartland.

In the mid 1980’s, the MC Scow-manufactured by Melges was gaining
popularity. This is a single sail scow that can be sailed with one or two
crew. Over the next 10 years, almost all the sailors would switch over
to this new design. At about this time, Rod Nystul and his wife, Jodie,
were elected Club officers. They generated so much enthusiasm and
interest in sailing that the Club membership more than tripled over the
next 10 years. We now have more than 20 MC Scows in the Fleet. The
Club owes Skip and the Nystuls a good deal of gratitude for the Club
we have today, as do many of its members who learned to sail under
their direction.

In the 1990’s, LLSC created a unique handicap system that handicaps
the faster boats. This results in every sailor having a good chance to

win a race. Over the past 10 years, we have averaged 8 or 9 different
First Place finishers in the 13 race Series. Club Regattas include the
Walsh Trophy, Founders Trophy, Beisswanger, Ladies Appreciation Trophy, Lauderdale Improvement Association Trophy, The ROJO Cup, the Cartland Cup.  We also  trophies for the top  4 finishers of the Summer Series and the three race LL Yacht Club Series. The final race of the
season is the Harry S. Truman Regatta sailed in all three lakes.

Past Commodores

Skip Cartland

Rod Nystul

Peter Van Kampen

Glenn Hansen

Ben Johnson