CRUISING SAIL FLEET

BY JERRY GURTHET

What a year, 2021 will go down in the record books as a challenging year for all. The Cruising Sail Fleet was no different. We started out the year planning the season with many restrictions for gatherings and no real timeline for when those restrictions would be lifted. As any good sailor will tell you the trip is always full of course corrections and that’s what happened with the CSF fleet in 2021. We started the year in April with a firepit event at Monroe and in May we had a fantastic outdoor BBQ at Belmont. Both events were a great success and had great turnouts. I think everybody who attended was very happy to be in a big group for the first time in many months.

Summer came quickly and the restrictions for gatherings began to ease. The entire fleet was happy to have their boats back in the water and we all enjoyed a beautiful summer on the water. Although the Lady Skipper race was canceled because of severe weather we enjoyed our day at the club eating, drinking, and mingling. Most boats stayed the night and participated in a fantastic fleet review on a beautiful June Sunday. In August the fleet hosted disadvantage youths from SOS organization for a fantastic sail on the lake. I am not sure who enjoyed the cruise more the kids or the skippers who got to share their pride and joy boats for a fantastic afternoon. In September we did a weekend cruise to New Buffalo with a proper Saturday morning tailgater and some fine dinning at Timothy’s and Casey. The October event “Opera on the Lake” was a fabulous night of opera in the main dining room at Monroe. We will close out the year with our annual holiday party with gospel music, and then it’s onto 2022.

The Cruising Sailing Fleet is looking forward to a great 2022. We would love any new or old members who are interested in joining the fleet to contact the vice chair Jerry Gurthet about becoming active in our fleet. ✶