2 months have passed since the end of the CLYC season, yet the honors and breaking news keeps coming across the wire… Three major pieces of news came down from the ILYA on Sunday October 30th.

It’s no secret our amazing all-volunteer club organizes and runs amazing regattas. In 2022, regatta planning was taken to another level by Regatta Co-Chairs Margaret Osmundson, Andi Tisor and Kristin Ebeling running the ILYA X and Optimist Championships.  48 boats in the X Junior Fleet, 44 boats in the X Senior Fleet, 54 Red-White-Blue Optimists and 18 Green Fleet Optimists competed over 9 days in a range of conditions.  The racing was fantastic, however, the real work is in the land based activities which were orchestrated flawlessly.  This cannot happen without the MANY generous volunteers within our club.  All of these efforts have been recognized by the ILYA…

Donated to the ILYA in 1989 by Commodore Lou Morgan; The Commodore Lou Morgan Trophy may be awarded annually, and recognizes outstanding achievement or contribution by a club on behalf of its own membership, or the members of the Inland Lake Yachting Association. For the third time (2004, 2019, 2022), the Clear Lake Yacht Club and it’s members have been honored with the distinction of ILYA Club of the Year!!!  An enormous thank you and congratulations goes out to all the volunteers of the club for your efforts in organizing and running top notch events across our myriad of classes!

When you’re known for running great regattas, you’re rewarded with the opportunity to host more regattas… With that said; I’m very proud to announce to the club the second and third extraordinarily newsworthy happenings!!!

In August 2023 the CLYC will be the host of the 2nd Annual ILYA Melges 15 Championship.  Still in its infancy, the Melges 15 is becoming one of most popular one design classes in the country, with over 400 boats currently. Builder Melges Boat Works has hundreds more boats on order as well! Last year’s ILYA Championship consisted of 30 boats at Oshkosh Yacht Club in Wisconsin; the current projection is North of 50 boats for 2023!  Even though the announcement was made just hours before the start of the newsletter, the initial planning has already begun.  More details will come soon from the organizing committee!

August 2024 brings the GrandDaddy of them all…  That’s right, Clear Lake has been awarded the 2024 ILYA Inland Championships.  That means over the course of roughly a week, the A, E, C and MC scows will be racing in Clear Lake for some of the oldest Silver in the US!  This is a regatta unlike any we’ve hosted in the past.  Hundreds of boats, sailors, spectators, and support teams will be in town… Have no doubt friends, this will be the largest regatta in CLYC history and will take the gracious support from the entire club.  This is an event which has rotated between a handful of clubs for years; this is a real opportunity to put Clear Lake in a rotation to host this event on a consistent basis!

Get ready friends, it’s going to be a busy and exciting 2023 and 2024!  Until then…

Stay in the Clear Air,

Dan Allen
MC 2811 – Relentless
E Scow Z-11 – Wild Side
dsallen@cltel.net
www.clyciowa.com
www.clycss.com