Wawasee Yacht Club finishes the season with several winners

Labor Day weekend is the conclusion of the regular racing series for the Wawaee Yacht Club. The last race is held on Sunday and the awards are presented that night. This year has been another great year of racing as well as a year to recognize several members for outstanding contributions to the club.

Every Saturday, the Sunfish and I-20 boats race. There were more “no wind” days than normal for these classes. The days that did have racing were good breeze days making racing very competitive.

In the single-handed Sunfish class, local sailor Brad Wagnon once again took the season award by winning many of the individual races.

In the I-20 class, Emily Allen, sailing with her father Andy, also won the majority of the individual races and so captured her second title.

The E Scow and Lightning classes sail every Sunday. These fleets had better conditions through the season and so the overall champions were not decided until the very end of the season. In the Lightning class, local sailor Jeff Schmahl beat his son Andrew in the very last race resulting in his win for the season. In the E Scow class, multi-year winners Bob Herdrich, Bill Pipp and Herdrich’s daughter Chelsea Herdrich once again prevailed in a close battle over Dave Irmscher and team.

The junior sailing program spanned five weeks over the summer. Graydon Holt took home the Berkley Duck Award for top junior sailor. Zach Collins won the Tag Snook Corinthian Spirit Award. Mikala Mawhorter won the Youth Service Award for her outstanding work on race committee over multiple years.

The Wawasee Yacht Club also has two awards for contributions from women. The Women’s Service Award was presented to Erin Beesley for her great work as co-chair of the social committee and social media improvements. For the second time, Brandy Wright won the Nancy Blackwell Award for sailing excellence.

There was a special “Racer Emeritus” Award presented this year for long-time member Bill Allen. Trying to summarize his contribution to the club is difficult, but suffice to say, he started crewing on a Lightning in 1987, bought his own boat in 1993, and raced actively until retiring from racing last year. He served as race committee chair for 24 years, incorporating many innovative ideas to improve racing. He also traveled regularly to Lightning regattas, representing the club well wherever he went.