Colorado Sail & Yacht Club

Hello CSYC Members,
We’re five nights away from our annual Fugawe night race! This has always been a very fun CSYC event.
If you’re not familiar with it, the race begins at sunset (following a social raft-up), and ends at midnight. The winner is the boat that has the highest average speed, corrected for rating,within that time span. The course consists of marks 2, 5, and 7, which will have lights on them. The start line is a pair of no-wake zone buoys on the south end of the lake, and the finish line is the marina channel markers. You must anchor south of the line, with sails doused and crew below, before the start. Then at sunset you come on deck, hoist sails, weigh anchor,cross the start line and round mark 7. After that you can round marks in any sequence you choose, but you can only loop the same pair of marks twice in a row – then you have to go to the third mark. For example if you round 7,2,7,2, then you have to go to 5 next. And so on.

Your goal is to cross the finish line at exactly midnight having rounded as many marks as you can.  More detailed instructions are in the attached PDF.

There will be a social raft-up starting at 6:00 pm down by Mark 6.  You can join the raft-up even if you’re not racing.  Please bring some food to pass around and share.

On July 26, 2025, the sun will set at 8:21 pm. That makes 3 hours and 39 minutes of racing. Instead of a full moon, the club has chosen this night for a dark race.  The waning crescent moon will set at 9:42 pm.  Also in past years we’ve had some really awesome breezes during this race.

I hope every boat in the club will join in the fun of this event!  Let’s make it a great turnout!  Right now I know Grenadine and Pass are participating; please feel free to reply and indicate that you are participating too!  The “RC” this year will be Grenadine.

The Fugawe Regatta rules for 2025 can be found at this link: CSYC Fugawe – July 26, 2025

Happy sailing!

Trey Hegstrom

Commodore

Ladies and Gentlemen of CSYC,

It is with great sadness that I write to tell you that on April 24th of this year Warren Benn, the owner and Skipper of Sweet Scarlet passed away after a long battle with cancer. Warren crewed several years for Linda DeLeon when she was the owner and skipper of Sweet Scarlet and bought the boat when Linda retired from sailboat racing. He was a fixture on Wednesday nights racing in the Capri 22 fleet for many years.  He was a long-standing, well-respected member of CSYC and just the nicest man you’d ever meet. Warm and friendly with a quick and subtle wit, Warren was always a pleasure to be with.

We will honor Warren’s memory with an on the water Eight Bells Tribute before Wednesday night racing on June 19th.

Since the age of sail, time has been marked by the ringing of the ship’s bell at every half hour. Eight bells were sounded to signify the end and the beginning of each four hour ‘watch’. The ringing of eight bells during the Mariner’s Eight Bells Tribute is a solemn moment signifying the passing of a mariner’s life. We will honor Warren and his influence on our lives by ringing eight bells – signifying the end of his watch.

All the sailboats participating in Wednesday night racing on 19, June are encouraged to attend. Bill Blunden and the crew of Sweet Scarlet will receive the tribute and conduct the ringing of the eight bells along with Warren’s wife Cathy, and his children Adam and Dana and some dear friends who will be aboard a pontoon boat accompanying Sweet Scarlet. When we sail by and place flower in the water (see instructions below) in addition to honoring Warren we will be thanking them for sharing Warren with us.

The Eight Bells ceremony will proceed as follows:

4:30pm to 5:30pm

• Boat skippers or their representatives can pick up flowers which will be cast into the water at the stern of Sweet Scarlet as our boats sail by on a starboard tack. One stem for each crew member is appropriate. There will be one bucket of flowers in front of the Marina building and a second bucket at the top of the south boat ramp for our trailer sailors.

5:00pm

• The race committee will leave the dock earlier than usual to set up the start line at buoy “0”.

5:30pm

• Sweet Scarlet will leave their slip to join with the Benn family on the pontoon boat and anchor 100 yards to windward of the start line. Sweet Scarlet will be flying an American flag and a Canadian flag from their masthead.

5:30pm – 5:50pm

• All participating sailors should plan to be in the area of the race committee boat no later than 5:50pm.
• Please maintain radio silence.

5:50pm

• The crew of Sweet Scarlet will lower their American and Canadian flags to half-mast signifying the beginning of our tribute.
• Sweet Scarlet will then broadcast on Chanel 68, the eight bell tribute with four double taps of the ship’s bell.
• Once the eight bells have rung out, all members of the fleet will sail single file past Sweet Scarlet and The Benn family and guest’s pontoon.  We will sail windward of the start line and leeward of Sweet Scarlet and the Benn family pontoon.
• Sail past astern of Sweet Scarlet and the Benn family on a starboard tack, and cast your flowers into the water as you pass by.
• Please make every attempt to sail single file, allowing about 2 boat lengths clear astern of the boat in front of you.
• Once we have passed astern of Sweet Scarlet, we should sail to the pin end of the start line, jibe around the pin and sail to the committee boat end of the line.
• If weather permits, luff in position well to leeward of the committee boat and the start line until everyone has a chance to pay tribute.
• Once the fleet has paid tribute, Sweet Scarlet will strike their colors (take down their flags).  The Benn family and their guests will motor back to the docks.
• As this event promises to be highly emotional, the race committee will delay posting the ‘L’ flag until an appropriate amount of time has passed. When the ‘L’ flag is up, racers can begin checking in.

June 19th is very close to the longest day of the year so a late start can be easily accommodated.

On behalf of the Benn family and the Skipper and Crew of Sweet Scarlet, thank you CSYC for honoring Warren in this time-honored way.

Sincerely,

Mark Lindeman

CSYC Commodore

Hello CSYC Members,

Now that the holidays are over and the possibility of some relief from the pandemic, we can begin to look forward to Spring and the start of another sailing season. It is closer than you think! I want to welcome back our members to the 2022 edition of the Colorado Sail & Yacht Club. I would also like to introduce our 2022 Board of Directors, as well as provide a quick summary of our plans for the 2022 sailing season.

Commodore – Dean Lenz – Capri 22 – Tranquility

Vice Commodore – Mark Lindeman – Capri 22 – Icarus

Secretary – Scott Haerbig – Flying Scot – Queen Bee

Treasurer/Membership – Brooke Moreland – Catalina 25 – Autumn Winds

Race Director – Michael Kline – J22 – Naughty Moose

Social Chair – Lauren Klepac – Why-Buy

Webmaster – Larry Morland – Catalina 25 – Rainbow Chaser

Dinghy Chair – Open

Recent Past Commodore – Gary Simon – J22 – Chance

We also have our advisory panel of past Commodores: Robert Kline, Trey Hegstrom, Dan Griggs, & Ken Ross

The primary board members can be reached through the “Contact us” tab on the CSYC website. Feel free to drop us a note on anything you wish to know or comment on about the club!

We’ve been working on our plans for 2022. First on our agenda is the Wine and Cheese party that will be held at the Ken Caryl ranch house on Saturday, March 19^th.   This is a great time to reconnect with fellow club members and meet a few new sailors as well. Invitations have been sent out with all the details. This event is open to members and non-members so if you have someone who might be interested in sailing, bring them along!

We have our 2022 Skippers meeting on April 9^th at the Marina starting at 10:00 am. We will walk through what we have in store for racing this spring and summer along with a quick rundown of any rule changes, a short safety briefing, and a refresher of the operational aspects of the committee boat. We’ve also opened this meeting to non-members with an opportunity for those looking for crew and to get to know potential new members.  Our fleets are still strong, with growth in the J22, PHRF, and Flying Scot fleets as well as increased participation of the Why-Buy J22 boats. We are excited to have many new faces. Even if you are a seasoned racer who thinks you’re already up to speed, there’s bound to be something new and you will enjoy reconnecting.  So, join us!

This year, as a precursor to the beginning of series racing, we plan to hold a practice race on April 13^th. Those who are in the water can take the opportunity to shake off the remains of winter’s wear and tear, tune up your rig, and dust off your crew. This race will not count in the series standings, it’s just for fun.

Our racing season dates are set on our calendar with keelboats starting on April 20th and the dinghy season starting May 24^th. So please log on to (www.csyc.org/calendar) for all the 2022 dates. Of course we have not left out the FAGAWI, and Pursuit races.

Finally, you may have heard from previous years about our bi-weekly Monday night Practice: a meet up and beer can race around marks. We are finalizing our plans for this event but it’s safe to say it is just an excuse to get out on the lake with friends and potentially meet up with new sailors to encourage them to buy a boat and join our club.

I hope you are getting excited for the sailing season, and I look forward to seeing everyone on the lake! Don’t forget to log on to csyc.org for club information and interesting articles.

Fair winds and good sailing!

Dean Lenz

2022 CSYC Commodore

Commodore@csyc.org