Dick Ward an Interlake #467 sailor and past member of Newport Beach Club (now PYC) introduced my dad to sailing the summer of 1964. Dick worked at a business just up the street from our home in Ann Arbor. He and my folks made arrangements to meet at my Aunt Annabelle Ehnis’s (Michael’s grandmother) cottage on Portage Lake, which we had always visited several times a summer. My mom (Liz), dad, sister (Laura), and I went out for the sail (not a race) and that was it. All I remember was that my sister (5yrs. old) and I (7yrs. old) sat on the floor, next to centerboard trunk, with wide eyes at deck level and water came over the edge of the boat a bit….

My folks must have really enjoyed that one sailboat ride because the following Christmas morning there was a wooden Sailfish Sailboat kit (flat deck no cockpit) under, well, next to the Christmas Tree. The box was flat and about 4’ by 4’ with the spars and long boards separate. When the boat was finished by spring, it was just under 14’ long by 3.5’ wide and barely made it past the turn up the basement stairs. Then it was carried through the kitchen, dining room, and living room and out the front door (all with tight spots)…whew what a site. We sailed it a couple of times that summer at the cottage. Apparently my folks thought that wasn’t enough so we began sailing and racing at the Greater Detroit Sailfish and Sunfish Club, and by the summer of 1967 we were enjoying Portage Lake in front of our own cottage Dad still calls home.

In 1971 our family became members of PYC, partly because of the Junior Program. For several years we raced at both clubs, matching their schedules so as not to exceed the allotted throw-outs at either club. By now the Sailfish that weighed in at well over 200 pounds was retired. Replacing it were two and then three Sunfish.

In 1973 dad got his first taste of crewing when he and I traveled with Tom Ehman JR. to Long Island Sound for the Flying Scot North Americans to crew with Tom skippering. It was quite an experience, huge waves, salt water and tides somehow we ended up winning it. This was the week after we had attended the Sunfish North Americans as a group on Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. It was quite a site to see us on the highway (A Flying Scot with two Sunfish side-by-side on it and another Sunfish on top of a brown wood-grained station wagon).

Dad had remarried in 1976, and around 1979 he and Carole bought and raced Interlake #1189 for years as well as helped with PYC quartermaster duties. After a while, Carole’s interest in sailing declined and Dad returned to the Sunfish to finish out his sailing carrier of 35 years at PYC.