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| The Johnson Lake Yacht Club
was formed in 1968 to promote sailing and sailboat racing on Johnson
Lake, located 7 miles South of Lexington, Nebraska. That same year
the club held it's first Johnson Lake Open Regatta. June 21st 1997
marked the 30th anniversary for this classic regatta and a milestone
for the Johnson Lake Yacht Club. |
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| Nearly 40 boats from three states
competed in that first regatta where Nebraska Governor Norbert
Tiemann was a special guest. Bill French, Ord, won the overall
silver plate on corrected time, sailing a 20-foot wood 'celebrity
class' sailboat. French was a member of the Sherman Yacht Club.
Because everyone had different boats, the first races were sailed in
mixed fleets using the Portsmouth handicap system. By the early
1970s, the first one-design fleet started to form on Johnson Lake
and within a few years six to seven M-20 scows were regularly racing
on Johnson and in area regattas. In those early years, top sailors
from Johnson included the father-daughter team of Lee and Kris
Stewart and the father-son teams of Roger and Mick Sage and Steve
and Kayo Loudon. Stewart, Loudon and Sage, along with Stan Knudsen,
were among the charter members of the Johnson Lake Yacht Club. |
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| Also in the early 70's, JLYC
hosted a sailing symposium that featured Bill Bensten. Bensten
crewed for Buddy Melges in the 1972 Olympics when they won the Gold
Medal in the Soling Class. Later, In 1983, Buddy himself visited
JLYC and put on a seminar. |
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| When a new boat called the Laser
came onto the sailing scene, a record 22 Lasers sailed in the 1975
JLYC Open. The Lasers were joined by 51 other boats for a record
attendance of 73 boats. Top Laser sailors were Dale Hanna and Bruce
Smith. |
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| By the late '70s, the Laser and
the M-20 fleets were merging into the MC Scow. The MC fleet had 11
boats racing regularly by the mid-1980s. Top sailors included Jay
Sawyer, Lee Stewart, Dale Hanna, Bruce Smith, Riley George and Bill
French. Johnson Lake Yacht Club member Ernie French won the 1988 MC
Nationals at White Bear Lake, Minn. French noted the national
championship would not have been possible without the quality
calibre of local sailors to practice with and race against on a
weekly basis. |
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| JLYC sailors Ernie French, Jay
Sawyer and Bill French walked away with gold, silver and bronze
medals respectively at the first Cornhusker State Games held in
Lincoln in 1985. They sailed in the Laser class that had 26 entries.
At the same event Jay Huber won the silver medal in the very
competitive Hobie 16 class. |
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| A few years later, again at the
Cornhusker State Games, 11-year-old Noah French shocked the adults
when he won the bronze medal in the Lasers among a fleet of 20
boats. The next year, at the age of 12, he won the gold medal in
that division. |
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| Top Scow sailors from around the
country merged on Johnson Lake in 1989 for the MC National
Championships. A total of 59 boats from 12 states raced for four
days. Andy Burdick, Lake Geneva, Wis., edged 1988 U.S. Olympic coach
Gordy Bowers , Minnetonka, Minn. in a tie-breaker. Race participants
almost universally said the Johnson Lake Yacht Club Nationals were
among the most fun and best run regattas they had ever attended. |
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| In the early 1990s, sailors began
moving into the larger displacement cruisers that are now the
primary boats sailed in the Johnson Lake Yacht Club today.
Competition continues to get better as Johnson Lake sailors travel
to other regattas around the country and consistently bring home the
awards. |
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