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History of Sunfish Fleet 70

by Vic Manning

Sunfish Fleet 70 was re-established in 1987 by Mr. Tim Erwin, at the Austin Yacht Club (AYC), Austin, Texas. Previously Fleet 70 had been recognized as the Sunfish/Starfish fleet at AYC, but died out [of] lack of interest by the late 70’s.

With a growing interest in sailing a small boat that could be thrown in the water in just a couple of minutes and have fun on, Tim and friends (Bill Records, Shirley Slaughter, John Saunders, Steve Brown, Mike Strange, Vic Manning) re-formed the old Sunfish Fleet and started playing in the Wednesday Night Laser Series Races. The whole thing was a hoot, with half the fleet now knowing how to race, playing bumper boats and doing more talking than racing. It didn’t matter, the idea was to play, have fun, drink beer and throw water balloons.

By mid-summer, Tim had been named the “Grand Wizard”, and the reputation of adults having fun on the water was spreading. Fleet Rule 70 was developed (girth measurement and age had to be more than 70 inches to be a fleet member) to keep the hard bellied serious sailors out. “The Fleet was for Fun.” The Fleet has so much fun that, during the first summer a number of people joined, bring the fleet to 15 members by year’s end.

The following year, fleet membership grew to 28, and again the Sunfish fleet joined the Lasers for Wednesday night racing. The same issues followed that year with sail controversy and non-Sunfish boats wanting to compete. A firm stance was taken and the issues were soon resolved. The fleet started seeing a little more intense competition from fleet members; the Laser Fleet ask[ed] the fleet to provide committee for Wednesday Night racing; a fleet championship race was held in August and the first Downtown Regatta for Sunfish only was sailed on Town Lake.

For 1989, a new Fleet Captain, (Victor Manning) was elected, and the fleet saw a small growth of members but a large interest in the Wednesday night activity. Membership for 1990 grew to 45 paid members and an additional 15 participate in the Wednesday Night activities. The fleet also provided support to the Centerboard Fleet for committee duty in both series racing and two regattas. Our third Fleet Captain elected at the 1990 annual meeting was Shirley Slaughter.

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