The History of the C Scow Blue Chip Regatta
In the spring of 1960, Pistakee Yacht Club Rear Commodore John E. Looze, along with Dr. Alex Pomierski and Dr. Ralph Pomierski, approached the Board of Directors of the Pistakee Yacht Club to request permission to have the club sponsor a post-season regatta to be held the second weekend after Labor Day. The regatta would be called the Blue Chip Regatta and would be limited to the Class C fleet champions of all Inland Lake Yachting Association member clubs plus the winners of major regattas. Since Looze and the Pomierski brothers promised to underwrite any losses, while any profits would accrue to the club, the board accepted the offer! The First Annual Blue Chip Regatta was held September 17 and 18, 1960 with a fleet of 13 boats.
Looze assumed from conception that the ILYA member club secretaries (then 26 in number) would make note of their respective club champion and the chairs of the seasons’ regattas would note their winners and ultimately send him “legal certification” of qualifiers for the Blue Chip. A breakdown in communication brought only just a few more boats the next year, 17. The following year brought 21 qualifiers and then in 1963, he had 27 qualifiers.
It was at this point Looze conceived of the idea of increasing automatic qualifiers to include the top several finishers in each of the major association regattas and to eliminate the champions of member clubs. He also decided to appoint a secret and anonymous committee of five inland sailors known only to him and not even to each other. The “Fearsome Fivesome” was born! They had the task of determining who, beyond the automatic qualifiers, were most deserving of an invitation and then had to submit a ballot by mail of their top picks. It was Looze then who made the final decision to bring the total boats sailing to 25.
By the mid-60’s Looze, looking for new ideas to improve the regatta, decided to change the format from three races to five. And, in 1964, to add a little more excitement, he
concieved of the idea of inviting a “Mystery Guest” to test the best the “C” fleet had to offer. That first year, as the fleet sailed from the club and headed north to the starting line, out from behind Eagle Point to the east sailed a stranger with a “ ? “ on the sail. “Calamity Jane” Wiswell-Pegel, a current Class M Champion, was sailing the boat while maintaining a low profile in the cockpit! She surprised them all and finished in the top half of the regatta! Thus was born the annual selection of a special guest to compete against the invited C skippers. Blue Chip Mystery Guests have included many world class skippers with Olympic and America’s Cup experience. Some of the more noteworthy Blue Chip Mystery Guests included Buddy Melges (’65 and ’72), Ted Turner (’70), John Kolius (’01 and ’09) and Sally Barkow (’10).
Friday Pork Chop Dinner
In the late 1960’s, as more and more sailors began to come from Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan, often arriving the night before the regatta, it was thought that a Friday evening social get-together would be in order. A group of Wisconsin sailors, spearheaded by Tom Sawyer, Wally Schmidt, Lou Morgan and Bob Schieble, agreed to host an All-You-Can-Eat Friday evening pork chop and sweet corn roast. This annual Friday night party continues to this day as a marvelous kick off to the regatta, allowing sailors to get acquainted and exchange ideas on equipment, rules and techniques. Conveniently, back in the day, the ILYA Class C Fleet Committee convened its fall meeting at “High Noon” on that Friday before the Blue Chip and then descended upon the pork chop party to dispense all sorts of wisdom resulting from the previous hours of “beery rumination”.
In 2010, Pistakee Yacht Club hosted the 50th Blue Chip Regatta. This was by far the largest
Blue Chip with 50 C boats on the line. The weekend was one of the most memorable ever
in the history of this prestigious regatta. The members of PYC really put on am amazing regatta. Many, many thanks to Michael Morgan for making the 50th Blue Chip a most memorable regatta.
Pistakee Bay and Okauchee Lake Partnership
As its membership numbers declined in the period around the Great Recession in 2007 through 2010, the members of Pistakee Yacht Club were challenged to muster adequate volunteers to properly host this prestigious event. After many passionate discussions, Board meetings and deep soul searching, a majority of PYC members reached the conclusion that for the good of the C Fleet and the sport of sailing, it needed to develop a partnership with a larger Yacht Club to ensure that the Blue Chip would continue to be the pre-eminent event for the C fleet in the Midwest. Under the leadership of Commodore Joe Twomey, in 2012 a cooperative agreement was reached to transition the Blue Chip Regatta from Pistakee Yacht Club to Okauchee Lake Yacht Club. It was agreed that Pistakee would operate the Blue Chip in 2012, and that Okauchee Lake Yacht Club members would support their efforts by assisting with the running of the regatta that year. This joint effort would not only assist Pistakee in running the 2012 event, but also help Okauchee gain a better understanding of how the regatta was run and, importantly, how to preserve its wonderful traditions. The agreement allows for Okauchee to operate the regatta starting in 2013, and Pistakee providing a mentorship role through the transition, with the intent to have the regatta operate in approximately the same fashion as it had since its inception. This cooperative effort between Pistakee and Okauchee was rooted in the two club’s long and closely linked history.
In the winter 2016/2017, a formal agreement was reached between the OLYC Board and the PYC Board that the C Scow Blue Chip travel back to its original host club, the Pistakee Yacht Club, every 5th year. The 58th Annual C Scow Blue Chip returns to Pistakee in 2017 and in 2018 it is back on Okauchee Lake. The members of PYC have been rebuilding their club since 2013, and have invested many hours and dollars to preserve this landmark sailing venue. Improvements include extensive remodeling of the men’s and women’s bathrooms, a new accessible bathroom and co-ed shower, and extensive work to improve the kitchen and paint the entire outside of the clubhouse and the interior Peterson Hall. New safety elements were added, and the sea wall was refinished. The Pistakee Yacht Club was ready to host the 58th C Blue Chip Regatta! The spirit of PYC is seen in its efforts to steadily rebuild its C fleet.
A new Community Sailing School @Pistakee was launched in 2011 and has grown to provide a diverse set of sailing programs, including summer “Learn to Sail” classes, Adventure Sailing, STEM @Pistakee, competitive high School Sailing, high school PE sailing classes and, new in 2017, SUP and Windsurfing classes.