Posted: Wednesday, September 28, 2016 11:34 am | Updated: 2:01 pm, Wed Sep 28, 2016.
With fall officially here and a chill already in the air, most locals have likely abandoned the shores and waters of Silver Lake in favor of apple picking and hayrides. While it may be the end of the sailing season, Warsaw resident Jim Aker is using the time to plan something special for next year’s season: the return of the Silver Lake sailing club.
According to Aker, the sailing club -- and much local enthusiasm for the sport -- fell by the wayside back in 2005. However, he and other lakefront locals Mike Emerson and Tom Purcell are now resurrecting the club.
"The club goes way back, it's over 50 years old," Aker said. "The Lightning class was the class of boat on the lake back then, and back in 2005 was the last Harvest Regatta. Since then, everything's kind of fizzled out; people move and do other things, have other interests. But here we are today trying to build this thing back up. We're going into 2016-2017 with very minimal membership, but we want to make it grow."
The club's goal is to increase the sailing community, both in numbers and in spirit. With Rick Fish of the Club at Silver Lake offering his facility as a "home base," Aker said he hoped the sailing club would would promote a family-friendly atmosphere and activities. Eventually, Aker said, that would mean bringing back events like races and regattas, but one of the club's immediate goals is to introduce sailing to a new generation.
"Probably in 2018, we want to start a junior sailing program for the kids," Aker said. "If we got big enough and formalized enough, we maybe have invitational regattas, where we invite other areas of the state or country with certain types of boats,, and we'd sponsor a regatta maybe once a year or twice a year."
The club is still small at about 10 members. Aker said he hopes to grow by 20 or 30 percent each year,, hopefully reaching 30 to 40 boats. That goal may be a ways off, but Aker said lake residents are already welcoming boats back to the lake.
Everybody's all excited about this, that it's coming back," Aker said.
According to Aker, the sailing club -- and much local enthusiasm for the sport -- fell by the wayside back in 2005. However, he and other lakefront locals Mike Emerson and Tom Purcell are now resurrecting the club.
"The club goes way back, it's over 50 years old," Aker said. "The Lightning class was the class of boat on the lake back then, and back in 2005 was the last Harvest Regatta. Since then, everything's kind of fizzled out; people move and do other things, have other interests. But here we are today trying to build this thing back up. We're going into 2016-2017 with very minimal membership, but we want to make it grow."
The club's goal is to increase the sailing community, both in numbers and in spirit. With Rick Fish of the Club at Silver Lake offering his facility as a "home base," Aker said he hoped the sailing club would would promote a family-friendly atmosphere and activities. Eventually, Aker said, that would mean bringing back events like races and regattas, but one of the club's immediate goals is to introduce sailing to a new generation.
"Probably in 2018, we want to start a junior sailing program for the kids," Aker said. "If we got big enough and formalized enough, we maybe have invitational regattas, where we invite other areas of the state or country with certain types of boats,, and we'd sponsor a regatta maybe once a year or twice a year."
The club is still small at about 10 members. Aker said he hopes to grow by 20 or 30 percent each year,, hopefully reaching 30 to 40 boats. That goal may be a ways off, but Aker said lake residents are already welcoming boats back to the lake.
Everybody's all excited about this, that it's coming back," Aker said.
For more information, visit silverlakeassociation-wny.org/sailing, or email Aker at aker230@yahoo.com.
I am so glad top know there will be sailing on Silver Lake again. I grew up here watching the sailing on Sundays. I loved seeing it start up again. I even took pictures and posted them on Facebook.
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