Shawnee Yacht Club - SYC

Photo 19 by Berne Ketchum, Dave Johnson, Thad Allton (maybe a couple of others)

George Chaffee El Toro

Welcome to Shawnee Yacht Club

Since 1941, SYC has promoted sailing on Lake Shawnee for the recreational benefit of the local community. In addition to the opportunity to sail on beautiful Lake Shawnee, the club provides: free sailing lessons for those new to the sport, sailboats for members to use, a fenced boatyard with a boat ramp, several docks (provided by Parks and Rec), a storage shed for equipment, sailing activities, racing, and social gatherings.

Questions? - Come Join Us

Current News

Five-Year Master Plan

12 Apr 2025

SYC has presented Parks and Recreation with a Five-Year Master Plan for improving our sailing facilities. The plan aims to increase sailing activity on Lake Shawnee and get SYC back on a more sustainable footing. We are currently negotiating with P+R staff for their support in moving forward with individual items in the plan. SYC's costs for some of these improvements will be substantial. Please consider making a contribution to help us with these facility improvements.

Comments?

One of Our Own in The Top 100

02 Mar 2025

Former Commodore and current SYC Resident Agent Eric Kjorlie was featured in the 2nd quarter 2023 Top 100 Lawyers publication.

SYC Annual Business Meeting

28 Jan 2025

The SYC annual business meeting was held February 2nd at 2:00pm over Zoom. Following are some highlights:

Due to sparse attendance at this meeting, we decided to delay nominating and electing the 2025 Board of Governors. Instead, that will take place at a breakfast meeting for all club members at the clubhouse on Saturday, May 3rd. The Spring Work Party will follow that meeting.
Sailing lessons will be the same as last year, monthly sessions of 4 lessons each on Wednesday evenings scheduled through Parks & Rec. There will be sessions in June, July and August, but not in September.
There will be 3 socials over the sailing season: The Spring Breakfast on May 3rd, 4th of July, and a fall social on September 7th.
We will be working with Parks & Rec to improve the dock at the launch ramp to make it longer and move it to deeper water and closer to the launch ramp.
With the boatyard nearing capacity, we will be doing some reorganization of parking spots and possibly moving some boats to better utilize the space.

For SYC members only:

Topeka, Forbes Field

56°F - Overcast

Wind

N 10 mph

Humidity

77%

10:53 PM

Coming Events

5/3, Spring Social, Breakfast, Elections, 9:00am, SYC
5/3, Spring Work Day, 11:00am, SYC
6/1, First Sun Racing & Group Sailing, 2:00pm-5:30pm, SYC
6/4, First Wed Lessons & Group Sailing, 5:30 pm-Sunset, SYC

SYC on Facebook

Shawnee Yacht Club - Topeka, Kansas

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Mark's Racing Blog

FUN FUN

Boy did we have fun Sunday! Well, some of us did. It might have been frustrating for some others. There was a major foul up at the start of the second race. Port end favored. Chuck hit the mark. Chuck hit Tony. I almost hit them both. Looked like it should be a general recall. The starting horn going off. All of us were wondering what was going on, just milling around in a state of confusion. Finally, it started looking like the race was proceeding without us. (The horns were for the next fleet.) "Racing" to catch up with Zach, who lead around the first mark. Down wind Tony and I were able to catch Zach, with Chuck close behind. I would lead. Tony would lead. Zach would lead. An epic battle!. It looked like Tony would round first but I was inside him, with Zach inside me. Chuck was closing up fast. Here Zach made a mistake by not heading up to protect his wind. I passed him to windward and passed him back to Tony who passed
him back to Chuck. End of Zach. End of race.
In the third race, Tony broke free and picked all the shifts correctly. I picked about half of them. Tony lead around the last mark and took the long tack toward the finish. Game over as it was a one leg tack to the finish. I followed dutifully behind. EXCEPT, that right at the finish, the wind shifted strongly to the right lifting me up almost even with Tony. At the finish line, I gambled with a sharp luff and nosed out Tony. This has never worked for me before and may never work again. Tony must be really frustrated about that one.

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