Shawnee Yacht Club - SYC

Wynn Fazel - SYC's 'Ancient Mariner' - 1940s

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.

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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

58°F - Fair

Wind

Calm

Humidity

81%

07:53 AM

Coming Events

6/1, First Sun Racing & Group Sailing, 2:00pm-5:30pm, SYC
6/4, First Wed Lessons & Group Sailing, 5:30 pm-Sunset, SYC
7/2, No Lessons, 5:30 pm-Sunset, SYC
7/4, 4th of July Activities, TBD, SYC

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Shawnee Yacht Club - Topeka, Kansas

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Mark's Racing Blog

More on Average Wind Velocity

Keeping up with our average wind velocity of 12 MPH, it blew 25-30 today, offsetting the Sunflower games of 1-2 MPH. Wind at the start today was maybe 10-12 but quickly grew to where there were major white caps at the #2 mark. Zach Bures (with Chuck Towle crewing) was just a little early at the start letting Mark and Tony get away clean. Tony took the favored lull on port to get to the west side of the lake. Mark was slow to catch on but quickly tacked to port to chase Tony. Tony tacked back to Starboard in the puff with Mark still on Port. Whenever two boats cross, one of them is going the wrong way, and it was me. So I tacked back to starboard in front of Tony. Barely laying the mark, I rounded in a major puff, screaming off toward the golf course. Looking back, I saw that Tony had capsized giving me some breathing room but I was still heading for the golf course. Discretion being the watchword and having some space between me and Zach, I chicken jibed. Tony capsized again. Zach and Chuck were screaming up behind but on the wrong jibe. Chuck, however, wasn't chicken and found a "lull" to jibe in. He made it! Rounding the downwind mark in the lead, I did one of those slow blow over capsizes. Chuck sailed by hollering that he was done. Since he had to pass the finish line on his way to the dock, he won. I was second and Tony third. Zach said that he had never had so much fun on a sailboat!

The weather bureau said the peak gusts Wednesday were 38 MPH. They didn't say what time of day but I think it must have been between 7:00 and 7:15 PM