Big Butterfly

“Big boats get the glory, but the dingy makes the sailor.”
— From the movie, “Wind”

 From the time I was born, our family spent much of our summers at Lake Lottawana, a beautiful man-made lake located about 30 miles east of Kansas City. I loved the sport of sailing, and it was probably the only sport that I ever pursued successfully. The most popular boat on the lake at that time was the C scow, a 20-foot catboat that was sailed by a crew of two or occasionally three in heavy weather.

When our kids approached sailing age, I wanted to pass on my love of the sport to them. A “C” boat was too much for small kids to handle and the X boat, which was the typical training boat on other lakes, was clunkily designed and not a scow at all.

I set my mind on finding a boat that would be a better trainer for kids who were going to grow up to become scow sailors. A friend told me about the Butterfly, a miniature, 12-foot version of a “C” boat.

Although an adult can sail a Butterfly single-handed, the national rules required a crew of two or more and a 250-pound minimum crew weight. There was no one selling Butterflies in the Kansas City area and, even though I was not in the boat business, I managed to become the local dealer. I was not in it for the money so I sold boats to families around the lake at just over my cost and became known as the Big Butterfly. Lee Lyon, my co-conspirator in the training, was called The Little Butterfly.

Every Saturday, we held sailing classes for the kids on our Lake Lottawana lawn at H-12. We would usually start with a one-half hour of ground school, then put the kids into the boats to learn how to turn them over and right them so they felt comfortable and safe in their boats. We then ran a series of short races to help teach them sailing techniques and the rules.

I had a special trailer built to pick up the boats at the factory and to go to regattas. The trailer held three Butterflies with all the masts and booms on a top rack. We could get an additional two boats on top of the car if necessary. Two adults can pick up a Butterfly and move it around (each weighed 150 pounds) but it took a bunch of ten–to–twelve-year-olds to do the job. Those kids were determined and would swarm underneath a boat like ants and carry it to wherever it needed to go.

It hadn’t been long after the Butterfly Fleet was established when I decided to try a competition. Lee and I hauled a bunch of kids and boats to the National Butterfly Championship at Wauconda, Illinois, in the early fall of 1966. With my son, eight-year-old Jeff, as crew, I competed and won my first national championship. Low points won, and I finished 3-1-1-3-1 for a total of 11.4 points. Dick Meyers of Oshkosh, Wisconsin was second with 57.4, Lee Lyon was seventh with 79 and Dwight Westholt from Lottawana was tenth with 105.7. Being a modest guy, I don’t want to dwell on the point spread between me and the second-place guy. But it was 46 points!

Jeff and I won the Nationals at Lotawana in 1967, and three more championships followed, the last being on Lake Ruedi after we had moved to Aspen.

The Butterfly Championships in the Midwest drew over 100 boats, but we thought the fleet of 67 that came all the way West to Ruedi was great—by far the largest single sailing fleet that’s ever been on that lake.

I thought we were going to lose that championship as we had tough competition and there were just a few points separating the top three boats. The final race started in very light air and Jeff and I were well back in the fleet—somewhere around 25th place—when we got to the last windward mark. There was an offset buoy about 150 yards away before the boats headed downwind to the finish. Normally you would turn at the mark and head directly for the offset. Knowing Ruedi and its fickle winds, I looked up toward the dam and saw a breeze coming in. So instead of tacking, I kept sailing towards the dam. I caught that breeze first and went from 25th to 1st place in a matter of a couple hundred yards. When the wind piped in, Jeff and I were tough to beat. We went on to win the race and the regatta.

That was the last time I sailed a Butterfly, the last race I would sail on Ruedi, and a happy end of my sailboat racing career.