The History of Yacht Racing in Minnesota: How Its Sailors and Boat Builders Transformed Competitive Sailing in America; 1870-2022

As a first-ever written history of its kind, this book looks back at the historical role four Twin Cities lakes, its boat designers and builders, and yacht clubs and local champion sailors played in helping establish the sport of yacht racing in America, and helped advance the sport to where it is today in Minneapolis/St. Paul, the Midwest and United States. A book written on Minnesota's history of fast racing yacht development in the late 1800s and early 1900s and up to today. It captures the heritage of the innovative dinghy and scow-type boat builders and Minnesota yacht clubs who initiated the birth of the sport of yacht racing locally and nationally. Filled with fascinating details, with boat skipper profiles and sailing fast secrets, the history includes photography of both vintage and today's state-of-the-art inland lake racing yachts. It explores the history-making sailors, the early sailing scene and its impact on Minnesota and Twin Cities sports and social history, the rich traditions of these lakes' yacht clubs, women in yachting, local sailboat designers/builders, the yachts and regattas, champion adult, collegiate and youth sailors, ice boating, windsurfing, race course formats and race officiating. The history chronologically traces the development of the scow racing design, the scow builders' beginnings and their multi-class racing designs that led to its popular style today, the leading class of racing sailboats on inland lakes. Further, it includes a special section on the life's lessons learned from competitive sailing and full of fun illustrative anecdotes on the sport.