When Craig was in 6th grade, his parents moved him from Chicago to a small town on the Rock River. Making the transition from hanging on the street corners in Chicago to small town life, Craig fell in with a bad crowd of river rats. They all had or knew where to get, steal or borrow boats to explore the Rock River, mostly above the dam but sometimes below. Craig soon managed to get his first boat, a leaky 18-foot, wood and canvas, Old Town Voyager canoe. It didn't take him long to figure out that he didn't like paddling, especially up stream. So he bought an old, very used 3HP Sea King and figured out how to attach it to the canoe, making him a powerboater. It didn't take him much longer to discover that buying gas on a paperboy's budget was painful, so he rigged a sail that worked at least downwind, making him a sailboater. With these Rube Goldberg contraptions, he paddled, sailed, and motored the Rock River from Rockford to the Mississippi, all over Wisconsin including several whitewater rivers (since closed to canoes by the current risk-free generation (editorial comment) as too dangerous) and several hundred miles north of Red Lake in Canada (almost to Hudson Bay but not quite).

At college, Craig found out that if you joined the Hoofers and took sailing lessons, they would let you take out Tech Dinghys on Lake Mendota. This also worked out great for picking up girls. He would find somebody who wanted to go sailing (the docks were right next to the student union) and sail off into the lake. Around sunset the winds would drop and they'd be stuck out in the lake. They would get back much too late for his crew to meet her date so he'd have to fill in. Craig was turning into a real sailor.

Unfortunately college had to end and he ended up in the service (Marines not the Navy). Not much chance to go boating there unless you count sea survival, mucking around with aircraft carriers, etc. Unfortunately he broke his airplane and ended up spending a couple years living on the 12th floor of the Great Lakes Naval Hospital watching boats go in and out of the harbor (not much else to do). When he got out, the first thing he did was to buy a 21-foot trailerable sailboat and put it in the Great Lakes Harbor (he might have got a job first, he doesn't remember).

At about this time, Day decided to join the Navy and see the world. She'd been out her native Kansas once in her life --- all the way to Oklahoma and maybe even to Texas. Her total boating experience included sitting on the shore of a small creek with a cane pole fishing for bullheads. To Day a pond was a dug out hole used to feed livestock and a lake was a dammed up river. In the Navy, she made it all the way to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, with a side trip to Newport, Rhode Island. While at Great Lakes, she fell in with two nasty groups. One took the Navy's 40 foot sailboats out for evening sails (Surazzo, Stormy, Vigilant and Pellago - it was a different Navy base back in the early 70's late 60's with a very active sailing club); the other drank at the "O' Club" (guess which group Craig was in).

When Craig bought this sailboat, he didn't realize that he needed crew. Serendipity, Craig and Day met at the "O' Cub" at a party (the second group referred to above) which continued on to around sunrise (Craig and Day were young once) and decided to go sailing before the party reconvened on the beach (they also had endurance). After looking down her nose at Craig's piddling little 21 footer, they had a great sail and have been sailing together ever since.

Immediately after getting married (where Craig said they'd never move to Kansas), they moved to Kansas. After a short stay in Kansas (there are lakes in Kansas, actually dammed up rivers), they came back to Illinois and Great Lakes Harbor. Craig and Day had a little Olney, Kim, so they decided to trade their 21 footer for a 27-foot fixed keel sailboat -- a C&C 27 named Kimow II, which, after moving it to Great Lakes, got blown ashore (in October). After a tugboat from Waukegan got it floating again, the Navy wanted them to leave the then protected harbor into the remnants of the gale. That is until Day, with Kim on her hip, took on the Admiral. She won! They got to stay until they were ready to leave (long story).

Looking for fun things to do, Craig and Day joined the Anchorage, Lake Bluff and Great Lakes Yacht Clubs (they had low dues but were a lot of fun). In addition to parties, the Great Lakes/Anchorage Clubs organized some cruises across the lake with just a compass and a knotmeter -- landfalls were exciting back then, more stories.

After a year or so of day sailing, we decided in '79 to do the Cutlass race (Chicago to Great Lakes). Day was eight months pregnant with Corey at the time so they decided she would only do the transport down the Chicago (in 4 to 6 foot rollers) and not do the race itself (another story). They had so much fun that they started doing more port-to-ports, with the kids in the V berth, (more stories). Their objective in these early races was to finish before they ran out of beer and before the shore party ended.

Then one year, they lucked into a cheap new mainsail and placed in the Chicago to Michigan City Race. It was terrible, Craig and Day started to take this racing seriously. They started doing all of the port-to-ports and joined the Waukegan Yacht Club and started doing buoy races. Craig even started crewing on Mac races with Day taking the kids to the island (more stories).

They did more than just race their 27 footer. They also cruised, mainly the Michigan shore and Green Bay. After a way too exciting landfall, Day lobbied for a basic Loran - it made navigation way too easy and took the excitement but not the arguments out of our landfalls (more stories).

In '83 Craig and Day did their first Queen's Cup and moved to Milwaukee shortly thereafter. They first put KIMOW next to South Shore Yacht Club but joined the Milwaukee Yacht Club and moved KIMOW north to McKinley Marina. The next year, returning from a Mac race, they stopped by Muskegon and bought a 30' MORC racer on a handshake. They drove back to Milwaukee, sailed Kimow over to Muskegon, switched boats, left a check and sailed back to Milwaukee in the fog with just a compass and knotmeter. On the return trip, we experienced one more exciting landfall, in the fog with no Loran or GPS. Listening to the Racine and Milwaukee foghorns we decided we were to the south of Milwaukee but close enough (another story).

They spent the '80s racing a lot (MORC, if you care) and cruising some. Craig crewed on some more Mac's and then, Craig and Day did 3 Macs on Rascal. They continued on doing multiple port-to-ports and regatta's including a week long MORC International Regatta (they finished in the middle) and some cruising, including the North Channel and multiple cruises back from Mackinac (lots of stories).

Then Craig and Day moved to Minneapolis and shipped Rascal to Bayfield (in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior). Rascal seemed a little small on Lake Superior, so they let Sailboats, Inc. talk them into buying a C&C 34+ (Bandit) to put into their charter fleet. Part of the terms were that Sailboats Inc. had to remove the "cruising" bottom paint, put on VC 17 and rig it for a spinnaker. Within 3 days of taking delivery in Duluth, Craig and Day were racing in the Apostle Islands Race Week. Except for two races where Day had to be hoisted to the top of the mast to unjam the spinnaker halyard, they did OK.

After cruising Lake Superior (and Isle Royale), racing though the islands, and crewing on Sonars on Lake Minnetonka, they sailed Bandit from Bayfield to Sailboat Inc.'s charter fleet in Sturgeon Bay, WI (more stories), trucked Rascal to Great Lakes and moved to their current home in the Chicago area. After several years of being a two-sailboat family, cruising upper Lake Michigan in Bandit and racing Rascal out of Great Lakes, they tired of the two-boat game (even with revenue from chartering Bandit) and put both boats on the market. Bandit sold so they raced Rascal out of Great Lakes until they bought Toucan in 2000.

Toucan was moored in North Point rather than Great Lakes because Craig and Day were going to become cruisers. They joined the Winthrop Harbor Yacht Club (they had dropped some clubs along the way but not all of them, just ask) and realized that they were unclear on the concept of driving a cruising boat. The great thing about sailing is that you are always learning and everybody you meet can teach you something. So after 30+ years of sailing they decided to take a "learn to sail" course. The fact that it was in Tortola didn't hurt. After convincing their instructor that they were serious, Craig and Day passed 4 courses from basic sailing to bareboat cruising, had a ball and came back certified (with more stories to tell).

Now we're going cruising for real. We've given up our slip in North Point, didn't renew our PHRF certificate, and have replaced the VC17 racing bottom paint with a more cruiser friendly bottom paint. We'll let you know how it goes.