Read about some of the sailors who frequent Milwaukee’s lakefront, and their yachts.
The 80-mile sprint
As summer settles over Milwaukee each year, a flurry of sailboats gathers on Lake Michigan to vie for first place in one of the region’s top sailing races – the Queen’s Cup.
The overnight race pits sailboats against one another for nearly 80 miles as they take off in Milwaukee and battle the wind and the waves to reach a port in Michigan. This year’s race, held June 26, steered sailors to South Haven, Mich.
The Queen’s Cup, sponsored by the South Shore Yacht Club, has a 77-year history and stands as the second largest long-distance race on Lake Michigan, behind the Race to Mackinac, which sends boats from Chicago to Mackinac Island over three days.
The Queen’s Cup, which this year drew 155 contenders, drums up fierce competition among sailors who place a high prize on winning, according to Peter Engel, chief technology officer at Milwaukee-based Marcus Hotels & Resorts, who served as race director both this year and last.
“There’s a lot of prestige in winning the Queen’s Cup, so (sailors) get very competitive,” Engel said.
The race primarily hooks Midwestern sailors, according to Engel. About a third of participants come from Wisconsin, another third from Chicago, a third from Michigan, and a few others from Indiana.
Part of the beauty of the race is the diversity it garners, as sailors of all backgrounds – from families to seasoned veterans – enter boats of all sizes, Engel said.
“You would think it’s a rich man’s sport, but there’s probably more boats that are just your average families sailing in the Queen’s Cup,” Engel said.
The race is structured into four divisions, each of which crowns a winner alongside the race’s overall winner. That overall winner is determined through a handicap formula that evens the playing field among boats of different magnitudes.
This year’s victory went to Michigan boat “Bearly Movin,’” sailed by Lisa and Bill Ruoff.
The Queen’s Cup, while fun, can really challenge sailors as they gamble on weather conditions and patterns, according to Engel, who has completed the race 25 times during his sailing career.
“You have to guess the weather correctly,” Engel said. “It’s all based on wind, and you can draw a straight line from Milwaukee to wherever the finish line is and you can sail on that straight line most times, but the wind is not going to keep coming from the same direction all night.”
-Erica Breunlin
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Enjoy the business of water
Milwaukee waterways serve as linking agents for the region, connecting people, businesses and communities to each other.
Dan Druml, president of Milwaukee-based Paul Davis Restoration, recognizes the importance of Milwaukee water as a way to connect and drive the city forward. His company has made significant investments to help fully restore the Kinnickinnic River, and has constructed a one-of-a-kind Boaters’ Lounge at its facility.
“Waterways in Milwaukee link our communities together,” Druml said. “(They) are unique assets, making our city a destination.”
Paul Davis Restoration’s Milwaukee location on South Fourth Street has 343 feet of waterfront property.
For several years, the company worked with the neighborhood business improvement district and other environmental organizations to complete the river cleanup. They installed piers, purchased a pontoon boat, and constructed the Paul Davis Restoration Boaters’ Lounge to take full advantage of Milwaukee’s water, Druml said.
According to Allan Degner, director of marketing at PDR, the lounge is 615 square feet of finished communal space, complete with a kitchen, plush furniture and garage doors that open up to the riverfront patio.
“It’s a great space for the staff and for the community,” Degner said.
Paul Davis Restoration founded the Paul Davis Charitable Fund in 2008 to support philanthropy and the efforts of nonprofit organizations throughout southeast Wisconsin and the Fox Valley communities.
The Boaters’ Lounge and riverfront space on the Paul Davis Restoration campus are available to nonprofit organizations and for community use, Degner said.
The staff uses the space and PDR clients have seen Milwaukee from unique and unfathomable views from the decks of the company pontoon, Degner said.
“It’s simple, our Boaters’ Lounge and outdoor space is about enjoyment,” Druml said. “The lounge serves as a retreat during the height of the business day for a coffee klatch, or after hours for a cold beverage and networking. The space allows us to introduce more people to the Milwaukee water resource… all of whom work to drive our community forward.”
-Alysha Schertz
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Relaxing on the open waters
John Mueller says he has always had an aversion to classes.
“I’m a ‘make mistakes until I figure it out’ kind of guy,” he said.
So in his early sailing days he flipped over his boat a lot, inadvertently throwing his wife off into the water.
Fortunately for her, though, all of Mueller’s boats have been named Rebecca Lynn, after her.
Mueller’s foray into boating began with a canoe, before he bought a Force 5 sailboat for $150 from a man who had it for sale on his lawn.
Mueller used the latter to teach himself how to sail before he graduated to a West Wight Potter, which he went on to use for the next five years.
Last summer, he got his current boat, a 35-foot Catalina 350.
“We pretty much live on that,” said Mueller, a Milwaukee resident who works in investment property. “We spend as much time as we can on it during the summer.”
The Muellers are on the boat every day, and they typically sail four days a week and every weekend. His favorite trip is sailing across Lake Michigan, but they also travel to places like Racine, Port Washington, Door County, and Pentwater, Mich. This summer, they are planning a trip to Mackinac Island in Michigan.
The Muellers—along with their black lab/shepherd mix Paul—also cook, read, socialize and sleep on the boat.
When they are docked, Mueller said it is a “big social hour all the time” with people walking by, stopping and talking.
“It’s something we can do together that we both really enjoy,” Mueller said of himself and his wife.
Mueller likes the feeling of being out in the open space of Lake Michigan, seeing an abundance of stars at night, and harnessing the power of the boat.
“The biggest thing is it refreshes me,” he said. “The stress of everything else dissipates when you’re out on the water. It’s a very freeing feeling. And my favorite thing is, once you get out several miles, your phone doesn’t work and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
-Hilary Dickinson
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On the water, a place to be
Richard Pieper, Milwaukee businessman and non-executive chairman of PPC Partners Inc., has been sailing the waterways of the world for more than 65 years. In 2009, Pieper finished a 19-year circumnavigation of the world on his 50-foot sailboat, “Agape.”
“For me, it’s not a hobby. It’s a passion, and a place where I find myself connected to the universe,” Pieper said.
Pieper is self-taught. He was in his twenties when he bought his first boat, and learned to sail on his own.
Since then, he has literally traveled the world because of his boat. He has visited the Virgin Islands, Azores islands, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Trinidad, Cuba, The Panama Canal, the Galapagos Islands, New Zealand, Bali, Malaysia and many more places, he said.
His travels undoubtedly come with stories and a unique, unfettered view of countries across the globe.
“When you visit a country in a sailing vessel, you don’t go through the tourist line at the airport,” Pieper said. “You go in through the harbor, the bowels of the city, and you truly learn how the place functions.”
Being courteous, respectful and judgment-free has allowed Pieper to travel the world on his boat without incident—though he has found himself in what some might consider scary situations, he said.
Pieper has traveled more than 57,000 miles on his boat in waters all across the globe, but he calls Milwaukee and its waterways his home.
It’s a dimension of his life and one of the elements that make up who he is, Pieper said.
He enjoys hosting people on his boat and uses it to bring people together, start conversations and nurture the lives of others, he said.
According to Pieper, there’s no better view of Milwaukee than from the water, and he praises generations of city trustees who have preserved the lakefront and Milwaukee’s waterways for public use.
“Being on the water provides me a place of rest,” Pieper said. “It’s a place for me to just ‘be.’”
-Alysha Schertz
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Boating as a way of life
Robert Prah of Muskego finds boating so relaxing that he named his first two boats, a 32-foot cruiser and a 42-foot cruiser, Stress Relief and Stress Relief II.
When he got his most recent boat eight years ago, however, he decided to break with tradition and name it something else.
“I wanted something that was one word and fun,” said Prah, who serves as a flag officer and membership director for the Milwaukee Yacht Club.
Thus, he dubbed his 52-foot Cruisers Yachts 520 Express “Kampai,” which is Japanese for “Cheers.”
Prah, a national accounts manager for Canon Inc., travels on the boat with his significant other, Debra Kelber.
They run the boat about 100 hours per year, embarking on trips to various destinations and taking cruises on the Milwaukee River to bars and restaurants.
Some of Prah’s and Kelber’s favorite places to stop for a drink and bite to eat are the Milwaukee Ale House, the Horny Goat Brew Pub and Barnacle Bud’s.
As for trips, the couple typically takes five per year to locales like Chicago, Door County, and Mackinac Island in Michigan. His favorite trip was a 10-day, 1,000-mile trip to the North Channel, a body of water along the north shore of Lake Huron in Ontario.
To Prah, boating is a way of life. He enjoys the water, the opportunity to visit different places, and the camaraderie. Besides mingling with the other boaters at the Milwaukee Yacht Club, he and Kelber often entertain upward of 10 to 20 people at a time on Kampai.
“I work hard and play hard, and boating on Lake Michigan is an important part of the play,” said Prah, a Lake Michigan boat owner since 2001. “Wisconsin has a short summer, so we make the most of it.”
-Hilary Dickinson
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Breaking monotony aboard a boat
Flavius Cucu takes a vacation just about every summer weekend when he boards his sailboat for a cruise around Lake Michigan.
“(Boating) completely removes you from your daily life,” said Cucu, president of Suprex International Ltd. “You’re almost on vacation every weekend.”
Cucu, a native of Romania, has been sailing for the past 20 years and learned the sport through racing on teams, reading up and taking a course with his wife, Miriam Van de Sype.
A friend introduced him to sailing at age 25, and he soon became an “addict” to nautical life, he said.
The technical aspects of sailing piqued his initial interest.
Cucu, who has a degree in mechanical engineering, describes boating as a sport for “people who like to tinker” and “people who can’t stand still.”
“There’s always something to be adjusting,” Cucu said.
Before moving to Milwaukee in January 2013, Cucu and Van de Sype raced a sailboat, known as “Serious,” while living in Cleveland. The couple spent about a decade racing. After selling “Serious,” they purchased a new boat last year – an Oceanis 41 manufactured by Beneteau – that they prefer to cruise rather than race as they focus on raising their eight-year-old daughter, Vivian.
They affectionately named their boat “Move Over Bacon” in reference to Sizzlean, a bacon substitute product that used the line “move over, bacon” in its commercials. The reference also commemorates the beginning of their relationship, as Van de Sype used the line on Cucu when she sat down next to him the first time the two met.
Many of Cucu’s cruises these days stretch his sails over Lake Michigan for day trips, with his wife and friends and a bottle of wine in tow. He also carves out time for longer distance sails to destinations like Saugatuck and Charlevoix, both in Michigan, and excursions in the Caribbean, where he likes to charter boats and island hop.
Life on a boat, for Cucu, breaks the “monotony of daily living,” he said.
“You go from your daily life to sort of a fantasy life in about five minutes flat,” he said. “Once you reach the shore and you get on your boat, the world just changes.”
-Erica Breunlin
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For the love of sailing
When Jim Kerlin first set sail with a former boss 30 years ago, he almost instantly became hooked or, as he puts it, “fell in love” with the sport.
Since then, Kerlin, who is president and chief executive officer of Beyond Vision in Milwaukee, has racked up a collection of boats and now commits seasonal weekends to the water for racing and cruising.
Kerlin races a 1987 Beneteau First 405 named the “Blue Pearl,” similar to the “Black Pearl,” a fictional ship in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films.
On Fridays during the season, he wrangles a crew of friends and family members to compete in MAST Racing, a Milwaukee social racing circuit that welcomes sailors of all skill levels.
Kerlin also regularly competes in long-distance races, including the Queen’s Cup, a nearly 80-mile race that starts in Milwaukee and ends at a Michigan port, and the Hook, a 200-mile race that spans from Racine to Marinette.
Throughout Kerlin’s boating career, experience has continued to teach him how to sail faster and race stronger, he said.
“It’s one of those sports that you can do at any age, and you never stop learning,” Kerlin said.
Most of Kerlin’s cruises are set on Lake Michigan, many with his wife, Shawn, and family or friends.
To him, there’s something “magical” about working with the winds to chart a course to a desired destination.
“There’s something sort of wild about being able to just take what Mother Nature gives you and make the boat go wherever it is you want to go,” Kerlin said. “And that’s really kind of what sailing is all about.”
-Erica Breunlin
