COVERING THE 75th THISTLE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

The Thistle Class is one of the top one-design sailing classes in the country, and one of the few active one-design classes in North America to celebrate a 75th anniversary event in the 21st century. The class attracts world-class sailors for year-round competition, headlined by the week-long national championship held every summer.

For the 75th anniversary event in 2021, the Thistle Class returned to its birthplace at the Cleveland Yachting Club on the shores of Lake Erie, where Thistle Fleet No. 1 was created in 1946. As a long-time competitor in the class who grew up sailing in Cleveland, I was tapped—along with my brother—to provide the daily regatta updates for the class website. Some of these dispatches were also published in Scuttlebutt Sailing News, a North American sailing newsletter read around the globe.

You can read the full coverage on the Thistle Class website.