Steve Lewis
By Don Sanford
I don’t remember when I first met Steve Lewis. Don Ermer, my skipper back then, always pointed him out as one of those “gutsy” Laser sailors on the line amidst the virtual armada of Scows back in the late 1970s. It was probably about that time that we were introduced at an MYC after-race party. Our friendship deepened when I was elected to the Board of Directors in 1995. Because our Commodore, Ray Riddle, wisely knew that we’d never get anything done if we ever had a drink during one of those meetings, we met at the Maple Bluff Village Hall. Fortunately, the Essen House was on our way home, and we spent many long evenings there over a beer and a basket of peanuts telling sea stories and solving all of MYC’s problems.
Steve had been asked to serve as Commodore in the fall of 1995, and while we were on a charter in the Apostles, he convinced me to be his vice-Commodore. Together, he said, we’d go far, and I guess we have. Eventually crewing for Steve on Wednesday nights, first on his Capri 22 and later on his S2 7.9, I became one of the first “multi-fleet” MYC Commodores. We won our share of races, including the Fox Cup, and had more than our share of Mendota adventures.
A lifelong Madisonian, Steve grew up on the east side and spent many of his “formative” years afloat on little boats exploring Lake Mendota, the Yahara River, Cherokee Marsh and Governors Island. Some of those stories later found their way into my book. Though I first knew Steve as a sailor, a couple of rides in Boomerang, my 1941 Chris Craft, revealed that he had a poorly-closeted interest in power boats. Though we had many passionate discussions about trawlers and vintage cabin cruisers, after I spent a couple of years restoring Sleepwalk, Steve wisely selected a brand new, ready-for-the-water 15-foot Boston Whaler. She’s been his boat of choice for the past five seasons. Together with our wives, his Whaler or my Sleepwalk have carried us on dozens of memorable trips across the lake or down the river for fish fry’s and cocktails.
Our friend Steve, a guy with a lifelong connection to our great lake and a lover of all things aquatic, “crossed the bar” last Sunday after a long and optimistic struggle with cancer. A man with a quick wit and infectious smile, he is on his way to join so many other sailors at the big regatta in the sky, where you’re always sailing on the lifted tack under a perfect sky. Fair winds, my good friend.