M&M
Hull number 313
by Mike LaHaye
My Ensign experience started in 2002, I was sitting on the deck at the PYC one Saturday morning and Jack Patterson asked me to crew for him on Shamrock. (his daughter Carrie was not able to be there that morning) It was my first time ever on a sailboat. I didn't have any idea what he was talking about most of the time. I didn't know the lingo, sheets, traveler line, mainsheet, vang, outhaul and the rest. I believe we came in 2nd or 3rd that race. A couple weeks later I crewed for Terry Coburn on USA, and I was starting to get an idea on how to trim the sales and make the boat go faster. I think I crewed for Terry 3 times that summer. By the end of summer I had the bug, and decided I needed one of these Ensigns.
In the fall Jack and I started looking for Ensigns. We went to Saugatuck and checked out a boat that belonged to Charlie Sligh. It was in rough shape, bulkhead was rotted out, benches were broke, and it had a pink water stripe. So needless to say we keep looking. Then Jack found a boat on Walloon Lake and one at Irish Boat works in Harbor Springs. I ended up buying the one in Harbor Springs, and it was on a wood cradle. So Jack and I took his cradle trailer up to Harbor Springs the weekend after Thanksgiving. It was cold and windy that day with snow in the air. But I was now an Ensign owner.
By the next weekend Jack had my Ensign in the shop and Marsha, Laura, Lisa and I started working on it. The previous owner was a quadriplegic and had a seatbelt arrangement to keep him secured. We took his seatbelt arrangement out, and started stripping the paint. The boat was called Breezy Weezy, and the girls didn't like that at all. They came up with M&M and that was it. We worked on the boat for the next 3 weekends and during Christmas break we repainted the boat white with a red water stripe. I also found some m&m stickers to put on the sides of the boat.
In the spring we became part of the Ensign Fleet #70 spring ritual, when we launch all of the Ensigns, and step the masts at the PYC. Our first couple of years of Ensign racing we brought up the rear of the fleet. By year 3 we were catching up with the rest of the fleet, and made modifications to the boat, added adjustable back stay, adjustable outhaul, and new traveler car. (old one broke during a race) That August Jack Patterson and I were invited to crew on different Ensigns at the 2005 Ensign Nationals in Nyack New York. Being new at this it was quite the rush racing with 30+ Ensigns on the starting line. The second day of racing the Ensign that I was on was T-Boned and knocked out of the race. Major damage, we were hit right behind the starboard aft shroud. The Ensign people at the event where very nice and great to be around. The 2006 Ensign Nationals in Cleveland Ohio was the first nationals that I took M&M. Marsha Laura and I were the only ones on the boat, and the winds blew big time. The first day winds were blowing 19 - 22 knots, and we were dumb enough to try flying the spinnaker. The second race of the day we couldn't get the spinnaker down going thru the gate and almost ran into the photography boat. Needless to say we didn't fly the spinnaker again the rest of the week. But we had a great time, and we now attend most of the National events. In 2011 Marsha and I were both asked to be on the Ensign Class Board, Marsha the Rear Commadore of Membership, and I was the Vice Commodore of Regional Affairs.