Cedarville Cottager Ken Horsburgh Receives Ensign National Award

Ken Horsburgh of Cedarville and Ohio (left) receives the SEA-III Trophy from National Ensign Fleet Commodore Joel VerPlank (far right) at the 2007 Ensign Nationals awards dinner in August, in Toms River, New Jersey. Thom Healy of Toms River, New Jersey, another National Ensign Association member and sailing regatta coordinator, stands between them. (Horsburgh family photograph)

Cedarville cottager and lifelong boater Ken Horsburgh was honored with the Ensign National's 2007 SEA-III Award at the organization's August banquet in Toms River, New Jersey. Mr. Horsburgh is a member of the Les Cheneaux Yacht Club's Ensign Fleet 31, and is attributed with introducing Ensign sailboats to the area 42 years ago, resulting in the formation of the local fleet. Ensigns are 22.5-foot, full-keeled sloops.

The SEA-III Award was named in honor of Charles R. Sligh III, and is awarded each year to a member of the Ensign Class who has exemplified exceptional service to the class over a long period of time.

Mr. Horsburgh was cited with helping build the largest registered Ensign sailing fleet in the nation at Les Cheneaux. His enthusiasm and promotion of sailing has led to well-attended, annual summer sailing races, and he tirelessly promotes the area as a sailing and boating destination.

Cedarville will host the Region V Regional Ensign sailing regatta in July 2008. The race will bring together sailors from around the Midwest and New York state to race through the Les Cheneaux Islands.

Mr. Horsburgh calls the islands "ideal for sailing," with many bays and four channels out to the "big water" of Lake Huron.

"I had been sailing an 18-foot wooden Cape Cod Baby Knockabout most of my life," Mr. Horsburgh said.

Then he saw Ensigns for the first time in Harbor Springs during the 1960s, and soon ordered his first, bringing it from Ohio to the Les Cheneaux Islands in 1965. Over the next five years, five other Ensigns were brought to the area. It was an easy boat to use, Mr. Horsburgh said, and quickly became popular, coaxing more sailors out on the water.

"Soon we had eight or 10, when another owner and I decided to form a fleet in the late 1970s," Mr. Horsburgh said.

Occasionally the original fleet members sailed through the Straits of Mackinac to Mackinac Island, which lies 18 miles from Cedarville by water.

The sail was so much fun, Mr. Horsburgh decided to sponsor a two-day race - to Mackinac on the first day, overnight on the island, and back to the Les Cheneaux Islands the following day. The Horsburgh family still sponsors the Horsburgh Cup race.

Pearson, the company that first built Ensigns, ended production of the boat in 1983, and only 23 hulls from the original design have been made since then by Zeke Durika of Florida.

The last of the Pearson hulls is in Fleet 31. Mr. Horsburgh owns one of the new Zeke Durika boats, which was custom built for Mr. Horsburgh and his wife, Ruth, in 2000.

Fleet 31 is still growing, with approximately 63 registered Ensigns sailing through Les Cheneaux Islands each summer. Most of the sailors use and maintain classic hulls. Mr. Horsburgh has owned five Ensigns since 1965.

"Most skippers are day sailors," Mr. Horsburgh said. "A typical day sail is two or three hours, using all the sails, including a six-mile spinnaker run if you wish."

A spinnaker is a large, lightweight sail that balloons out in front of racing boats when they are running downwind.

At age 87, Mr. Horsburgh owns two Ensigns, which are sailed almost daily each summer by himself, his children, or his grandchildren.

The Horsburgh family sailing clan now includes 17 Ensign skippers.