The idea for the Lafayette Sailing Club was sparked in March of 1968 at the Chicago Boat Show with the chance meeting of Bruce Liljedahl and John Sullivan for the first time and their discovery that they were both from Lafayette, Indiana. They agreed then that they would try to organize a sailing club in Lafayette. John and Bruce pooled the known names of individuals in the Lafayette area who owned sailboats. Some of these people met for the first time to sail on September 22, 1968 at Raccoon Lake, Indiana. They also met again four weeks later at Virgil Drakes' cottage on Lake Freeman, Monticello, Indiana.
In 1969, this informal group of Lafayette sailors met once to talk and seven more times to sail together and sometimes race at Lake Freeman. Lake Shaefer (Indiana), and Lake Michigan. The Lafayette Sailing Club was formally organized on March 18, 1970 at a meeting held at the home of Bruce and Harriet Liljedahl in West Lafayette, Indiana. The activities in 1970 consisted of (1) a children's sailing school which included six Saturday morning sessions in April and May at Glen Fisher's place on Lake Freeman.
