The following is an article printed in the Indianapolis Star in September, 1989. Dr. Ned B. Hornback laughs when he describes his first race as a member of the Eagle Creek Sailing Club (ECSC).  It was a disaster.

 His skipper had put him temporarily at the helm of a little thistle-class boat and he had no idea what he was doing. The wind, coming over the stern, caught the sail and sung it wildly around - an accidental jibe, in sailing jargon - and the boat capsized in shallow water.

 Hornback, his wife Shirley, and the boat owner James E. Dora, couldn’t right the vessel because the mast was stuck in the mud.

 It was an absurd scene, Hornback says: the three of them sitting helplessly on the hull of the boat, inexplicably trying to keep a book dry. They had capsized near a racecourse marker, so every boat in the regatta came by - close enough that the other crews could read the book’s title: How To Sail!

 It was an inglorious beginning for the 37-year-old would-be sailor - and ECSC’s first commodore. But, that was in 1969. He also was the Club’s first official member. He still has his membership card with the numeral "1" on it.

 The Club was incorporated on September 25, 1969 - as a not-for-profit group. Hornback was a member of the organizing committee, a group of about 20 people. "They elected me Commodore of the sailing club, and I’d never ever been in a sailboat." But he learned to sail.

 As the founding Commodore, Hornback saw the Club through its infancy, and he maintained his membership for the first 10 years. Today, as a radiation oncologist in the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, he’s too busy to sail and he’s no longer a member of the Club.

 But each year, the Club honor’s him with a namesake race: the Hornback Regatta. He says the Club’s existence is an example of the good that can happen when a group of individuals and a government agency (Indianapolis Department of Parks and Recreation) combine their efforts.

 "They were just putting Eagle Creek Reservoir in at the time, and some of the residents of the area were interested in what was going to happen to the Lake. They were hoping for a passive kind of boating." They didn’t want a lake overrun with big, noisy, powerful motorboats.

 Hornback, who had moved to the Eagle Creek area in 1963, says the Parks Department was interested in promoting the maximum safe use of the Lake. He repeats a rule of thumb that was cited in those days: In passive boating - canoes, rowboats, sailboats, and light-motored fishing boats - a lake can accommodate 10 boats per acre of water. In active boating - fast motorboats - the ratio is one boat for every 10 acres.

 In short, this relatively small lake needed a sailing club.

 Gaining access to the property itself wasn’t much of a problem, says Jim Rees, another early member of the Club. "The Parks Department wanted us there. They did everything possible for us. When we made mistakes, they helped correct us. But, before we could do business with the Parks Department, we had to have a club."

 In the first years, the Parks Department charged only a token fee for use of the property, which is South of the 56th Street causeway on the West bank of the Lake.

 "They let us lease the land for $25 a year. Our expenses were very low" for the property itself, Hornback says. Today, says John E. Storer, a retired General Motors engineer and another of the first members of the Club, that fee is several thousand dollars.

 Hornback and Rees both say the Organization owes much to a group of experienced members of the Indianapolis Sailing Club, based at Geist Reservoir. The Geist sailors attended the fledging ECSC’s first meetings and offered advice. "We were almost exclusively a group of non-sailors, groping around, trying to develop this thing without knowing what we were doing," Hornback says.

 Not surprisingly, the early days weren’t always marked by fair winds, Hornback says. At one point, when the Club was having financial problems and the Parks Department had expressed some concern, Hornback called a special meeting by sending out postcards illustrated with a drawing of him, as Commodore, standing forlorn on a sinking ship.

 Nevertheless, the Club developed. Little by little, the members built driveways and parking lots. They installed a launching ramp and docks, and they built a small shelterhouse. In many cases, the members had work parties, using donated equipment and materials, and capitalizing on the varied skills of its members.

 Rees, for example, shared his knowledge of grasses and sods for the landscaping. He understood those things because he built, and still owns and operates, Friendswood Golf Course near Camby.

 The Club has grown to include 204 active members and eight "race fellows" - sailors who aren’t members but participated in the Club’s racing programs. Club members, Rees in particular, have built docks for 119 wet boat slips. Each member who doesn’t have a wet slip has space to store a trailered boat. The most recent major improvement is the Club’s pride & joy, a stone-and-wood shelterhouse - complete with a small kitchen, showers, restrooms, and a fireplace - on a hill over looking the harbor and boat slips. It was completed in 1986.

 Storer says he’s particularly proud of the ECSC’s membership in the Inter-Lake Yachting Association and the United States Yacht Racing Union. Those memberships enable Club members to visit other yacht clubs across the nation.

 Storer, who designed the paved road that leads to the ramp at the Club and built the boat-hoist near the ramp, says the Club has always appreciated workers. In fact, members can get a kind of "sweat credit" toward their membership dues by doing chores and helping with improvements at the Club.

 And, the Club doesn’t operate on a Blackball basis. "We have no limitations on who can join. It’s definitely not a private club," says Storer. Members need only to be able to pay the initiation fee and, one way or another, fulfill the annual membership dues requirements.

 Rees says the first membership dues was $25 with the initiation at $50. Today they are $250 and $1,000 respectively. The initiation fees go into a fund for further improvements.

 Storer still races his 14-foot Hobie Cat - and he’s in his mid-80s.!