Our father, Bill Sloger, passed away on Nov. 19, 2023. Dad was a natural-born engineer and a lifelong student of all types of technology, he was easily as computer/phone/app savvy as any teenager. As a life-long student of sailing he was a big fan of Uffa Fox, C. A. Marchaj, and Adlard Coles.
Dad grew up in Chicago, sailing many different boats, most notably racing Star boats out of Jackson Park Yacht Club. While it may not be obvious in the photo below, the Star he is sailing is finished bright. As a 16 year old he refinished that boat himself starting with a painted wood hull. We should note, our grandparents continued to race a Star on Lake Michigan for many years even though their combined weight was less than that of the typical guy on the bow today.
Dad put himself through college on a swimming scholarship at the University of Oklahoma, earning a mechanical engineering degree. He was a very good swimmer and one year he was the Big Eight breastroke champion. Watching him swim 20 and 30 years after he was out of college it was clear that what he could do in the water was very different from the rest of us. He was destined to be a mechanical engineer since he excelled in repairing virtually everything in his world, a talent that didn't fully transfer to us, but as a result most everything we know about boats, cars, plumbing, airplanes, radio frequencies, and virtually all manufacturing equipment came from him.
Dad first joined the Lightning class in 1968 when he bought a Lightning built by Newport (I think it's been a long time since they last built a Lightning). That started his longtime membership in Fleet 391 on Lake Hartwell. Our Mom sailed with Dad 20+ years and we each also spent many years in the boat with him. He owned a number of Lightnings over the next 50 years, but found perhaps his most consistent success in an orange Lippincott called Tabasco. He owned several other Lightnings before finishing up his sailing years in a green vintage Lippincott he called Wasabi. He really was quite partial to those 11000 Lippincotts. He was also a member of Lightning fleets in Virginia and Charleston. Like many in the class, there was nothing he enjoyed more than a weekend sailing at whatever club was holding a regatta. It's certainly a feeling we have inherited.
Dad managed to combine his love of boats with another passion - travel. This led to canal trips in France and a number of cruises on gulets in Turkey. These trips seemed to also play a big part in him becoming quite the wine connoisseur. He lived 92 very full years and will be greatly missed by many.
Marya Barker and Will Sloger
