Eight Bells: Ted Beier

Dr. Theodor (Ted) Harry Beier (84) crossed over to sailing heaven on May 26 doing what he loved the most; sailing an E Scow.

Ted had just sailed the six miles from his home club, Carlyle Sailing Association on Carlyle Lake in Illinois, to Tradewinds Yacht Club at the North end of the lake. He was crewing for a long-time sailing friend and a few others, and they had docked and were taking the sails down when Ted suddenly, and without warning, passed away.

Ted began sailing in the Sea Scouts and was introduced to E Scows in the 1960s and was one of the few remaining charter members of CSA going back to 1971 when he helped create the club; he has qualified for every race series in his E Scows for 52 years and taught thousands his love of sailing.

He served as its Commodore, Vice Commodore, Treasurer and Secretary and today served as its Vice Chairman of the Board as well as E Scow Fleet Captain. The list of accomplishments, duties and responsibilities he had at CSA is endless.

Ted was a friend, father figure, and advisor for thousands over the decades. He was a CSA engineer, he was race committee management, he was our Professional Race Officer who trained thousands of sailors how to run races; Ted was a teacher, a mentor, and government relations liaison. He was a fixer, and had unmatched passion for CSA that never wavered even as he was well into his 80s.

On the national level, Ted learned and trained to be a PRO with US Sailing and served as a judge and on its Appeals Committee for many years and was on the Board of the E Scow Class.

He served as PRO for so many sanctioned events from the most recent A Cat North Americans plus Flying Scots, E Scows, Lightning, Y-Flyers, and hundreds of regional and local regattas.

Professionally, Ted worked for McDonald Douglass and then Boeing as an Engineer for most of his adult life helping to design and build parts and systems, in part, for the Air Force’s famed Gun Ships as well as testing management for NASA systems.

Ted is survived by his wife Jeanette and son Erik; both of which over the decades have been huge parts of CSA.

The passing of Ted leaves a huge hole in the on-going management of our club. He will be so sorely missed. Sail fast, sail hard, sail loud as we know you will through your eternal sailing regatta.