* CONTINUED FROM MONDAY'S POST *
Click here for Part I.
“Endless conversation turns into ‘I told you not to go near that buoy!’ and on and on,” said Uncle David, whose father-in-law and brother-in-law would eventually extricate the three with their pontoon boat. “I installed a depth finder and had no problems last season except for a [first mate] who won't ever let me forget I marooned her mother.”
Caudle asserts that quality lake sailing is inversely proportional to the size of your vessel. The bigger your sailboat the more bridges, power lines and shallow water restrict your freedom and detract from your enjoyment on the water.
“It makes anything bigger than a decent day sailer more of a hassle than it's worth,” he said. “Plus you constantly tack with anything bigger than 35 feet or so simply to stay in the deep end. You could run an 80-foot houseboat [close to shore], but a 40-foot sailboat quickly runs out of water under the keel.”
On the plus side, Caudle points to the low barriers to entry of lake sailing. Decent, used sailboats aren’t hard to find or afford: anything from a one-design racer (e.g., a used J24 for fun daytrips) to a small family cruiser will do (think pre-owned Catalina 27, C&C 30 or Hunter).
Lake sailing is less than ideal, but, as my Uncle David says, we can't all live on the coast, where practically unlimited water and a constant 10- to 15-knot wind make sailing a straightforward, if not easy, task. Sailing is constantly adjusting to changing conditions, and lakes present a whole lot more depth and direction variables than the ocean… not to mention the occasional dockside defeatist.
“Still, [when] you motor out of the cove, turn her into the wind, run up the main sail, kill the motor and fall off on a starboard tack, the sails fill up and the boat takes off,” said Uncle David. “Pretty easy to get hooked. The idea is just to get away anyway.”
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