I am wondering if an I20 or Tiger sailor would consider sailing on a 550-acre lake (probably 400-450 acres is the actual sailable area I think). Our sailing group has been offered a permanent site at this lake, plus funding for equipment and for construction of a building. Great news but I am a little concerned with the size of the lake, still it looks fairly big, and the wind there is consistent as compared to the other lakes in the area, and is a beautiful area. Oh yes, the lake is 10 to 40 feet deep, nice warm summer lake. One thing for sure there won’t be any long distance racing on this lake.



Our club has Access Dinghies and Hobie 16's with and without Trapseats and these sailboats will do fine on this lake, but I know a couple of local sailors with N6.0's and Supercats. They may go across the lake to quickly, to really enjoy it or maybe my perspective of the size of the lake is not correct.



So what is your perspective on the size issue and would you enjoy sailing on this lake with an I20, Tiger, etc.

What are the actual dimensions of the lake?



My guess is that you might run out of water pretty quickly. When racing the I20 on a small course there is very little time to settle in with the chute before you have to get ready to take it down. I have sailed the Tiger on a small lake (Sacandaga) only in light air.



Guaranteed that if you sail on a small pond thay your sail handling will get pretty sharp!!



Tom H16 102788

H Tiger 855

I 20 232

I don't have the dimensions of the lake (I will get them) but it is oval in shape which is good for a lake of this size. Our sailing group has not seen much of the bigger cats (or faster cats) as we are so focused on the Access Dinghies and H16's, but would like to be inclusive of all dinghies 7 to 20 feet. I agree that sailing on a lake of this size you'll develop some great tacking and jibing skills.



I had one club member tell me that maybe its good to have a sailing site that discourages the Rock Star sailors from coming to our new club, as the old dinghy group in our area was destroyed by the rich yacht club and the rock starts, so they say. I wasn't here when the rich yacht club and the dinghy sailors fought but its been about 5 years and there is still a lot of bad feeling amongst sailors, and unfortunately the yacht club and dinghy group no longer exist. I just started up the sailing club last summer due to my efforts in the disAbled sailing community. Our group is coming along nicely but I sure don't want to exclude anyone and hopefully the size of the lake will not create some problems. We do plan to run some regattas on the near by big lakes so we won’t just be limiting our selves to our small lake.



I have thought about locating the club on Lake Pend Oreille (I call it the Sea of Pond Oreille) which is about 20 miles wide, 70 miles long, and 1500 feet deep. It’s a lake that is near by (even has an experimental nuclear sub base) unfortunately it tends to be a violent lake with lots of cliffs and rocks, summer storms, and high winds. Most people in this area tend to be afraid of the lake, I think the lake is awesome but for our club it’s a concern. Then there is Lake Coeur D’ Alene, which is infested with jet skis, drunken big boat users, and has way to many accidents. A big time over crowded Resort Lake! Then there are about 30 more lakes of various sizes that are forested around the edges or in deep canyons with marginal wind conditions, or out in the desert (desert lakes have great wind but the disAbled crowed don’t want to drive that far and I don’t blame them).



So I am just trying to be careful and consider everything, and try to raise my awareness of the need of other sailors.

I'm figuring 1500 yards along any side of a square area and see a few advantages to it. Less intimidating for newbies, great for race comitee monitoring, and a new dimension in sailing. Only down is no space to goof of if you dont feel like making the next race. Hone your skills. Every race a RW Seminar. I can se it. You have to get better...six months sailing in one race...etc

18square.

It sounds like your lake is a little on the small side. Sailing a spin. boat on such a small lake can be done (I have more than a few times), but you run out of lake REAL fast. It just adds a lot of stress and head-ache, IMHO.



David Rogers

Nacra5.8 w/ spin