New Launch by Idaho sailor

[Phil Gowans]

Pat Hayes has launched his new weekender. He sent me some pictures and I can't resist posting them. I have been conversing (e-mail) with him for a while and finally met him about a month ago when I was up in his area. He has been on this forum (#222 in the members list) but hasn't yet posted. Maybe this will drag him out.

I believe this was taken at Bear Lake (not sure if it's in the Idaho or Utah part).

[TexasPhil]

Where's the boat?

All I can see are the sails... the boat has vanished :wink:

Looks Good!

[Mike Henderson (Oregon)]

Very nice!

[Simon]

Man that lake is absolutely stunning :shock:

You ever see a picture of a place and just realise that you have to go there? I think I had a dream about that lake once. Excuse me while I get out the map out. I may not get much work done today. Do you have that pic in a larger format? I'd like to set it as wallpaper.

Nice boat too.

[Barry Pyeatt]

My brother used to sail on Bear Lake, said it was great! Good steady winds when he wanted to go and wide open spaces. Yahoooooooo!

Southeastern corner of Idaho is pretty country to me.

Nice looking boat Pat. Welcome to the forum. Let us know how your sailing adventures go.

[Phil Gowans]

Bear Lake is really beautiful. It is hard to get a picture that shows it's turquoise color (something about limestone particals in the water). It's right on the boarder of Utah and Idaho about 20 miles long and 8 miles wide at about 6500 ft elevation. I include these pictures, but they don't really capture the color of the lake properly.

This picture comes from the Bear Lake Yacht Club

And one of mine.

[P Doug (WA)]

The thing that really makes the pictures great is the smile on the little boys face. Building great memories.

[Simon]

Fantastic :)

[Guest parley hayes]

Thanks to all who put their words of advise on the forumn. My tendency is to listen and not talk, especially since I have no experience sailing or building boats. The first time I sailed was on Bear Lake with little traffic, and steady wind. After a while I began to think sailing was a piece of cake. The weekender was great. Towards the end of of the day the steering loosened somewhat. Yesterday, my second sailing experience was interesting to say the least. A much smaller resivoir with shifting winds and gusts to probably 20 mph. The steering loosened more, I had forgotten to tighten it. The weekender responded very well in the gusts of wind, but scared the crap out of me. A couple of things i learned. check the steering tightness every trip, the bridle doesn't work that well in shifting winds, The steering system has much more pressure against than i could have imagined. I stretched 1/8th nylon on the edge of the rudder and epoxied it in place. The rudder has now had some use and abuse and has a few dings but the edge is still in good shape. Thanks again for the all the information and advice in the forum.