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You’ve heard the stories of
sailors: tattooed arms, women in every port, drunken brawls, and a love for the
sea that always pulls them back to the water. The Utah Sailing association
(USA) sailors, here on the beaches of Bear Lake, have it covered, and then
some. Lane’s sun tattoo yells in green and purple as his big diamond earrings
glisten. Paul downs a cold one, two no three … he’s stopped counting. And Mark
is leading the conversation on putting the women in tube tops at the front of
the boat. “If you really want to see sailors in action you have to stay past
midnight, “Paul chimes. (I don’t think I want to.) But love of the
water brings them all to the beach, waiting for the wind, - “power lounging”
they call it, and they take it seriously. These sailors and their families are
members of a group of non-exclusive boat people who love wind-powered water
sports. Catamarans (twin-hulled sail
boats), decked out with 30-foot sails rich with colors like tangerines,
moss, Barney the dinosaur, and bright lemon pie, line the beach and dot the
turquoise water Bear Lake is famous for. Under straw hats, we lounge in beach chairs
talking baseball, old movies, and by 3:00 p.m. the movie Master and
Commander has come up twice. The first time I saw the film I clearly missed
out on the details; the way the characters linked cannonballs to cut down
masts, and the way they swabbed the decks with sand to stop them from getting slick
with blood. It’s all in the sailor’s eye. Pretty Woman plays on Paul’s hand-crank radio,
and they tease me that if I want to understand sailing I need to start
drinking and talking dirty, but when the wind picks up and Brett and I hop,
struggle, and shrug into the blue trapeze harnesses and push the boat out into
the water, it gets better than drinking and talking dirty could ever be. The trapeze is not just
something you see at the circus. Hooked via the harness to a line on the boat,
Brett sets the sails so one side of the catamaran comes out of the water, and
we lean with full body weight out the other side to keep it from capsizing, our
legs straight, pushing against the side of the hull as our bodies lean out over
the water, sometimes inches, sometimes feet, from the speeding water below us,
but oh, this must be how the birds feel. No motor, just wind pushing us faster
and faster across the lake, our bodies horizontal to the water, touching the boat
only with our feet, the harness loop, and a rope, and wind chasing back my hair
and the bright blue curls racing beneath us. “This is my a favorite part of
sailing“ Brett says with exhilaration. “When you tandem trapeze you feel like you’re
flying, and you get to share it with someone.” The USA was formed in 1959 by
a group of local sailors who enjoyed racing, organizing regattas, and having
other sailors to power lounge with. Brett, one of the group’s dedicated
leaders, gives me vocab lessons: lay lines, starboard, port tack, jibe, tack
end of the jib, powerful air, sheeting the sails - it’s all Greek to me, at
least for the first half of the day, but I see how serious he takes sailing,
how much he loves the sport and supporting those who are interested in it. The
USA teaches beginners. You don’t even have to have a boat, you can just come
to outings and work as crew to get to know the sport. Brett will even help new
sailors find the right boat for their needs. His dedication has helped keep the
group active and growing with eight annual sailing events and races across
Northern Utah and even into Wyoming. In April, the group holds the Ice-Breaker
Regatta; then the Memorial Day weekend sail at Bear Lake; the Utah Summer Games
slip into their schedule; the 4th of July Independence Sail; a trip
to Pinedale in Wyoming with the Freemont Lake Yacht Club; a Bear Lake race
called the LeBeau’s Marathon 20 where the racers munch down dinner at LeBeau’s,
a diner on the shore of Bear Lake; and the Oktoberfest at Pineview Reservoir. The group boasts nearly 60
members and welcomes anyone who wants to give sailing a try. Though it’s not
required to have tattoos, a sexist vocabulary, or to drink beer in order to
join, I would definitely recommend a straw hat and a lounge chair. There is
just something cool about the big straw hats, or in Brett’s case, a big straw cowboy
hat. Somehow, the straw line-up perched along the waterfront near the
colorful, dramatic boats makes power lounging a little more serious. Plus,
when your hat blows off, you know it’s time to get out of the chair. (sg) For
more information on the Utah Sailing Association contact Brett Bingham at brett@brettbingham.com or phone 801.815.2521. Credits:
Sports Guide Magazine (summer 2005) - Sportsguidemag.com |