I came to sailing from kite flying and power kiting. Though I had sailed once or twice as a child, the proper introduction came on Father’s day 1999. The Fremont Lake Yacht Club was hosting a sailing event to attract new sailors, and to kick off their sailing lessons. I was given a ride on What About Bob, Tom Brown’s MacGregor 21, and found that this sport perfectly complemented my existing kiting skill set. That same day, I found that someone was selling a catamaran (a ‘82 Nacra 5.2), and I arranged to buy it on the spot.
I spent that summer learning to control my new boat. I bought Rick White’s book, and practiced everything I could. On a Labor Day trip to Bear Lake, I was offered the chance to crew for John LeCain on a Nacra 5.8. LeCain is an amazing sailor, and was the youngest person to ever sail the Worrel 1000. He showed me exactly what these catamarans were capable of, and I learned more in that single outing than I had up until that time. Jed became my regular crew on the 5.2, and we became quite proficient. We sailed and raced the Nacra for several years, taking occasional jaunts on other peoples cabin boats.
Over the few years following my introduction to sailing, I helped instruct new sailors through the Fremont Lake Yacht Club’s learn to sail program.
In 2002, a friend notified Bob Bundy that there was this boat in Texas he could have if only he were to go pick it up. He talked to me about sharing the cost of maintenance and storage, and I agreed. So we went to Texas to fetch it. On the return trip, we decided to name the boat Karma. Bobby and I began sailing that boat regularly. Jed became our third crew member, and we began to learn exactly how much we could get away with in this boat. Bobby, Jed and I each had our own ideas on what would make the boat go fast, and they rarely coincided. We eventually decided that we needed to install a knot meter to act as an arbitrator, and once that was accomplished we began to figure out how to eek every last bit of speed from the boat. After a couple of seasons we finally managed to sail the boat to its performance potential. As a crew, we clicked well with each other and with the boat.
In 2004, Bobby moved to Lander and sold out his interest in the boat. He still comes over the mountain once in a while to sail with us, and still sails as crew during the Little America’s Cup. The departure of Bobby required that we pickup a new third crew, and John fit the bill. Though he had never done any sailing, John took to it straight away.
In 2006 Jed and I decided to start studying up to get our six pack license, and have been spending even more time on the water, as well as logging all of our trips. We now spend an average of 4 days per week on the water.