WATER FUN | Water Fun + Fishing
Of Sailors + Old Salts Sailor Tales by Mary Jane Bogle + photos by Bill Crawford of Harbor Pictures
Welcome to the second story in our two-part series on sailing life in Kosciusko County. In this issue, you’ll meet a few of our region’s sailors and hear their salty tales. (Special thanks to the Wawasee Yacht Club for sharing these firsthand accounts with us!)
The Initiation – by sailor Sue Sharp My friend Karen convinced me to go sailing with her, just to see if I would like it. On a tack, the wind direction feather indicator at the front of the boat got tangled in the halyard and was about to break loose. Karen headed into the wind, let out the main, and slowed our progress so I could snake out on the deck to fix it. Just then, a huge puff of wind caught the sail, yanking the main sheet out of Karen’s hand, and the boom knocked me straight into the water. The boat screamed off on its new tack at break-neck speed while the main sheet grabbed hold of my sunglasses, my cap— and my trailing ponytail, dragging me underwater like a fishing lure. After what seemed like eternity, I felt Karen’s hand tugging at my head. My cap and a big clump of hair came off in her hand, but I was freed from the tangled mess. My head popped out of the water like a cork. I had heard of club initiations before, but this was the ultimate in ridiculousness!
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LAKElife Magazine May 2021
The Misadventure – by sailor Alan Fox While it is widely known (in the sailing community) that Berkley Duck’s back porch played an important part in the formation of the Wawasee Boating Association (WBA), his pontoon boat nearly negated all that his back porch had contributed. Berk had a style that was to provide us with numerous adventures in the early days of the WBA, and he promptly introduced me to it during preparations for the first race. As I was attempting to sail along the port side of the committee boat, he quickly turned 90-degrees left, impaling my Y-Flyer onto his left front pontoon. We patched my boat, and Berk and I went on to sail many races and establish a long-term friendship. But it almost ended before it began!
