Sail Away in the Sierras

There's plenty to distract a Californian from evil news in the East. This is why I recommend ignoring the national news and focus on the local and regional. We are having really nice weather right now. Take advantage of it. I like walking. There's audiobooks on chilly mornings, as the sun comes up over the Sierras. Those are really nice while gardening, too. There's also mountain biking, road biking, and hiking. Those are popular here too, though I DO recommend blinking lights and bright colored clothes so cars can see you in time. I've never been hit by a local, but I do my part to be seen. Some of the local junkies ride wearing black or camouflage and have accidents because of it. Some fatal. So use your brain if you ride.

The Sierras are also a great place for hiking and picnics and BBQ on the back deck. Lots of good places to enjoy that here in the Sierras.

There's twisty roads to drive on, and grilled steak with a good but inexpensive Lodi Zinfandel. Thanks to Cesar Chavez for destroying the farm worker's jobs and convincing Americans it was unethical to eat table grapes. Instead those were ripped out and replaced with wine grapes. Zinfandel was the popular one, and the wineries that replaced all those raisins and table grapes farms that Chavez put out of business ended up producing really good Zinfandel. Zinfandel is a spicy red wine that goes well with pepper-steak, but also hamburgers and BBQ. Here in California those go for around $3-9 a bottle, though you can pay more. I find that around $5 a bottle is the sweet spot for value and quality. It tends to have more variation and fruit than Cabernet, and more flavor and sharpness than Merlot or Sangiovese. It is too strong for chicken or fish, however.

The other sport here in the Sierras is boating. That means power boats, row boats, kayaks and canoes, even sailing. Yes, sailing, usually small boats under 20 feet long known as a sailing dingy. Lake Tahoe is a huge lake, and on a breezy day has sailboats crossing its deep waters. Quite a few sailboats anchor on its shores, and more boats are pulled out or put in from the various free or pay boat ramps. It is over 1000 feet deep so does not freeze in the winter, even if the shore gets piled high with snow and icicles. Tahoe holds more water than the Great Lakes combined. Tahoe has lots of public access, as well as fancy pay-docks for those who want to pay for better privacy and security. The catch is the winds aren't very reliable in the Sierras, and there are days it is utterly calm, so a sailboat would be pretty useless then. There's also days when a storm surges in and it would be dangerous to sail on the lake. Having oars on your boat, and a boat light enough to enjoy rowing, would be a good idea if you plan to use one on lakes in the Sierras.

Lake Tahoe is below the map, to the right side. The above lakes are in and around Truckee.

And there's plenty more lakes than Tahoe, though most are smaller and all are shallower. Between all the Subarus with kayaks on their roofs, or bicycles, and pickup trucks with a camper on the back and a boat trailer towed behind in the various campgrounds around the various other lakes, like Stampede Reservoir or Lake Davis, both of which are known for their trout fishing. A motor or paddle or row boat is great for those.

Grouchy wife? Go fishing. 

There's also other kinds of boating, though few people do water skiing anymore. The waters are either too cold or too dirty. Houseboats are great for parties on the reservoir lakes like Oroville and Shasta, being warm in the top foot, and freezing below that. Many boaters in the Sierras and Valley like to fish. More than the classic aluminum rowboat, there's other kinds too. Lots of people have a Bass Boat, which is a dual hull boat with a motor and a swivel seat or two. Those are great for guys who want their lure, beer cooler, fish finder, and use this excuse to get away from their wives. I can't blame them. The heat in the Valley is NASTY this time of year, and even Folsom Lake, which generally has really good bass fishing, and is barely 30 minutes from downtown Sacramento, with several boat ramps, the water temps help cool you off. There's a number of good bass-fishing lakes in the foothills, and a person with a truck and trailer towing one of these is in good shape for a weekend of peace on the water.

Stephenson Project, Weekender (model). Built by hand from plywood, for a few thousand dollars.
Weighs only 450 pounds, so can be pulled on a trailer behind any passenger car with a class 1 trailer hitch. 

Paddleboarding is going out of style. I still see some, but most have figured out its not Zen so much as clumsy. If you want to try it out, renting them is cheap at many lakes. You can also rent rowboats, motorboats, and sailboats like a Laser or Sunfish. The Pico rents at Donner Lake. Tahoe City (north shore) rents out the Melonseed, which can be sailed or rowed. Building a boat out of marine grade plywood is another option, though I recommend renting one first. There's no point building a boat you don't enjoy sailing. Much like an RV, you have to be comfortable with it.

Ultra-light, carbon fiber hull, mast, and sails, only $8500 and weighs 85 pounds.

Some people are just happier with a wetsuit and a really light boat that flips over twice an hour, and that's what makes them satisfied. I've found that a used Laser sailboat (aka a board sailer) and a trailer made for it that will pull behind any car with a Class 1 hitch, is around $500 used. These have common parts and are easy to maintain. The hull weighs 130 pounds, the mast and sail another 30 or so, and you are most of the ballast. They flip over easy in gusty conditions and most people who sail them wear a wetsuit. I learned on a Laser. I liked it, but they only really go fast when they are about to flip over. They're olympic boats, and you'll see them in Rio. Only 14 feet long, they're called a Dingy, or racing Dinghy.

Hand built classic Moth, weighs around 85 pounds, made of 6mm marine-grade plywood.

Conversely, the Classic Moth is a boat type that has been modified almost annually and weigh around 80 pounds, are often made of thin bent plywood with floatation chambers and has wires to reinforce the mast. They also have a bit more ergonomic seating setup than the Laser but you mostly have to build one from scratch. They are most popular in Europe, particularly in the UK and France. However, this is another boat where wearing a wetsuit is typical. I think I'd like a boat a little less likely to flip over, and I researched more types of boats, and boat construction, and learned that whomever knows the math for boat design never shares it. Much like electric cars, its all craft secrets. I have learned that Day Sailers, like the above Weekender (Stevenson Project) might be a better fit for me. While it looks big and bulky, it uses bent and tensioned plywood for its strength and actually only weighs 450 pounds, which is pretty similar to a bass boat.

Weekender on a car trailer, with a flat tire.

I could easily see owning one of these, and with club membership at the Gold Country Yacht Club ($70/year) I'd have a place to park it, legally and cheaply, rather than cutting down a tree and building a gate and a ramp and all the fuss involved with storing it here. That said, a Laser would be easier, though much less comfy on Lake Tahoe. An O'Day day-sailer will be cheaper, since those are common used, but perhaps less entertaining than one of these you built yourself. Just not in the basement, unless you can afford to dig out a wall to extract it.