Sailboats at Elephant Butte Lake, New Mexico, before the Race to the Elephant

Fleet panorama at Elephant Butte Lake in southern New Mexico as boats wait to sail in the Race to the Elephant



Kachina in front of Elephant Race fleet

Two boats framed between Nessie (C&C29) and Free and Clear IV (Freedom 21, at right).


Nessie and Free and Clear IV



The J/24 sloop Hot Flash, and the race committee signal boat, Susie Q, before the start of the Race to the Elephant at Elephant Butte Lake in southern New Mexico. Conditions during Saturday morning were a bit frustrating with light, variable, switchy wafts of breeze for beleaguered sailors. I had a hard time reaching the starting area on Carol Anne's motorless Etchells sloop; fortunately the start was postponed until the wind started filling in about an hour after the published start time. (The A fleet started at 1:43 p.m., an hour and 38 minutes after the planned 12:05 start [12:00 noon warning signal].

Sailing in New Mexico; very brief update

by my standards, anyway. This Saturday we had about fifteen boats participate in the Race to the Elephant, plus support from powerboats helping with race committee and photography. I wound up single-handing Carol Anne's Etchells "Black Magic". After finishing the race behind Kachina I docked, rolled up the main and tidied up the boat, and went to the far end of the marina to watch other boats finish.

Kachina was not only first to finish, but also first on corrected time, both in the racing fleet and overall. Black Magic was second to finish and also second on corrected time (race fleet and overall). The winner of the cruising fleet and third overall was "Viento Bueno", a US 25, and the winner and "sole survivor" of the dinghies was a Capri 16.5. The racing was followed by a great steak dinner and awards banquet.

Lago Rico, the company that owns the local marinas and sponsored the regatta, also arranged for pictures of the boats racing to be printed out and on the tables for people to look and and take home, and for some really nice door prizes to be given out.

Sailboats at the Race to the Elephant, Elephant Butte Lake, New Mexico

Will 'o the Wind (Beneteau 285) at the Race to the Elephant. Correction: This should be Ranger Ben's O'Day 26 and has a shamrock logo.



Free and Clear IV (Freedom 21, at left, single-handed by "Cornhusker") and Nessie (C&C29, at right) circle the Elephant during the Race to the Elephant at Elephant Butte Lake, Saturday, May 30, 2009.

Friday update, more sailing in southern New Mexico

Today Carol Anne, Gerald, and I drove south to Elephant Butte Lake in southern New Mexico. We entered the state park and unlocked the sailboat mast-up storage gate, hitched up Black Magic, and launched the boat. While I was rigging sail, Gerald returned to boat trailer to the storage lot and Carol Anne and I waited out a light rain shower. After Gerald returned, Gerald and I took off to shuttle the boat north to the Rock Canyon Marina, just a few miles north.

Winds were gusty, so we elected to do without the jib, but sailing under just main the boat had some peculiarities and took a while to get moving. Once the boat was sorted out, we wound up bashing into increasingly steep and choppy seas as the winds built up into the 20s with probably gusts into the 30s and we started crashing through the breaking waves. It was a wild ride for quite a while, but eventually things lightened enough so we could make a well-controlled entrance into the marina and a tidy docking.

At the marina we caught up with a few sailors, but didn't see others; some people weren't arriving until later in the evening or until Saturday morning. We took the heavy main off the boat, since we'll be using a different one tomorrow.

Carol Anne plans to be on "Windependent" tomorrow. By lake standards the Hunter 34 is a big boat, and tomorrow's race is more of a cruiser-style race, so it may be a bit of a floating party.

In other developments, I may have to drive to Texas next week.

More Jack and Jill Regatta sailing pictures

Newport 28 "Sunkissed" with Car Guy and crew.



Distant boats

Distant sail and boating action

Jack and Jill Race 2009, Elephant Butte Lake

Images of the J/24 "Hot Flash", with spinnaker, and S2 "Cultural Infidel" approaching the finish line



J/24 "Oso" running downwind

Somewhat fuzzy picture of Banshee with New Mexico Tech crew

J/24 "Hot Flash"

Sailing in December at Elephant Butte Lake, Day 2

P Cat with mountain scenery to the NNE. After a long slog struggling with barely perceptible breezes, I was grateful for some more usable breeze, which ranged from 3 to 8 knots. Just as the breeze gradually rose from something like .1 knot to a few times more than that, a catamaran launched itself into the lake at Hot Springs/Jet Boat Cove and glided over the lake to join me. Paul, the skipper, noted that he'd decided to sail his nineteen-foot Pacific Cat out despite the initially calm lake, since he'd seen me plugging away. Fortunately, we got some passable wind and were able to get in some several tacks around some navigation buoys and then sail around with the thirty-four-foot S2, Cultural Infidel, when it joined us.


P Cat approaching

Nice view of Paul's P Cat.

P Cat approaching buoy; view to northwest

P Cat astern

View from the helm after I finally got a bit of usable breeze. Days like this taught me to feel subtle differences among the faint breezes. During part of the trip, incense sticks were lit to help me track faint, switch, unpredictable bits of breeze. Velocity headers, wild swings in direction, and sudden gaps in the light air were all part of Sunday's program.

GPS display showing 7 kph (4 knots) speed. Later, the speed increased, but as a solo sailor I became a bit busy.

I dropped the jib about a thousand feet before reaching the Marina del Sur breakwater -- and, of course, the breeze then dropped to about 1.5 knots! So, Carol Anne had plenty of time to wait for me at the courtesy dock. Later on, the breeze came back for a while to 6 to 8 knots, but by then Black Magic was on her trailer in the mast-up storage lot.

Cultural Infidel Sailing at Elephant Butte Lake, New Mexico, Pearl Harbor Day

Cultural Infidel is a thirty-four-foot racer-cruiser sloop that was built by S2 yachts. Their other models were designed as cruising boats, but this model can be equipped for racing, and active S2 34' fleets race on Lake Michigan. Elephant Butte Lake is rather smaller than the Great Lakes, even though it can be New Mexico's largest lake, with 50 miles of surface area and many miles of shoreline to explore.

Sailing at Elephant Butte Lake, December 7, 2008

Close view of Cultural Infidel

View astern of 19' P cat and S2 34 Cultural Infidel

S2 34 heading toward hills and mountains beyond

Stern view of Cultural Infidel


Sailing toward Turtleback Mountain. Now and then the GPS recorded speeds of 9 kph (5 knots)

Kris Kringle Race 2008, Rio Grande Sailing Club, New Mexico

Hunter 28 Erebus, named for the Antarctic peak.

S2 7.9 (26') sloop "Delfin" serving as committee boat for the regatta


Five Planks and Nessie

Twenty-six foot S2 (S27.9, committee boat), C&C 29 Nessie, and Freedom 21 Five Planks.

Freedom 21 (sloop-rigged with staysail jib), Five Planks

Sailing Black Magic back to Rock Canyon Marina after the Kris Kringle regatta at Elephant Butte Lake

After arriving finally at the race course, starting, and taking photos of boats, it was time for me to try to reach the Rock Canyon Marina before the wind failed completely. As it was, it was a slow sail for the last mile.

Commodore's Cup; A Quiet Day for Sailing at Elephant Butte Lake, New Mexico

International Etchells Black Magic (USA 125)

Colgate 26

Kachina in front of Kettletop

Black Magic crew

Commodore's Cup 2008, Rio Grande Sailing Club sailing at Elephant Butte Lake

MC Scow and J/24

Boats on glassy water


Cultural Infidel on glassy water



Four boats on still waters