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].

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.

Banshee and Free and Clear sailing in southern New Mexico

Banshee dinghy with crew from New Mexico Tech, Sunday, May 10, 2009 at Elephant Butte Lake in southern New Mexico.

Freedom 21 "Free and Clear IV" rigged as a sloop and running downwind under chute at the Jack and Jill Race at Elephant Butte Lake. Photos courtesy Gerald R. Byrnes 2009 (c).

Before the Jack and Jill Race, May 10, 2009

Newport 28 "Sunkissed" ghosts along on a glazed lake. Conditions would look much better in an hour.

View to the north, showing the J/24 "Oso" at left and Freedom 21 "Free and Clear IV" at right. Winds were very light and fickle during the morning, but by 12:40 a nice breeze had filled in from the south.

S 2 "Cultural Infidel"

J/24 "Hot Flash" in front of Kettletop Mesa


Freedom 21 "Free and Clear IV"

Jack and Jill race pictures, Rio Grande Sailing Club

Free and Clear IV and Cultural Infidel approach the startling line.

Hot Flash and other boats at the start, with Kettletop Mesa in the distant background.


The J/24 "Hot Flash", on starboard, passes in front of the S2 "Cultural Infidel", partially hidden behind, and is followed by the Freedom 21, "Free and Clear IV", to the left of the pin buoy at the start of the his-and-hers Jack and Jill race.

Start of the Jack and Jill Race 2009, Rio Grande Sailing Club

The S2 10.3 (34') cruiser-racer "Cultural Infidel" powers up at the start

"Free and Clear IV" and "Hot Flash" start their race


J/24 "Oso" near the starting line of the 2009 Jack and Jill his-and-hers race

Oso's crew passes close to the committee boat



Boats starting, with the Freedom 21 "Free and Clear IV" near center left and the J/24 "Oso" closest t near right.

Elephant Butte Lake, May 10, 2009

Freedom 21 "Free and Clear IV" between J/24s.


J/24 "Hot Flash" and Freedom 21 "Free and Clear IV" headed upwind

Two J/24s, "Hot Flash" and "Oso"

Free and Clear IV at the Jack and Jill race with Turtleback Mountain in background.

Free and Clear IV, Freedom 21 after Jack and Jill Race

Portrait of Free and Clear IV after Sunday's Jack and Jill race at Elephant Butte Lake.


Freedom 21 "Free and Clear IV" with Kettletop Mesa in far background.

Sailing at Elephant Butte Lake, Sunday, January 25, 2009

Etchells Constellation. After some comic-opera mis-communications, Zorro wound up with Blondie and a boyfriend on board, both of whom were unprepared for conditions on the water when the winds picked up.

Fickle winds made trimming the chute a frustrating exercise for a while during Cornhusker's solo sail on Sunday. Later on the winds came up even stronger than on Saturday, gusting into the 25-mph range with steady winds exceeding 20 mph.





Look ma, we can even sail dead downwind backwards!

We sailed around the lake for a while with Cornhusker and Zorro, then sailed to the courtesy dock near Marina del Sur. We dumped sails a bit too soon and fell short of the dock (which is still much better than ramming it because of going way too fast). The winds were too strong to let us scull or paddle to the dock, so we raised the jib and used it to sail to the courtesy dock. Then we had to wait quite a while for the winds to settle down; there was just too much wind to try to put our non-motorized thirty-foot keelboat on a trailer. So, we returned to Rock Canyon Marina, where Husker had returned with her boat, and visited with the marina staff, Ron, Lance, and marina co-owner Neal. I took a kayak out into the choppy water and whitecaps for a bit of exercise and play time while waiting for Constellation to return to the marina, which it eventually did with a soggy, chilled crew. Then we had lunch with Zorro, Blondie, and Matt. Returning to the ramp area, we found that the winds had moderated, so Carol Anne and I were able to retrieve the boat. We faced one additional challenge, however; the lot truck we used to haul Black Magic to the mast-up lot had no headlights.

Sailing at Elephant Butte Lake, Friday, January 23, 2009

Etchells USA 38 Constellation in winter sun at Elephant Butte Lake, New Mexico

Constellation ahead.


Friday, January 23, 2009, Seventh Day:
After Thursday's sail, I'd hitched a Jeep ride with Dumbledore to the Saturn, driven north all the way back to Albuquerque, and taken Carol Anne to work. After picking her up at the Montoya Campus after her class ended at 9:20 and stopping by home, it was nearly midnight by the time we got to our motel room in Truth or Consequences.

Thus, we were slow getting going on Friday and didn't check out until late morning. Zorro helped us re-attach the traveler control lines in spite of a few challenges before he went out. But, before long we had a bit of wind waiting at the marina, so off we went to catch up with Zorro and his boat, Constellation. Cornhusker and Bassmaster came out on her Freedom 21, Free and Clear 4, so we enjoyed lots of sailing. We did some rough tuning with Zorro, which consisted mostly of following him around some navigation buoys that we used as turning marks. We also got in some a bit of downwind spinnaker work early on, but then settled in for lots of windward-leeward work. All in all, this was yet another one of a surprisingly large number of good sailing days we'd enjoyed in January.


Constellation and mountain scenery


Constellation turning at a navigation buoy


Freedom 21, Free and Clear IV with nearby mountain scenery.


Free and Clear IV with Kettletop Mesa in distance




As we passed to windward of Free and Clear, our shadow passed over her in the mid-afternoon winter light.



Freedom 21 Free and Clear IV and Etchells 22 Constellation



Free and Clear IV and Constellation

Part of a lines drawing for the Etchells class sailboat that is said to be one of the last drawings Skip Etchells made for the boats.

Cornhusker's new sailing toy

This past Friday (Dec. 5, 2008), "Cornhusker" and "Bassmaster" traveled north to Santa Fe, where Husker became the proud owner of a Freedom 21 cat-rigged sailboat. Bassmaster picked up a motorcycle.



Bow of Free and Clear IV

Trailer details on port side

Details of forward portion of trailer