Lake Ponchartrain - Is small craft advisory safe?

[SailingStNick]

Since I live in that area, I'd love to hear your story.

[nolatom]

A little more Lake P. advice, glad you followed the earlier advice, these were some pretty strong cold fronts so a honking N-NW wind, flat on the North shore, but nasty lee shore on the South Shore.

The lake, 20 by 30 miles, is only about *15* (count 'em) feet deep in most places. So instead of getting long rollers as you would in open water, you have the "square chop", which is steep with a very short wave period, and is hard on boats and harder still on the crew, hence the good advice you got and heeded.

I teach out there fairly often, on rather lightweight and low-freeboard sport boats, which won't take as much weather as a Cal-25. So I watch the weather carefully.

In looking at the NWS forecast, you would do well to look at the near-coastal (out to 25 miles) wind predictions rather than just the lake ones, especially if you're on the lee side of the lake. NWS typically cuts 5-10 knots off that windspeed range to get the lake prediction, but the lake has so much fetch that I think they're not conservative enough, and the offshore wind speeds are likely on the lake. So small craft advisories are *really* more like warnings.

If you want the real-time windspeeds on the South shore, go to southernyachtclub.org and click on "West End Weather", it gives you base winds, gust winds, and direction, all on the same graph. Also air and water temp, and barometer.

[Billy654]

Tom

Thanks for the information.

About a year-ago you were our sailing instructor. (me, wife and daughter)

[nolatom]

Originally Posted by Billy654

Tom

Thanks for the information.

About a year-ago you were our sailing instructor. (me, wife and daughter)

Cool. Hope your sailing is going well. Some day we'll get the warm weather and moderate breezes back.

[cthomas]

Is this the new painted boat up on the seawall? Nice boat. Good luck. Tomorrow ought to be a great day to go.

[oldironnut]

I only have limited sailing experience. Daysailing on a 13' Zuma (if memory serves) and crewing on a friend's 26' MacGregor both daysailing and a weeklong cruise. Two potentially lethal situations come to mind. I went for a short afternoon sail on my Zuma and got caught in a 55mph plus thunderstorm. Shouda, coulda, woulda luffed my sail and went down wind and beached-regardless of potential damage. On this boat you can't drop the sail because it slips over the mast from the top- no stays or halyards. I could have watched the weather report or at the very least watched the horizon for building thunderstorms. After getting knocked down twice and quickly running out of energy I climbed onto the bottom of the boat after it turned turtle, put the centerboard under my arm and held on. (can someone explain to me why they designed a boat with a center of gravity above the deck?) A couple of my sailing friends told me that I should get a boarding ladder installed that extends two or three feet UP from the gunwales. Lucky for me someone on shore was watching my follies and called search and rescue.
The other time, while potentially dangerous, didn't end in disaster. We were sailing on Bear Lake (on the Idaho-Utah border) in the MacGregor. Under the mainsail only we still dipped the rail in the water a few times. Considering the freeboard of the MacGregor that should have told us something. We weren't smart enough to be afraid, My friend just didn't want to damage his boat so we dropped the main and sailed under pole only. We had all the leeway we needed until the storm passed. Lucky again. They say that the Lord watches out for old men and fools. It's one thing to use your skills and luck to get youself out of a jam, but unecessary risks shouldn't be challenged by newbies like me. Bottom line-learn about your boat and learn about the weather.