March 2020 Lopez Lake, CA Training Weekend!

This past weekend we went out to help get some folks ready for the season. One of our nice local sailing venues is Lopez Lake, a lake just outside of Arroyo Grande in California. This lake is rather small, but is positioned in a nice spot for strong breeze to whip through the canyon. That makes it great for sailing! While its small size can be challenging for sailing, it also makes a great place for sailing instruction because it's hard to get out of sight. The local yacht club, based in Avila Beach is the San Luis Yacht Club. This club has recently started a small boat program based on the Hobie Wave. Club members primarily sail out of the San Luis Bay Harbor area or on the local lakes, such as Lopez Lake.

The Wave is a great little boat for simplicity and function. The boat has an active one design or formula class available for competitive racing. It has a relatively low price point and its simple design keeps maintenance pretty minimal. You can throw a very green sailor on the boat and have them tacking, gybing and grinning in a matter of minutes and solo sailing within an hour. Its boomless design dramatically reduces the potential for injury, and excessive buoyancy in the hulls facilitates up to three or four people on the boat. While the boat performs much better with just one person, it's fantastic to go out as a group for lessons or just a quick introductory sail session.

The San Luis Yacht Club has picked up three of these boats to reduce the barrier of access to sailing for its members. There is a brief certification process required to ensure safe boating methods are practiced by members, which was one of the main purposes of this weekend's outing. Members were tested on terminology, right of way rules, and boat handling techniques. We found that the boat is easily righted after a capsize when the sailor is at least 150lbs.

Members of the local sailing community came out as well for some rules, and tuning discussions