Sailing Lake Wallenpaupack

[31seahorse]

Hello Members,
Perhaps I should have used this title: Sailing Lake "Wall and Power Pack".

We spent two days sailing at the lake in PA. The weather was predicted to offer winds to 12 or 15 on Tuesday and 6 to 10 today with 0% chance of rain. Well, the reality of the situation was wind on Tuesday that had to reach 18 to 20 and we were blessed with a soaking about 30 minutes into our sail. Gusting wind, whitecaps, and splashing bow wake did not please the crew, and she told me so! The boat did well even though she is a flat hulled daysailer, and we are still learning her abilities and honing ours. The wind on the lake was effected by the points and valleys along the shore. A member who has a sailboat on Lake Wallenpaupack has described his frustration due to the ever-changing wind direction the shoreline creates. I know exactly what he deals with when he sails.

Today there was a cloudless sky and a gentile breeze when we woke at our campsite at Promised Land State Park. (BTW - If you want to enjoy a newly renovated campground that is the place to visit. Beautiful sites and bathroom facilities with the latter being the most important for many campers.) We launched about 11 AM and, sure enough, the wind began to build. We should have skipped breakfast and a walk in Hawley and started sailing at 7AM! Again, gusting winds to 15, but no rain. We sailed a while, but decided that it was more work than the relaxing sail we had hoped for.

I certainly salute any sailors who ply those lake waters regularly. There are no "lazy sailors" on Lake Wallenpaupack.

Respectfully, Phil

 

[oldiesrocker2001]

We sailed there some years ago with my old O'day 17. A not-too-deep lake with high winds and and high speed boats make for an exciting ride. Those powerboaters don't look at all! As the driver of the cigarette boat that nearly tore off my bow apologised with "I didn't see you!" I still wonder what about the two white sails 20 ft in the air was invisible...:cussing:

 

[shnool]

Just picked up on your post, yeah, Wally has tons of powerboats, and sits between mountains, and everything you say is true... including the endless challenge of wind shifts... I post this video to prove that winds can be good, and the sail fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoOtaoIRGCo

I am quite sure I was out on the water on the 25th, just couldn't find any pictures/videos from that day. If you should happen to be back up this way again, I urge you please to look myself or any of my sail club up. shnool @ yahoo

Happy to crew for you, or take you out on my boat, either way, it's a frustrating lake, but if you know what to expect, it's manageable, and on a weekday can even be fun. Powerboaters on the lake are notoriously poor seamen there, and I make no excuses for that. Also wind forecasts can be unpredictable at best, I've found NOAA accurate only about 24 hours out. Also depending on the direction, they can "amplify" in the valley that is the lake.

As for the lake not being too deep, I really can't find a good way to agree with that. I draw 4'2" with my Capri (deeper than the average sailboat there, mostly because their are no hoists, and everyone has to trailer). I have found that protected salt-water is generally a LOT shallower, my personal experience examples being the Barnegat Bay (average mean tide depth 7 feet), and Chesapeake Bay (upper is average depth 14 feet). In fact I'd argue that for such a small lake (13 miles usable on Wally), the lake is nearly 100% usable, in that the edges of the lake are quite steep, it's not unusual to be in 40 feet of water 15 feet from shore. My boat slip is about 30 feet from shore, and I am in 18 feet of water. The "max depth" at high water is about 65 feet of the lake, average is probably 25 feet for the lake. Granted it's not Finger Lakes deep (100+), or the like, but then if you could find a hoist for the lake (you can't) launching and sailing a 40 footer would be no problem. We do have 27 footers, and 28 footers on the lake with deep draft keels, that rarely run aground.

 

[watercolors II]

Welcome to sailing on a mt lake.

All small lakes in the mountains anywhere will have the same conditions, tremendous variations in wind speed and wind shifts.

Yesterdays sail, the wind would go from all most dead calm to 12 to 15 mph at any spot on the water. The state park office up on top of a hill overlooking the lake installed a small wind generator to help power the office. The generator sitting on a tower is about 200 feet above the water level and seems to point in the weather reported wind direction, maybe moving no more than 45 degrees during the afternoon. Because of the surrounding hills, wind direction can be 45 to 90 degrees difference on the water in above wind direction with the tower. When the hills move the wind direction and the wind speed drops it can hit the hill under the tower and move to a 180 degree direction.

On my lake many beginning sailors can not navigate from one end of the lake to the other because of these wind shifts and end up tacking back and forth in the same spot till they eventually learn how to play the wind shifts.

A friend moved his trailerable 28 foot boat from the lake to Baltimore. We have set that boat up to sail from 15 minutes to half an hour without touching the helm sailing on the Chesapeake Bay, on our mt lake you could not leave the helm for more than a minute on that same boat.

I have been there, but not sailed Wallenpaupack. My favorite mt lake is Kinsua Dam, the Allegheny Reservoir, on the New York border with Pennsylvania near Bradford, Pa.

Where Wallenpaupack is privately owned Kinsua is flood control and owned by the Army Corp of Engineers, so there’s no private shoreline development. It also sits on the northern side of an area between the State of New York and interstate 80 on the south, Oil city at the west end and Williamsport on the east side. This area has 2.6 million acrea of state and federal forest lands with no development over the last 100 years. 2 out of every 3 homes are hunting or summer camps unused most of the year. From Clearfield on interstate 80 north to Renovo the west branch of the Susquehanna River is one of the National Geographic Society's 10 best places to visit. For you, just the drive to Kinsua is worth the trip.

Most of the shoreline is the start of the surrounding mountains rising right out of the water to 1000 feet above. The water depth can be 60 feet a couple boat lengths from shore. Located in a very rural area and only 50 miles from Lake Erie the water is not that busy even on weekends.

Look up; Wolf Run Marina, Onoville Marina, Willow Bay campground and launch ramp and Dewdrop campground, the best spots of Kinsua Dam