The Great Salt Lake’s milky green surface was nearly flat last Saturday morning, and though the air was still chilly, sunny skies defied the ominous weather forecasts from the day before. Several onlookers shot photos from the Great Salt Lake Marina’s observation deck. Utah State Parks Ranger aide Eric Johnson monitored his VHF radio as he stood quietly nearby, his gaze fixed on the cluster of 10 sailboats a half mile offshore.
“We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water,” the voice of Father LeRoy Carter of St. Barnabas Parish flowed over marine band 16 from the deck of Rescue One, the marina’s primary search and rescue vessel, which has joined the other boats.
Marine band 16 is usually reserved as a universal calling and distress channel, but for a few minutes it was dedicated to the Great Salt Lake Yacht Club and Father Carter’s annual blessing of the fleet.
“Bless us with favorable winds and following seas,” he petitioned before Rescue One led the procession of sailboats back to the marina.
The blessing and boat parade last Saturday were keynotes of the club’s opening day events, which officially inaugurate the new sailing season and honor the Great Salt Lake’s storied boating tradition.
“Practically the minute the Mormons got to the Salt Lake Valley, they started sailing on it,” said GSLYC member and Stansbury Park resident Melissa Merseth as the last of the boats motored past E Dock. “The history of this is so rich.”
In fact, the immense hyper-saline lake has captivated mind and heart since European explorers first laid eyes on it in the mid 1800s. John C. Fremont and others explored it on a rubber and canvas boat in 1843. Other expeditions followed, and by the 1860s a handful of steam and sailing craft plied the lake’s waters, most hauling cargo between ports.
As the lake’s accessibility increased, so did the concept of recreational sailing. The Great Salt Lake Yacht Club was founded on May 10, 1877. According to GSLYC’s website, the fleet originally consisted of four vessels: “Waterwitch,” “Petrel,” “Mary Askey,” and an unnamed boat belonging to a Mr. Hudson. A fifth vessel, “America,” joined the fleet the following year, and the first official regattas were held in 1879. The club was legally incorporated in 1932 and a clubhouse was built beneath the south arm of Saltair Resort.
But the ‘30s also ushered in a long era of upheaval as lake levels dropped, forcing skippers to moor their boats inconveniently offshore and in unprotected waters. Construction began on a rock harbor at the location of the present day marina, but progress was halted due to waning funds and later World War II. Saltair was abandoned in the ‘50s and was destroyed by fire in 1970. The yacht club continued to meet in a trailer at the marina.
The marina was renovated and expanded in 1980 after the area became a state park, and a new incarnation of Saltair opened to great fanfare in 1982. Great Salt Lake’s southern shore seemed to be thriving again, but its heyday was short-lived. The dramatic floods of 1984 nearly doubled the surface area of the lake and completely submerged the marina and all of its facilities. GSLYC’s fleet spent the next several years docked in Saltair’s flooded parking lot.
Though GSLYC has weathered tough times, no act of man or nature has been able to separate the club’s hearty sailors from their passion. The first 80-mile race was held in 1973 and won by Jack Reynolds, whose name the race’s trophy now bears. This year’s Reynolds Cup will take place later this month.
Today the GSLYC boasts a fleet of about 50 vessels and shares a marina office with the State Parks Service. Its calendar is filled with events that range from cruises and weekend regattas to public seminars and other outreach events.
“The race schedule gives people a reason to come down to the lake and share that experience,” explained current club Commodore Gerry Harwood.
For races, the fleet is divided into four groups or sub-fleets of similar vessels, according to boat rating. All boats race the same course but compete primarily with boats in their sub-fleet. Harwood says the club’s most popular races are the Wednesday evening short runs.
The sport’s appeal attracts die-hards of all stripes, including Father Carter himself. A native Virginian and longtime Tooele resident, Carter has been a sailing hobbyist since the ‘70s, when he scored his first boat for $88 and a box top.
“It was basically a Styrofoam ice chest with a sail,” Carter said.
And he was hooked. The 75-year-old hobbyist regularly races his Catalina 30, “Kairos” in GSLYC events.
Merseth, 52, traces her deep fascination with sailing to a storm-swept outing on Utah Lake nearly 30 years ago.
“The boat was heeling, probably 25 to 30 degrees, and my mom was down in the cabin terrified and screaming for the boat to be righted,” she recalled. “I just braced my feet wearing a huge smile, then held on for the best ride I had ever had. For years after that day I just wanted to be on a sailboat again.”
Merseth’s interest was rekindled by Father Carter’s frequent mentions of sailing during sermons at Tooele’s St. Barnabas Parish. She later joined GSLYC and served as its commodore in 2006. She now crews “Kairos,” and grins as she talks about being on the lake.
“You can sit here, listening, and the wind will catch the halyards and slap them against the masts of the boats. It sounds like a wind chime of a different time,” she said.
Perhaps nobody knows the sights and sounds of the Great Salt Lake like harbormaster Dave Shearer, who has lived at the marina for almost 15 years.
“It’s like a gated community out here,” he said of his nautical home. “It’s hard to imagine living in a cul-de-sac neighborhood.
His first years here were spent aboard a Catalina 27, but he now resides in a fifth wheel at the edge of the marina’s parking lot. He watches sunsets from the deck he built with wood from the old railroad trestle that once crossed the lake. He says the trailer offers him better views than the boat slip did.
Though he’s too humble to mention it himself, other GSLYC members are quick to laud Shearer’s world-class sailing savvy. Competition has taken him to various exotic climes, but he always returns to the alkaline shores Utah’s inland sea.
“You’re part of nature out here,” he said. “You’re a part of the storms.”
Fluctuating water levels continue to be problematic for the yacht club. The lake’s current level is 4,195 feet — near record lows. Referring to historic public concern about low lake levels, Shearer offered this advice:
“Great Salt Lake reminds you who’s boss. Then she treats you a little kinder.”
The club’s membership numbers tend to dip with water levels. But watching the satisfied faces of young and old aboard their decorated craft, it’s clear there is a vibrant sailing spirit here — a spirit that Merseth captured best during a thoughtful moment on the dock:
“I love motoring out to the start line and turning the engine off. It’s the silence and nothing but the wind and the water… and the freedom.”
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