A Drawbridge Encounter By Ken Wikle
W
hen I was 14 my Dad got interested in sailing and decided to buy a sailboat. We lived about 10 miles from Port Clinton on Lake Erie, an area of sailing activity well known in the Great Lakes Area. Our first sailboat, a Nipper, was a 12 ft. catboat, and my sailing career started as first mate to my Dad. He first docked it on the Portage River near our home and we began sailing up and down the river on weekends. After about a year of sailing the Nipper in the river my Dad decided to buy a bigger boat. One day he showed up with a Lightning on a trailer made out of stripped-down car frame (four wheels) painted robin’s egg blue. He traded in the Nipper for the used Lightning. The trailer came with the boat and was a sight to see. A Lightning is a 19 ft. sloop that is an internationally recognized class. At this time it was a heavy boat made out of Mahogany. Once we sailed it we discov-
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April 2020 S O U T H W I N D S
ered that the centerboard well leaked, meaning we had to watch the bilge to make sure we didn’t take on too much water while we were sailing. We didn’t care initially because we were having fun in our new boat. Pumping out the bilge regularly was just part of a day on the water. Sailing this boat in the river proved to be a little too confining. Lake Erie seemed to be a better place to sail now. My Dad joined the Port Clinton Yacht Club to take advantage of the docking and larger body of water on which to sail. That winter my Dad pulled the trailer with the boat into the garage and went about removing the centerboard well and fixing it so it didn’t leak. I helped him. Taking out the metal centerboard was quite a project because it weighed at least 200 lbs. We rigged a line through the rafters in the garage and hoisted it out of the well. He remanufactured the centerboard well and bolted it in place caulking the mating area to the bottom of the boat, tightening it down well with all the bolts. I became his boat maintainer. After we fixed the centerboard well, I got the job of painting and varnishing the boat for the next season on the water. When the weather cleared, we pulled the boat out into the driveway, and I spent many hours sanding and painting our reconditioned Lightning with the very unique trailer. Little did I know that the Lightning and its new home on Lake Erie would open up a whole new chapter in my fledgling sailing career providing many future adventures. After sailing with my dad a few times, I wanted to take my best friend John out sailing in the Lightning. We happened to pick a day when there were high winds out in the lake, and it was too rough to go out. Prudently, we decided to sail in the harbor where the Portage River flowed into Lake Erie. This was more protected and seemed like a safe idea. My dad had a 5hp Mercury Outboard motor on the back of the Lightning which we used to get out of the Yacht Club and up the channel into the lake. This method of getting out into the lake worked fine. The motor started reliably. The motor was on a bracket attached to the stern and had a portable gas tank which was in the stern of the boat and attached to the motor by a detachable fuel line. In order to tilt the outboard up out of the water when you started sailing, you had to disconnect the fuel line and tilt the motor, or the tilting of the motor would either pinch the fuel line or break it. This was usually not a problem. The Portage River is really just an extension of the lake. When the wind blows from the North, water fills the river to a higher level depending on the strength of the wind. When the wind blows from the South, the river empties into the lake. We were used to observing the river, even as far down as Oak Harbor, with low water www.southwindsmagazine.com
