The following is taken from an article in the Deseret News on Monday June 6, 2011.
High water from record winter snow and spring rains flooded out the annual Utah Lake State Park Festival, but didn’t put a damper on the Utah Summer Games Keelboat Regatta held Saturday, June 4 at Utah Lake State Park… Twelve teams competed in three classes based on each boat’s Portsmouth Yardstick Index. To account for the variety of keelboats, the Portsmouth ratings handicap the faster boats so those racing slower boats can compete… After four races, scores were tallied and the following medals awarded:
Portsmouth rating between 90–100 (intermediate class)
Gold — Skipper Pat Sullivan and crewman Dave Pendell
Silver —Skipper Darin Mangum and his crew of Elizabeth Jefferson, Branden Espinoza, Matt Pugh, and Brandon Barney
Bronze — Skipper Roger Bliss and his crew of Richard Oman and Mike Munnerlyn
We had a really great time out on Utah Lake. We sailed in Darin Mangum’s Sailbun III, a Catalina 25 that he has owned for about four years. I love sailing with these guys. Brandon Barney could only stay for our first race. That’s why he isn’t in the pictures.
Elizabeth and I got to take a friend/brother-in-arms, Brian Aitken, for a hike up to the summit of Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake when he was in Utah for a visit. It was a lot of fun, but it reminded me of what a fat slob I am.
On December 7th I helped a fellow sailor, Darin Mangum [Legal Council for Utah Lake Yacht Club], pull his boat from the water. There was only one catch, the boat was stuck in 5″ of solid ice. But Darin provided the food and I’m not one to turn down a chance to just mess around on sailboats. The experience was beyond epic. At first we were a little fearful of falling through the ice, but after about an hour, all fears subsided, though they shouldn’t have. After two hours of exhausting labor, we decided to give gasoline and gravity the chance to do our work for us. We used the boat’s motor to ram the boat up onto the ice, then we simply let gravity do its thing. The last 100 yards were easy breezy. As we were preparing the trailer, I actually fell through the ice. But, in an instinctive move that would have made my father proud, I spread my arms wide and cast my body forward to distribute the weight. I had no problem climbing out of the hole. After a minute or so, I was laughing about it.
A few days later, Darin emailed the videos to me and I threw a simple montage together, uploaded it to youtube, and emailed it to the editor of sailinganarchy.com. They put it up on the front page. Did we just put Utah sailing on the map? I think so.
The video has been picked up by Ijedrenja, a Croatian website. The caption reads:
Two fools have decided to move their boat through a frozen lake in Utah in the United States. They tried everything, and managed with a chainsaw to break the ice enough to move. Watch the video, but it is not advisable to try this with your ship.
Update December 21, 2010
4,345 Plays
The video has been picked up by SailTube.tv, a website that specializes in sailing videos. Their caption reads:
Catalina 25: Ice-breaker
Catalina 25 frozen in its slip December 7, 2010. This is how we got her out.
Crazy!!!
Update December 21, 2010
5,560 Plays
The video has been picked up by Zeilen.nl, the website for a Dutch Sailing Magazine. The caption there reads:
Icebreakers? No need. A solid fiberglass boat and a chainsaw are large enough for your boat at the slipway to get.
Update December 22, 2010
6,124 Plays
The video has been picked up by the Catalina 25 Class Association website. There is an entire thread of Catalina 25 sailors commenting on how crazy we are. Check out some of the quotes:
I think these guys waited a bit too long to pull their C25…
Jeeze — I look at this and think of all I do to NOT be in the situation they are… These guys were lucky, period, full stop!
That’s a little too headstrong for me but I guess you have to do what you have to do.
Bad planning, for sure! That C-25 was on Utah Lake. Maybe Mike Harmer, skipper of the Unsinkable, who sails on the same lake, knows these guys. [Maybe he knows me, but I don't know Mike Harmer. -BE]
I enjoyed some great racing this week with Eric McClure and crew aboard his J-35 Mac’s. Elizabeth joined us aboard the boat and Brandon Barney tagged along for races on a J-29. We all had a great time. Enjoy the pictures.
A group of us went camping up in the Uintas. We “borrowed” a canoe from BYU Outdoor Education, and drove up to Crystal Lake. After loading everything up in the canoe (a few times) and set out across the lake, we set up camp on the other side. The ragtag group was made up of Branden Espinoza, Elizabeth Jefferson, Tallon Sessions, Aaron Gaitan, Rachel Nelson (Byrd), and Whitney Denning
Summer isn’t coming fast enough, so Aaron, Chris and I high tailed it to Ventura, California for some surfing. The swells weren’t that big, ankle biters. But we had a bunch of fun anyway. And you should have seen Chris on Ephedrine.
PASCAGOULA, MS: I will never eat at a restaurant again. Today was hands down the most challenging day of work I’ve ever had. We worked on a walkin freezer that has been full of food and no electricity for a month. It was so extraordinarily foul that we had to don full haz-mat gear. My best friend was the respirator. It protected me from the noxious biological vapors from the rotting meat. The worse part though was the white Tyvek suits we wore. The 100 degree weather tore us up in those suits. We were all suffering from heat exhaustion by the end of the day. It was simply impossible to keep ourselves hydrated enough to perform to our normal standards. I almost lost it once. I started to shiver really badly… Even though I was sweating like a pig. And the smell… If God ever gets mad at me and decides to send of to hell, he is going to lock me in that freezes for eternity. And the worse thing is that we have to in back tomorrow.
BILOXI, MS – I have this burning inside. There is something down there deep inside. I don’t know what it is. I think I would like to build something. I don’t necessarily mean a house or a boat. I just feel a need to pour my heart into something of value. Life is more than school, work, and weekends. Perhaps life is best savored in the shadows of our own creations rather than the shadows of coconut palms. I think that there is a coming of age through which every man must pass if he is to leave a lasting legacy. My thoughts, for example, haphazardly keyed in from a laptop, will fade because they were not written to last. I have always thought that life should be experienced. But a life experienced still passes by. A life built, however, is captured, shared, and in time immortalizes the man who built it. The songwriter may be forgotten, but he smiles down from heaven as his song brightens generations. That kind of joy is rare. I don’t want to stop chasing dreams.
I believe there will always be room to chase dreams. But I want to build something along the way. I took a walk on the beach today. Maybe it is the nature of the work I am doing down here, maybe it is the feeling of stagnation being out of school for so long, or maybe it is a desire to lead a more Christ-like life, but I feel older than I did in Provo. As I sat and watched the sunset into the water, I felt empty. I’ve never felt like that before. I saw a jellyfish wash ashore. How many people live spineless lives drifting about the world with flashes of brilliant color and long trains of experiences flowing behind them, only to be washed ashore to be pounded by the unpredictable waves of life against the sands of time. I want to do something of substance with my life.
GULFPORT, MS – We went to the priesthood session of general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this evening. What an experience to sit with men covered in dirt from the toils of selfless sacrifice to listen to the Prophet and Apostles. I understand more the meaning of Christianity. It is neither about Sunday best nor powerful sermons. Being a Christian means becoming a saint. I don’t think I will soon forget the purity in those soiled clothes. I saw the priesthood of God in its truest form tonight. There was no rich, there was no poor. Only men united with single purpose of heart. I am a better man for going.
![On December 7th I helped a fellow sailor, Darin Mangum [Legal Council for Utah Lake Yacht Club], pull his boat from the water. There was only one catch, the boat...](http://www.brandenespinoza.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Branden-SailingAnarchy-Video.jpg "Branden’s Sailing Vid Gone Viral")
