On an even keel

DAYTON — When Jim Lekander came to Dayton in 1982, he saw a near perfect environment for sailing.

The infrastructure was there for a marina in the form of the 886-foot dock formerly used by the logging companies to dump logs harvested in the Proctor Valley into Flathead Lake where they were pushed up to Somers.

Due to a thermal effect—that is, warm air over the land mixing with cool air over the bay creating nearly guaranteed wind every day of the sailing season—the bay had prime sailing conditions.

So Lekander, an avid sailor himself, bought what would turn into the Dayton Yacht Harbor and converted the dock to a marina capable of housing 100 boats, and he moved into an apartment in the old harbor house about 50 yards away.

Lekander’s vision paid off and, 31 years later, it has morphed into the South Flathead Yacht Club, formerly the South Flathead Sailing Association. The club boasts a membership of dozens of boats and holds sailboat races nearly every weekend of the boating season.

Commodore Mark Gilmore now presides over the club, which has members from as close as Dayton and Polson and as far as Calgary, Alberta.

Gilmore said the quiddity of the SFYC is recreation rather than competition.

“We try to put together a structure that makes racing fun,” Gilmore said. “You come out for a couple of weekends and learn how to sail your boat well. … We’re not out here to be Type A or number one. We’re here to get better at sailing. Competition helps us do that.”

Gilmore, who usually races on his 28-foot Laser named Seawolf, was filling in for the club’s race steward, Cort Jensen, on the race committee boat. His role was to keep times and regulate the races.

On a typical Saturday in Dayton Bay, onlookers can find anywhere from three to 12 boats under sail circling the buoys that demarcate the racecourse.

Last Saturday saw five boats in action: Critical Twist, Water Skipper, A Multidao, Jolie Blon and Tenfegrity. All are residents at the marina.

A racecourse is comprised of a certain number of buoys—usually two—on opposite sides of the committee boat. The starting and finish line is bookended by the committee boat and a third buoy. One lap is completed by crossing the line after the starting horn, circling one buoy, crossing back around the starting line, circling the second buoy and returning across the line.

Much like scoring in golf, each sailboat is assigned a handicap based on its characteristics, its equipment, and the types of sails the sailor chooses to use. These handicaps are determined by US Sailing’s National Average Handicap System.

A typical Saturday sees racers complete four or five races over the span of a few hours under sail, but the club hosts larger races like July’s race around Wild Horse Island and the upcoming Labor Day Regatta, which will see more than a dozen boats in the water.

Gilmore, a Missoula resident, has been racing for 10 years now. One of the most exciting things for him to see is for new sailors to get involved in the races.

“We always have a couple of first-year racers, and we want them to learn and keep on coming back,” he said.

Gilmore said the atmosphere at SFYC is more laid back than at many other racing institutions.

“We try to keep it fun,” he said. “We don’t want people to get aggressive.”

Gilmore fondly recalled getting post-race advice from the club’s more experienced sailors when he was getting started. He “caught the racing bug” because of the strategy involved in navigating the course and how that strategy can change throughout the day due to changing wind conditions.

The next step, Gilmore said, is to get more organized to be able to better serve boaters and the community at large. The club is working on getting non-profit organization status to achieve just that.