During the last week of June my entire family (all 27 of us) rented camps on Rangeley Lake in Rangeley Maine. I towed my brothers very old Oday Day Sailor II to the lake from his home near Conway, NH. The trailer is old and tired but the boat made it in one piece. My sister towed her ski boat along but the sailboat received much more use and a whole lot of abuse on the lake.
Rangeley Lake is 6300 acres or about 7-8 miles long and a mile wide. It is generally very deep- up to 145 feet in places. There is a state park for camping and 2 marinas for fuel. There are several boat launches around the lake. One launch is at the state park the other is down town Rangeley and the other is in Oquossoc. The Oquossoc ramp has limited parking and is steep. The state park ramp has parking and is well maintained. The town launch is very busy.
The beginning of the week the weather was unusually calm and hot. The sailboat was used a lot with the younger kids and they had a ball. At times it was hard to keep there attention but when the breeze picked up they loved it.
About mid week the wind started to pick up. Rangeley is famous for it's high wind and huge waves. There are boats designed specifically for this lake (Rangeley boats). My more adventurous family members ventured out whenever the boat was at the dock. Several times I had to run from the cabin to help stop and out of control boat from smashing into shore or the dock. I watched my sister and nephew come in towards the dock under full sail with the boat on plane. I'm not sure what they were going to do but I did get wet saving that one.
My brother and I spent one afternoon on the boat in winds so heavy we should have stayed at the dock. The sailing was awesome and we learned a lot in short amount of time. The wind was whistling through the rigging and the old wire was stretched to its limit. We sailed to the state park and then ran with the wind back towards camp. At times the center board was coming out of the water when we were heeled over to far. The boat was amazing in that it took all of our inexperienced abuse and never flipped or broke.
We had the lake to ourselves. Most people stayed at dock when the wind picked up. It was like ocean sailing. We had waves breaking over the bow and we were jumping from wave to wave at times.
I am now hooked on sailing Maine Lakes. My wife enjoyed the wild sailing also and we will be buying a boat soon.
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