Sailing on Lake Clear, NY

Sailing Lake Clear
Clearly Bob

All my posts thus far have been about hiking, climbing mountains, canoeing and kayaking in the Lake Clear area.  

But I'm leaving out one of my other outdoor activity loves - sailing.  

And Lake Clear is a excellent little sailing lake.    

Once, when we took one of our short  road walks over to the public beach  we talked to a guy who was rigging his windsurfer on the beach.  It was a nice breezy day.   He lived in Lake Placid and told us that when he wants a real good day of sailing he either heads for Lake Champlain or Lake Clear.   The two lakes could not be more different in  terms of size but, to him,  they were of comparable appeal for windsurfing.  Other nearby lakes are larger than Lake Clear but they have narrow  sections, islands, and/or bays that, although such features make for an interesting paddle,  are not very conducive to good sailing.   

Lake Clear is like a inflated "L" shaped balloon with no islands.  The  wind is typically  onshore at the Lodge beach so you are off and running (well, actually beating or reaching) right off the bat.   There is no bay to beat out of or windward shore to get away from to get the best breeze.  

 On top of all these attributes, none other than Albert Einstein is known to have sailed on Lake Clear.  And, relatively speaking (sorry), he was a pretty smart guy.  There is a basic boat launch at The Lodge for small sailboats. 

 I have a 470 and a Sunfish that I sail off a mooring standing in the sandy bottomed shallow water to raise the sails etc.   

The 470, in case you are not familiar with it,  is a 15 foot sloop rigged Olympic class with lots of strings to pull, a trapeze and a spinnaker.   It's fast and a lot of fun -just as long as you don't  get tangled up in the spaghetti of lines that fill the cockpit.  

The Sunfish is great for taking the younger grand kids sailing or  blasting off on a screaming reach when it is so insanely windy that most sane people would not be out sailing.  

And when there is no wind there are plenty of other things to do around Lake Clear.   Maybe even just sitting by the lake and relaxing.  It's been known to happen.