March 2023 Papoose Article

It’s winter so things are slow at the yacht club this time of year. Boats are stored and the dock bubblers are running. It’s a time where we plan for the next sailing season and daydream about past experiences. 

I’ve been around boats most of my life. As a kid my parents took us camping on the Islands at Lake George. The first summer camping at the lake we had a Penguin Sailboat with an outboard to carry our camping gear out to the islands. We were camping at Lake George during the summer of the moon landing and Woodstock festival. Years later I would sail the north end of Lake George most weekends in a Sailfish and later in a Puffer (we traded the Sailfish for it) with the family dog and friends. 

My Dad and I got interested in racing at the Nyack Yacht Club for a few years in the 1970s in a Lightning Class sailboat. It was a special boat because it was the last wood boat made by Lippincott. The hull of our boat was the wood plug used to make the fiberglass mold used to manufacture all the Lippincott sailboats thereafter. Coincidently, a few years later, the boat was owned and raced by the Ploetner family that lived on the Island at Lake Mohawk. I’ve been a member of the Lake Mohawk Yacht Club since 2015 when we moved here. I first met the Andersons and the Miners down at the club when we saw a few Lightning class sailboats out racing on a Sunday. The atmosphere was inviting so my son and I started out as crew with Hank Jelinek. After a few races Hank says you want to buy a boat? Our family has raced our Lightning along with the others since then.

My son Joseph has enjoyed sailing on Lake Mohawk. He has gone through the Junior Sailing program as a student and later on as an instructor in the Junior Sailing program. 

Our story is not unlike several other families in the yacht club. It’s a life skill and it’s been a fun sport for my son Joseph and wife Julie. The club members are friendly and fun. We have events and get togethers around the community and on the lake. It’s hard to go around town and not run into someone you know from the lake and yacht club. 

I am going into my second term as the Yacht Club Commodore. I hope to carry on the friendly atmosphere of the club. I encourage anyone with an interest in sailing to come down to the club to see if we can help you develop your interest. 

Smooth Sailing Everyone! 

Joseph W Fleming III – LMYC Commodore