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   Sail Oklahoma

By Mike and Jackie Monies - Eufaula, Oklahoma - USA

- Lake Eufaula Messabout Oct. 8-9-10-11

What happens when you make a lot of friends sailing and building boats and you live on a large lake?

In our case we have also made a lot of friends through Duckworks and the internet, so what started out to be a few people camping out in our back yard by the Boat Palace and going sailing for a day or so morphed into a four day event over the Columbus Day weekend, Oct. 8-11. It is still just a group of friends, only we haven’t actually met them all yet.

Our back yard (part of it) and the Boat Palace, where we will camp.

Luckily, Lake Eufaula, known as the “Gentle Giant” is indeed a giant lake, with over 600 miles of shoreline and thousands and thousands of acres of water/ With large expanses of water and low surrounding hills, she gets a lot of wind for sailboats but also has deep water so shallow draft is not necessary. All shorelines belong to the Corps of Engineers, who built her, so public access is easy. The Corps also owns thousands of campsites in their many well maintained sites.

Views of lake from launch area.

So, we ended up with Sail Oklahoma, Lake Eufaula Messabout “Nationals” or SOLEMN sailors, thanks to a contributed idea from one of those friends coming. Sail Oklahoma is definitely a not for profit group, it is just that, a group of our friends made in the boat building and sailing fraternity fostered by Duckworks. If you’d like to join us, primary camping is in our backyard (a large backyard) out around the Boat Palace.

Launch at Hwy 9 North Corps Campground

We plan on a four day food festival of mainly potluck meals out under the trees, on the decks or porches, with at least one foray into historic downtown Eufaula for a private party barbeque meal.

Campsites at the same campground, showing sites are on lake.

One day long sailing excursion is planned to include a picnic, with several days of independent sailing available or shorter half day cruises. For those who like to participate in sailing “games” we are offering some fun activities that mix sailing agility with downright nonsense. For those who like to race, we plan some of that involving “throw down” challenges and other unofficial racing activity.

This is planned to be a permanent event for the future. We , Mike and Jackie Monies, are fortunate to live in the almost exact middle of the U.S. on one of the largest manmade lakes in the country. A lake almost devoid of any sailboats or other boats than bass boats and pontoon boats. We feel it our patriotic duty to remedy that situation and also have a lot of fun with people who share our enthusiasm.

From the Eufaula Dam campgounds, showing lake views from area we will sail to on Saturday and picnic at.

We hope you’ll join us for a weekend at the lake at our camp/.lake house.

Thanks to another boating friend we now have a group site: http:/groups.yahoo.com/group/SailOklahoma/

Full information is on the group site, along with photos, maps and other interesting data as we add.

Mike and Jackie Monies
Sail Oklahoma!

Please visit the Sail Oklahoma forum at: https://groups.yahoo.com/group/SailOklahoma/

*****

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