Love for sail: Las Vegas Sailing Club happy to make waves

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, Aug. 9, 2001 | 8:32 a.m.

With the wind at his back and the moon rising above Table Mountain, Walter White called to his fellow sailors.

"Race ya?"

That psuedo-challenge was met with chuckles across the moonlit waters of Lake Mead on Saturday from members of the Las Vegas Sailing Club, who were drifting on boats in the soft breezes behind White.

"This is more of a cruising club," White said during LVSC's full-moon sail. "We are just out for fun."

The sailing club meets monthly for events such as the moonlit sail, annual dinners, dances and the occasional race. But no one can say with assurance who won the last few races. They do, however, remember who held the last great party and where.

"We're a friendly bunch," White, LVSC's member chairman, said.

The club was formed 20 years ago for sailors to meet, swap stories, share tips and techniques and revel in the sport/hobby that sustains them through the workweek and life's troubles.

Some of the sailing club's members are spirited, some serene, but most simply enjoy a slow sail on a good boat.

White may be the most energetic captain aboard a 29-foot sailboat in the middle of Lake Mead near midnight.

He moves swiftly from the front sail, called a jib, at the bow to the large wooden tiller at the aft so as not to lose the momentum of the sporadic winds blowing across the lake.

"It's a good night for a sail," he said loudly, so that the handful of sailors on boats behind him could hear.

White and his wife, Jeanne, attend most of the full-moon sails with the club in their boat, High Energy.

The moonlight sail usually begins at 7 p.m. and lasts "until the last boat goes in," White said. "But we do a lot more than sail around at night."

The club is probably best known among boaters for its annual clambake, which is scheduled for Nov. 3. Up to 100 people anchor at a cove in Lake Mead for the weekend event.

Each December club members gather their boats on the water near Boulder Beach for an electric-light parade that has been a tradition at the lake since the early '80s.

Not as organized, but usually attended by a few boaters, is the annual cruise up the Colorado River at the end of May "or whenever we can (go) around that time," White said. "Everything is simple. That's why we have so much fun."

For Jeanne White the weekend cruises offer salvation from everyday stress.

"I know I wouldn't have made it through the week if I didn't have my mini-vacation waiting for me," she said. "It's not like being anywhere else."

As president of the LVSC, Rich Malone is active in the club's activities.

But it's not simply for the camaraderie of the members, who are a close-knit group, or the lively evenings. He sails for the joy of being on the water, under his own power and at the mercy of the wind.

"It's something you have to build a talent for," Malone said. "It's a challenge when you go out. You don't know if it's going to be calm winds or strong winds or if you'll spend a lot of time looking for that perfect day."

Malone, 50, was born with spina bifida, an often permanently disabling birth defect. His older brothers were active in sports and often rowed boats on Sweeney Lake close to their home outside Minneapolis.

"I couldn't run very fast," Malone said. "I was always the last to be picked on a team."

At age 7 Malone crudely crafted a sailboat by nailing his mother's sheets to a wooden plank and attaching the makeshift mast to a rowboat.

"It was boring to sit in a boat all day long, so I started playing around with the sails," Malone said.

It became a lifelong pursuit.

At age 28 he built a 14-foot catamaran, a two-hulled sailboat. He bought his first sailboat, a Cal 29 model, 10 years later.

In 1997 he and his wife, Rebecca, decided to move from Minnesota to a warmer climate. They chose Las Vegas for its lake, not its lights.

"My dream was to sail all year 'round," Malone said. "The winds on Lake Mead are perfect for that."

A perfect day for a sailor is warm with 12 mph winds and no plans, he said.

"(Sailing's) not very fast moving. It takes a bit of commitment and time to get somewhere," Malone said. "You show up when you show up."

Pleasure trip

Ernie Hardin bought a sailboat in November and unwittingly rented a boat slip next to White's boat.

"He's a very social animal," Hardin said of White.

Hardin and his wife joined the club in February after a few weekend expeditions with the LVSC to colorful coves.

Although Hardin, his wife and two teenage children have lived in Las Vegas since 1997, they hadn't explored the lake until the LVSC brought them out of their slip and showed them what beauty they could glimpse from the deck of their sailboat.

"We've been to Temple Bar and seen some interesting (coves)," Hardin said. "We are looking forward to the next opportunity to take an expedition."

The monthly trips with the sailing club have brought the family together on the 31-foot sailboat.

"The biggest reward about owning this boat is that both my kids have taken to it," Hardin said. "They will both be sailors."

Boating builds a bond, said Phillip Duroy, who brought his 7-year-old son, Levi, to the recent moonlight cruise.

The Duroys moved to Las Vegas a year ago from the dusty backroads of Billings, Okla.

Duroy met Lee Eastburn, a 15-year member of the LVSC, through his job as a civil servant for the U.S. Air Force.

"He made it sound good, peaceful," Duroy said. "We come out and crew with (Eastburn) about six times a year to get away."

Getting away includes a breather from the school-day pressures, Levi said.

"It's a lot more peaceful out here," Levi said. "And we can go really fast with the wind."

For sailors, the journey is more important than the destination, Eastburn said.

"We don't have any goals in mind," Eastburn said. "We just go where we want to."