Capsize on Lower Granite Lake

And some of the lessons learned

Article by Keith Smith

At the Lewis Clark Sailing Association picnic sail on May 10, 2025, one of our boats capsized. No one was seriously injured, and most of the equipment was recovered. This write-up is to share lessons learned, for whoever is interested.

The forecast was for west winds 7 – 15 mph increasing to about 17 around 5:00 pm, high temperature of about 85, sunny. The weather forecast initially had wind gusts to 22 mph, but the predicted gusts were dropped from the forecast by the morning of the picnic. The forecast was perfect for sailing. We were at Chief Timothy Park on the Snake River, in the reservoir above Lower Granite Dam, downstream from Lewiston, ID. The river was flowing pretty fast, maybe 2 or 3 mph, as the snow melted in the mountains and the dam released water.

We started sailing around 1 pm and had four boats on the water, and not a lot of wind, maybe 5 or 6 mph, but it was increasing. The course was supposed to be around Silcott Island to a buoy on the east side of the bridge and then back around the island to the starting line. The bridge is too low to go under.

There were four boats on the water: 1) Merryweather, a Caledonia Yawl, a wooden, open- double ender, lug yawl rig with oars and four people on board; 2) Anna, a Newport 16 with a fixed keel fiberglass Marconi sloop with a cabin and an outboard and two people on board; 3) Palouse Voyager, a 17 foot open fiberglass Salish Voyager by Gig Harbor Boat Works with a lug sail, oars, and two people aboard; and 4) Ratty Dinghy, an older unknown model, 16 feet long and a six foot beam, sloop- rigged, open fiberglass boat, with a small outboard and two people on board.