Lack of snow is trouble for sailing season

If winter means ski trips to the Rocky Mountain region, this has not been a good season. Too much dirt, not enough snow. For Colorado, which faces record-low snowpack, this also is going to be a problem for the sailing season.

With drought conditions, warm weather has left Colorado with its lowest snowpack in nearly 40 years, with the sailing community now watching water levels closely at lakes across the state, including Granby, Dillon and Cherry Creek, where the Denver Sailing Association races.

“We are just kinda looking at the water and figuring out who’s gonna sail and who’s gonna race,” said Curtis Rist, commodore of the Sailing Association of Inter-Mountain Lakes. “I suspect we won’t see as many keelboats in, and if we do, they will go in and may come out really early.

“It could, and it will change what people are sailing and what they are not sailing, or where they are sailing,” suggesting some sailors may head out of state for better conditions.