Enough of the pictures of grey skies! Here is Egg Harbor on the bay of Green Bay. This is a view to the north and in the distance you can see Chambers Island. These waters are our daysailing paradise and we’ve already enjoyed a couple of great sails. Egg Harbor is also a popular stop for visiting sailors who take advantage of a secure anchorage with perfect access to the village and all it has to offer. This will be the spot for our Fourth of July fireworks. Can’t wait!
Winter has finally left Door County. Tourists and summer residents have returned (big time), and the marina is sold out once again. Fortunately, Lake Michigan is 18 inches shallower this year (but still 18 inches above average), so there is plenty of water, but not too much. We even have beaches again!
With great conditions, Covid on the run and life returning to near-normal, it looks like it’s going to be a great sailing season.
Thanks to all of you who are using this site to exchange information. Don’t forget to send pictures or stories of your summertime boating adventures. Have a great and safe summer!
Well, OK- the view from our marina here at Egg Harbor still looks pretty wintery. The bay of Green Bay is frozen over and hundreds of ice fishing shacks dot the lower bay. Yet, the temps did get above freezing today and pretty mild weather (for February) has set in. So it’s a good time to start planning spring work on the Quickstep. My list? I’ve got a nagging electrical issue to track down and the coamings need stripping and varnishing. Bottom paint was new last year, so at least that won’t be part of the routine this spring. When it’s warm enough, we’ll drag her from the shed and get her ready for another season. Can hardly wait.
In the meantime, I’ve worked on this site a little bit and was finally able to find a way to make adding comments a bit easier. As you know, in the past you’d have to scroll to the end of all of the comments to find the text box for adding something new. As this site has matured, the number of comments has grown to the hundreds making that scrolling extremely tedious. I was never able to discover a way to put the text box for adding comments at the top of any page. And I still haven’t discovered how to do that, but I found a way to modify the site so that only the last 10 or so comments appear on any one page. That means scrolling down will be very quick now. All of the former comments are still here, however. I didn’t want to lose them! At the bottom of each page, there is a link to older comments. Click there and you’ll find all the information we’ve shared with one another in the past.
I am happy to see everyone finding these owner exchanges helpful, and I plan to do a bit more updating to make the site better. You can help by sending me a few pictures if you have them. I’d really like to feature some of your boats here. So if you can, send to me at Quickstep21@gmail.com
Take care, everyone! Be safe!
In the spring, I’m usually filled with the anticipation of another terrific sailing season. As the two of us remain hunkered down doing our part to stop the spread of COVID 19, we’ve chosen to remain optimistic and patient. We are still planning for spring, enjoying each other’s company, and keeping ourselves busy with and distracted by whatever boat/home maintenance we can accomplish here. Most of all, we are extremely thankful for the efforts of those who are still at work keeping us fed, physically safe, and caring for us if we should fall ill.
If we all pitch in now, we can protect the people we love and our neighbors, and hopefully return to a new normal that will see us all safely once again leading our lives, and enjoying time aboard our Quicksteps out on the water.
Here’s wishing you good health and good luck!
The frost is on the pumpkin, and Sarah is safely tucked away for another winter. It wasn’t the best sailing season, but with the optimism of an old-time Cubs fan I’m already looking forward to next summer. So while boating is not an option, I’m doing a bit of updating of this site.
Q24 owners have really been active this fall. They are sharing a lot of ideas about modifications and repairs and often ask each other for pictures. I haven’t found a way to allow direct posting of images, so I put together a Q24 Gallery specifically for 24 owners so that they can share pictures of their work. If anyone has anything to post, send files to Quickstep21@gmail.com and I’ll add them to the gallery. I hope you find this useful.
I am also in the process of adding a few notices of Quicksteps for sale. I’m hoping to keep all of the notices together on the Boatyard page. If you have a Quickstep to sell, you can post there, too. I’d appreciate hearing when you sell your boat so that I can remove your post.
As always, I’d really like to post some photos of our boats underway or stories about life with a Quickstep. If you have anything to offer, please send it along. I’m sure other owners would like to hear the news about other Quicksteps.
Finally, I want to wish all of you the happiest of holidays and a terrific 2018!
Greetings to all Quickstep owners!
July is well underway and the holiday is now history, but it was great. As usual, our family gathered on the dock and the boat for the annual fireworks display over the harbor. The crowds were big, and it was another terrific show. The weather was perfect and both the marina and the harbor were filled with boats. There were 20 of us in Door County for the holiday weekend- all staying at our home. We rented pop-up campers to serve as extra bedrooms and grilling and yard games dominated the activity. It was a madhouse, but it was great to get everyone together.
The sailing season is proving to be a very wet one. It seems that waves of thunderstorms have been passing almost daily over the Door Peninsula this summer making it tough to get out on the water. During the latest, last Thursday night, a line roared in with winds clocked at over 60 mph in the marina and two water spouts over Green Bay. Trees were down in the park above the harbor, one transient boater suffered the loss of a stern cleat as the wind tore his boat from the dock, furled headsails were torn and the staff had some cleanup to do on Friday.
Yet yesterday provided one of the best sailing days of the season. Winds were 10 to 14, it was sunny and cool. We watched the end of the sailboat races, and then had a nice sail from Egg Harbor south several miles to Murphy County Park were we paused off-shore to eat lunch. We sat and watched flocks of white pelicans circling above and then resumed our sail home. Once back, we joined our fellow Egg Harbor Yacht Club members at the marina for a few beverages and snacks. It was a perfect day.
Looking at the marina yesterday, I was struck again by how deep Lake Michigan-Huron is again this year. Take a look at the two pictures I’ve attached. One, from 2012 and another from this week. It’s pretty dramatic. It takes a lot of water to raise the lake level by this much. Let’s hope it doesn’t get much deeper.
We hope your sailing season is going well. Don’t forget that you are invited to send pictures or stories about your adventures to us so that we can share them with other Quickstep owners. Just email them along and I’ll get them posted.
It is hard to believe that another sailing season is gone, but I am thrilled that you folks are still using this site during the latest Polar Vortex to exchange ideas and connect with other Quickstep owners. Now that I’ve plowed the driveways for the third time in two days, I think it’s time to get warm and to do a bit of updating.
We didn’t sail nearly enough this last summer. We spent some time away attending to family matters. After that, conditions and opportunities just didn’t align well. Weather, mostly lots of small craft warnings, often kept us safely within Egg Harbor’s snug marina on days we would have really enjoyed being out on the water. Our granddaughter was here for an extended visit, so we spent several great (but windless) boating days introducing her to tubing behind the old Lyman. Eventually, we did enjoy terrific fall sails up and down the west side of the Door Peninsula viewing the fall color which arrived late this year. Those fall sails off-set some of the summer’s lack of time on the boat. Looking ahead, I have already sworn to make the 2017 season more active.
You may have noticed that on the Scuttlebutt Page, Steve B. mentioned, in response to a new Q21 owner, an article I had posted to my earlier Quickstep site. It told the tale of a DIY keel repair that was pretty interesting. It’s a good article with pictures, so I’ve uploaded a PDF file for everyone to read while avoiding the cold. So light the fire and grab a scotch. You can read it by clicking here.
The biggest news about our boat for the year was that I purchased a new jib designed specifically to work with our Schaefer furler. I just couldn’t get the old jib to trim properly. The new sail was built by our local sailmaker, Dorsal Sail and Canvas. It is a delight to use. In addition, Charlie provided, at no cost, a new set of Quickstep insignia for our mainsail. When it was originally built by a loft in Ohio, the “Q” was not correct. It’s been one of those little things that bothered me… a vanity issue, I suppose. But Charlie has fixed that now. The main itself, which is loose footed with two full battens at the top, is a terrific sail. Dorsal cut the proper insignia and I attached them at home at the end of the season. All’s right with the world again!
Please don’t forget that I’m always interested in what’s happening with you and your boat. If you have an article or photos to share, email them to me at Quickstep21@gmail.com. I’ll be happy to post the news.
We wish you and your families a serene Solstice, Happy Holidays, and a great New Year!
The weather has warmed up and the season is finally underway. You can really tell how deep Lake Michigan is this year- four feet higher than in 2013. The bass fishermen are complaining that the fish have moved from their old haunts and are apparently seeking new spots that aren’t so deep. So the fishing has been a bit slow. The guys tell me they’ll eventually find the fish and get back to the normally great bass fishing we have here on the peninsula. I hope they do.
We enjoyed the Fourth of July weekend sailing with friends from Japan, visiting with family, and watching Egg Harbor’s terrific fireworks display from our dock in the marina. The weather was perfect. Mid 70’s and 6 to 8 knots of wind. It could not have been better!
By the way, I am very happy to see so much discussion taking place on our Q24 page. If any of you would like to post a picture or two, email them to me and I’ll upload them. It would be nice to watch a few of our 24’s at sea. They are too beautiful to remain unseen.
We’re expecting another snowfall tomorrow, but it’s clearly spring here in Egg Harbor. It won’t be long before the Quickstep will be in the driveway undergoing her spring cleanup. I’ve noticed that I’m not the only Quickstep owner starting to plan this season’s upgrades. If you haven’t noticed, there is considerable discussion underway on our Q24 page concerning rudder bushing issues. It’s good information, and I’m happy to see owners exchanging ideas via this site. Take a look at the discussion.
I recently received a couple of photos from Robin and Donna Kempson who own Mary Kate, hull number 18. Here you see them last fall cruising Horseshoe Shoal off Nantucket and on Lake Champlain. It won’t be long and we’ll all be happy again aboard our boats. Thanks you two for the photos!
Sarah just outside Egg Harbor
Well it looks like another season is about to end. The weather is getting cooler and the marina is almost empty. Most of the bigger boats have traveled south to Sturgeon Bay or north to Sister Bay for their fall haul out. We plan to stay in until the marina officially closes on October 15th. It’s been a pretty good summer. We sailed with our granddaughter, hosted family for the annual Fourth of July fireworks over the harbor, enjoyed stiff breezes and glorious sunsets, and now are taking in the first of the fall colors. Both the Quickstep and the Lyman have been terrific.
At the end of September, we jumped in the Jeep and drove as many scenic routes as we could find between Egg Harbor and Lake Geneva on our way to the ACBS’s Blackhawk Chapter’s wooden boat show. This is always a terrific event held at the Abbey Resort in Fontana, Wisconsin at the west end of the lake. I put together a slideshow of the event, so if you’re interested, here’s the link. (Blackhawk)
The Egg Harbor Village Marina
A typical Egg Harbor sunset.
It won’t be long before….
Quickstep Owners' Group 