FLL, I tip my hat to you sir as unlike my rant, your post suggests a solution and what may well be a good one.

Someone else recommended the old Burger King site which I'm sure is equaly as good, but is most likely a very costly solution, so I can see where that might be a problem for someone looking for free land.

Again, I think the school/entertainment facility/boat ramp is a great idea, I just think the location is an injustice to everyone, EVERYONE!

I also have some concern/question about the proposed ramp. I dont see that happening without great expense from the extensive dredging required, and should it actually happen, will there really be public access and sufficient parking? My guess is that it ends up being accessible only to the school and to a very select few,,, I can't help but feel some are reading way too much into this talk of a public access ramp, has the project sponsor actually come out and said exactly what the goals of the proposed ramp are and made it clear that is a key element of the plan (to provide a public access ramp and parking) or is that just idea just being allowed to grow in hopes that more folks will sign up to support this plan???

Either way I hope everyone who is currently in support of this project will take a few minutes and actually go to Ellacoya and walk the area in question and then come back and say they want to bulldoze this area and add buildings, and docks, and moorings, and extensive parking, etc, etc, etc,,,

I would be even more surprised if everyone would still support this plan if they actually got out and walked the area. :(

Helloooo....calling all Lake Winnipesaukee waterfront property owners......... including the Town of Gilford.... and their lengthy 1100' long Gilford Town Beach located on Saunder's Bay: Is there anyone who will kindly donate their beautifull waterfront property to the State of New Hampshire for use as a state boat launch and home to a community sailing program? It's been done before; as far as I know, both Ellacoya on Winnipesaukee and Wellington State Park on Newfound were donated. It would probably be a very rare event for the State of NH to go out and actually pay money for a new state park facility since they are very challenged to maintain the asphalt roof shingles and exterior paint on the state park buildings they already have.

Maybe www.gilfordnh.org could volunteer the last 300', of their huge 1100' town beach, over on its' north end that is closer to www.silversands.com marina, since that end is usually pretty quiet and gets a lot less use? Could be a good spot as it geographically central on the lake, and very close to the existing www.lwsa.org location at www.faysboatyard.com. Say, isn't it closer to the Lake Winnipesaukee Sailing Assoc home port at Fay's than the proposed new home for community sailing at www.nhstateparks.com/ellacoya.html. You know it is much much closer!

.........

I have no clue as to whether the Town of Gilford's ice skating arena, which is directly across from Fay's Boat Yard on Varney Point Rd gets any use? Does it get any use? Do children or adults use it for hockey, figure, synchronized, or recreational ice skating, or for broom ball? Anybody know?

It is semi-enclosed with a shed style roof overhead and has no mechanical ice refrigeration and depends on cold natural temperatures to freeze the ice. Does it have a Zamboni? There is a new indoor ice arena that is refrigerated, heated, and Muzaked, all at the same time, over at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, Rt 93-Exit 25, which opened last November, 2010, and it cost approximately 14-million dollars to construct this new ice arena building. So, maybe Gilford has decided to bus their hockey team over to the new PSU rink in Plymouth....I don't know? Another new indoor refrigerated ice arena is planned for the New Hampton private school in New Hampton, close to Exit 23, so that's another skating venue that is maybe now under construction(?).

It's certainly no secret that a NH State boat launch facility would compete with marina's like Fay's Boat Yard who charge to launch boats and also pay very hefty property taxes.

Here's a thought; tear down the Town of Gilford Ice Skating Arena that occupies three acres on Varney Point Rd, across from Fay's Boat Yard, and use the land to access the northern 300' of the Town Beach for a Gilford based, community sailing program, and just forget about building a state boat launch on Lake Winnipesaukee for now...what-so-ever!

If trailer-boaters want a freebie State of NH boat launch, they already have one at Lakes Winnisquam, Newfound, Squam, and the one that's now under construction (?) at Lake Sunapee. Launching onto the Big lake is available at lots of different pay-to-launch boat ramp locations, and sometimes when there's no attendant around, it's a freebie launch, like most Mon-Fridays at the Center Harbor ramp.

What the heck, the www.squamlakes.org/programs/boating.php is a terrific community sailing program and is located on a beautifull small cove inlet on Big Squam Lake in Holderness, and it is not all that far up Rt 3 from Meredith. So, why begin to bother with siting, funding, and constructing a Lake Winnipesaukee community sailing program anywho? Why even bother?

Why the heck all these different NH municipalities do not just install those WMNF - U.S. Forest Service style money deposit boxes next to their public boat ramps and simply charge 5-bucks to either launch or load, NO EXCEPTIONS FOR NO ONE!, is a good question, but that's a good question for another day!:):):)

Regarding the public ramp issue, I think adding a “real” ramp and extensive parking on the south side on Winnipesaukee is a great idea! I don’t have any idea where it should be, but not Ellacoya!!!

And I will gladly pay any reasonable price for its use and for the parking space.

I currently use the Meredith ramp and it’s a longer trip than I prefer and I don’t always want to be on that part of the lake, so something between Wolfeboro and Laconia would be GREAT. Also the parking at Meredith is limited and the Alton parking solution is lame to say the least.

As far as supporting local marinas or anyone with a decent ramp, I would happily and did so for countless years, it was called Ames Farm and I was thrilled to do business with them. I am still disgusted by what happened there,,,

Sadly I have yet to find a comparable option to Ames farm,,, Fays didn’t do it for me,,, Not trying to disparage them, it just didn’t work for me.

Anyone who can point me to a good alternate to Ames, I would appreciate it and will happily pay for the privilege of using a good ramp and parking.

With that said, I will gladly suffer the lack of a good ramp and parking to leave Ellacoya as it is!

Enough from me,,,

http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpu...2343/index.htm

Keep it simple and keep it relatively low priced: follow the example of the WMNF-U.S. Forest Service fee deposit tube system that charges three dollars/day to park at a hiking trail and charge all boaters who use the launch ramps, 24-7, five dollars, both ways, launch or load, with no exceptions for nobody, and that includes residents, non-residents, aliens from outer space, and even kayaks. Using a ramp, be it city, town, or state, could become a revenue producer simply by installing these Forest Service fee deposit tubes right at the boat ramp.

If you want to splash your boat here, it will cost you a little cash here; five dollars in & five dollars out! How much revenue would this bring in for the NH Fish & Game, NH Marine Patrol, NH Div Parks & Recreation, as well as any individual towns and cities?

Plus, of course, the price can always go up? .. :eek:

We were at Ellacoya this past week as we have been for the past 12 years and the park manager informed us that the Sail Club was going to aquire the park beach front. Is this still an option? As a Tax payer and citizen of NH we will fight to keep the only State Park on Lake Winnipesaukee. Please update me. Dean Glow-Brookline NH

George Bald, NH's decision-maker at the top of the state park system, say's "NO WAY" to building a Winnipesaukee community sailing facility at Ellacoya State Beach & RV Park!

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/story...enter-ellacoya

So, that probably means no new sailing center on Winnipesaukee for at least another ten years or so. In the meantime, people interested in sailing who are looking to rent a small sailboat for a half day or all day can take the not-too-long drive up Rt 25 to Holderness and Squam Lake to www.squamlakes.org/programs/boating.php

Just maybe, the Town of Gilford www.gilfordnh.org together with the Lake Winnipesaukee Sailing Association www.lwsa.org would be willing to create a community sailing center down at the lesser used end (northwestern end) of their 1100' long, natural sandy and very beautifull town beach. Considering that the Gilford Town Beach usually has lifeguard coverage from about June 21 to August 25, and for the remainder of the year is unsupervised and open to anyone, a community sailing program could be a good fit there? Plus, the Town of Gilford is probably much, much, much better funded than the state parks system and much more financially capable of building, maintaining, staffing, and attracting both youth and adult sailors than the state.

While the state appears to have no interest in a Winnipesaukee community sailing program, here's hoping the Town of Gilford could be seriously interested to partner with the Lake Winnipesaukee Sailing Association and build a new community sailing program facility down the lesser used end of their 1100' long beach that could be accessed behind the Gilford Town ice arena.

Wow. Sounds like thats the end of that. I guess I'm happy with the decision.

This is great news!

Torn
 

Im really torn on this one. Smith cove is getting crazy in the summer between all the bone heads in and out of Fays and watching the kids try and dodge them. Its CHAOS! Winni sailing needs a new spot or they need to slow down enrollment. I see dangerous "Kid in a pram cuts across bow of 35' cruiser" situations DAILY!

While, I do see a few people who don't get the whole "stand on" or "give way" rules in Smith cove, I don't see how you could characterize it as crazy. I dock in Smith cove and the place may have some traffic but it is always very slow.

Sail boat gets the right of way while sailing over the cruiser, period. A cruiser at headway (read idle) should have no problem avoiding the sailboat. I've been thru there when the kids where coming in and going out. Some of the areas are narrow and the sail boats have to tack thru them because they can't sail directly into the wind. I had to stop to yield for them, cost me about a minute and a half total. Sounds like some enforcement is needed there if it is as you say.

Just to be clear the people not following the rules of the road are not the little sailboats. As ITD says they always are stand on vessels. Everyone crawls in there so there is never any real danger. It is fun to watch two boats "race" at headway speed towards the channel or a large power boat with a mast try to bully their way in front of bowriders.

BTW I'm avoiding avoiding using the plain English term right of way because it's a red flag.

I shot this video on a beautiful Sunday last August while the kids from LWSA were out sailing. I certainly didn't see any "CHAOS" and never have in that cove:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cRbju974Qp8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Once again ...
 

... a selfish few have determined the fate of something that would benefit many.

After watching that video, first I'm itching for boating season, second I can see that HUH may include the area in front of the Glendale docks. I have seen chaos in there. I have even accidentally caused chaos in there.

We run from Fay's to Welch and back all season and often encounter the kids sailing class. Never had an issue, it's great to see a new generation learning to sail and enjoy the lake.

On occasion some of the younger group get to goofing off, being kids, but the instructors keep them on a pretty short leash. So maybe we get delayed a total of about 2 minutes a year?

Like Sliccraft we boat out of Fay's and have never had an issue with the kids from Winni Sailing. We really enjoy seeing them out there.:)

Don your video is wonderful thanks for taking, editing and posting it. Love the music too.:)

Ship Ahoy
 

We frequently encounter the Winni sailors on our trips between FBY and East Bear Island. Some wave to us as we slowly pass by. They are well monitored and do not cause any problem to boating traffic.

Beautiful video..however LWSA does not go out on the weekends:confused:
And if thats a Sunday in August im Bill Clinton! P.S. I live in the cove.

My mistake. It was a Wednesday.

Little sailors
 

Screaming and whistleblowing all day long along with more chaos forcing boats to veer just off the end of our dock sometimes accelerating for a lack of knowing what to do to avoid the daycar..em I mean sailors. PLEASE put them elsewhere:(

......a new home for the Winni Sailing School
 

Today's www.citizen.com has an article on the www.lwsa.org purchasing a commercial 148'wf ??? property in Smith Cove for their sailboat program ...... seems like some big news.