Fictional site Built for product demonstrations

  1. 1987

    Dale and Carol Aho open for business with four Wenonah canoes, one used Flying Scot, and a rental office in a converted fish house. First-season revenue: $2,140. Carol keeps the ledger; Carol still has the ledger.

  2. 1991

    First two Club 420s arrive, bought at a Duluth youth-program auction. The teaching program begins with six students, two of whom are now members in their forties.

  3. 1994

    The original dock — built from tamarack Dale cut himself — goes in. Pieces of it survive in the current north dock, which members point out to guests with genuine reverence.

  4. 1998

    The July 4th blowdown storm flattens forty trees on the point but spares every boat. The cleanup becomes the first volunteer work weekend, now a thrice-yearly institution.

    The point under heavy snow, boats stored away for the season
  5. 2003

    Youth Sailing Camp launches. The perpetual trophy — a mounted walleye named Gerald, donated by the Farallon Cove bait shop — is awarded at the first Gerald Cup regatta and has been fought over every summer since.

  6. 2007

    The first Capri 22, North Wind, arrives, and the keelboat program with it. Sunset cruises immediately become the most-booked item on the calendar and have never given the title back.

  7. 2011

    The Kivimäki family donates two Hobie 16s and a well-traveled MC Scow. Wednesday-night racing gets faster — by Farallon Cove standards, which is to say the spray and trash talk both improve.

  8. 2015

    The rating ladder is formalized after two decades of Dale keeping it in his head. Members are grudgingly persuaded that a laminated card beats "Dale knows I'm good for it."

    A coral sunset over the lake, docks silhouetted along the shore
  9. 2019

    Matt Niemi — a student in the early summer sailing program — returns as Waterfront Director. The fleet reaches the size it will carry into the next chapter.

  10. 2024

    The south launch is rebuilt for beach catamarans and the office gets its first new phone system in twenty years. Carol keeps the paper message pad.

The plan from here is aggressively unchanged: same point, same lake, same family, better varnish.

About Sand Lake Recreation