Genesis was actually launched two weeks earlier with some minor problems like the dog falling overboard at the same time one of the shroud barrels backed its way off the turnbuckle. Maggie fortunately is an excellent swimmer and enjoys the water more than land I think. The official launching of ? of the South Dakota Weekender fleet is accounted for below.

     Mike Donlin and Bruce Jones "officially" launched the boats Steel Away and Genesis on Sunday, May 28, 2000. Here is an account of the event held at Cottonwood Lake in central South Dakota.
    On Saturday we finished up the rigging on Steel Away. We installed the windows and handrails as well. After rigging the boat she was backed out of the garage and sails were raised. This was quite a site to behold for a couple of land locked sailors. Plans were made for hauling the boats to Cottonwood the next day. The balance of the evening was spent by the Donlin family, and Bruce, partaking of grog in honor of Mike and Nan’s son Kevin who is heading off to National Guard boot camp at Fort Sill, OK.
     Sunday morning arrived and we were greeted with light, SSE winds and clear skies. We headed for Cottonwood at about 10:15 and arrived at the southwest boat ramp at 11:00 a.m. Seeing two Weekenders side by side gives you the sense that you are on Cape Cod. That is until you look into the distance and see the corn starting to sprout in the fields and the cows and newborn calves mowing the prairie grasses, noses to the ground.
     We stepped the masts on both boats, deciding to launch Steel Away first as Genesis had already been through her sea trials over the previous few weekends. At about 1130 Steel Away slipped off her trailer, she appeared to be ready for sail with only a slight list to starboard caused from the jumbo sized ice chest containing assorted products appropriate for christening two boats and their proud builders. We hoisted sails in 5 to 10 knot SSE winds around 11:50 and set course for the beach north of the Jones cabin on the east side of the lake. Mike was at the helm and I was on deck sorting lines and helping them find their new homes.
    We were on starboard tack for 10–15 minutes when the helmsman called for a tack. After finishing the tack with no problems, I noticed we were off the wind quite a bit and thusly over trimmed so I encouraged Mike to head up a bit. His response was something like this "I would if I could but I’m a thinnin’ we have no steerage man". So we lowered sails and drifted for a few minutes while Mike worked on the steering through the deck plates on the lazerette top. Appearing to have the steering problem fixed we again hoisted sail and headed up making way for our original destination. Not but a few minutes later the same steering problem raised its ugly head again, but by this time we were on a direct course for the beach. Passing about 100ft. off the dock of one of the Jones’ neighbors we heard someone in a booming voice say "HEY!" and noticed a clicking, actually screeching sound coming from the end of the dock. Looking at the dock, we noticed a fishing pole bent over and pointed directly at us. HMMMM….by this time we were in about 4 ft. of water so I bailed over the side and removed the top hook of a crappie rig that was embedded in the stem of Steel Away. Of course there was no bobber or float of any kind that would tip us off to the fact that there was a line in the water 100ft. off the dock, and even had there been, we had no steering with which to avoid the fishing line in question. Mike and I wondered among us what the catch limit is on Weekenders and how one could be cleaned anyway, also we figure they would taste pretty salty. We pulled the boat up on the beach and looked for the plans in order to get an idea of how we had managed to screw up the steering. Of course the plans were back at the boat ramp in my vehicle. Guh! We called a friend, Bob Blachford at the lake that offered to go and retrieve them for us. (thanks Bob)
     Plans in hand, Mike paged to the drawing of the steering shaft and to our amazement the drawing looked strikingly similar to how we had her steering rigged. (read exactly similar.) Mike sat down on the Jones’ deck and started leafing through the book, finding a passage that sounded like a foreign language to me, he read " we drilled pilot holes and drove nails through the shaft or tied knots on either side to prevent the line from slipping through the shaft". Stuttering and stammering over these unfamiliar words he read it again. Neither of us had seen nor read this in the plans. Mike rigged her up with the knots and by gosh if it didn’t work like a champ.
    We helped the Jones’ put their dock in and hitched a ride from Jack Jones back to the ramp to dunk Genesis. Of course on the way we discussed how her steering would be identical to what we had just fixed on Steel Away but, since Genesis had been through her sea-trials twice over, there should be no problem right? Wrong. Half way across the lake the same thing happened. We managed to limp her to the beach just like with Steel Away, sans the crappie rig fiasco and pulled her alongside Steel Away.
     Steering fixed on both boats, we introduced them to one another and took some photos of them sitting side by side with the sails up. They are quite a pair, these two boats. Could be a match made in heaven. We may sign a contract for an arranged marriage, between the boats, in hopes they can get together someday and give us little Weekdayers.
     After the photo-op we gave Genesis one quick sail and she preformed marvelously. It couldn’t have been better. She points far better than I expected and in light winds seems to point even better. When you feel even the slightest breeze on your face she just hops right up, shifts gears and takes off with very little healing. She has very slight weather helm. We beached Genesis and set out on Steel Away. We sailed up the lake to the north end on a reach and across the shallows that have collected many a lower gear housing from unwary motor boaters. We hoped to catch a glimpse of the new Cottonwood Steak House that is supposedly being built. Although we didn’t find the steak house we tooled around the north end for a while, turned and made a long reach south toward the boat ramp. Mike might need to fire his navigator/crew as I called for a close pass at the shallows and we dragged the rudder across the sand. According to Mikes GPS unit, we made speeds as high as 4.6 knots a few times. Not sure how accurate it is, but it is amazing how you can feel .10 knot speed differences on the boat that are promptly reflected on the GPS. We did hoist a few brews on the long reaches and had a super enjoyable time.
     We got to the boat ramp around 2100, which was just about 10 minutes before sunset. Loaded Steel Away with a minimum of effort and help from Mike’s 1 ton dually 4WD Crew Cab work truck. As it was dark we decided to drop Steel Away off at the Jones cabin and leave her overnight, we left Genesis tied up and beached for the night.
     Mike headed for his home about 35 miles away. With Genesis beached I elected to watch the late local news at the lake to get an overnight weather report. The report called for scattered showers overnight ending by noon on Monday and showers again Monday evening. I fetched some sleeping bags and headed for the beach to ready Genesis for her first "on the water" overnight guest. I read for some time from the Annapolis book of Seamanship, secured the reading lamp around 0100 Monday and stuck my head out the hatch to puff one more cigarette. I did notice some lightning in the distance but worried little about a sprinkle of rain. I tried to balance the boat out by lying with my weight in the right place so she would stand on her keel and not lean over on the chine. This was really easy to do and I was asleep in an instant. I am not sure when the rains came but they did in the overnight hours. As I awoke and rolled over in the night I heard something that gave me quite a start. It was the sound of water gushing. This really made my heart skip a beat for fear the boat had drifted into some rocks and split wide open, but upon looking out the window I could see we had not moved at all over night. It was the water that had collected on the seats during the night, cascading onto the cockpit floor, caused by my waking and rolling over. By the way, Mike noticed the lightning from his home and trekked back to the lake to retrieve Steel Away, as she has no vertical hatches yet. He awoke later Monday morning to a flat tire on his trailer.
     The sky cleared off about 0930 and the day turned out to be a super lake day. I prepared to shove off about 1130 for a quick single handed sail and much to my surprise I had no steering ….. again! Finally got the shaft to break loose a little and surveyed the situation. The moisture overnight caused the steering shaft to swell and bind into the bearing. I applied a little oil to the bearing and shaft and she loosened right up. Winds were around 5 knots or less SSE most of the day but it was a good day to be out single-handing for the first time on a new boat. Sailed for a few hours and met up with a fellow sailing a small Chrysler boat, I don’t think it was a Buccaneer, maybe it was just a smaller version, around 16’ or so. There were also a couple of Hobie cats out enjoying the day as well. One of them belonged to the son of the fisherman referred to above, so I am sure he was less than impressed with the new addition to the Cottonwood fleet. Took my mother for her first sail and she really seemed to enjoy it. She tried to con me into wearing my old white navy hat, you know the kind that look like and are commonly referred to as "dog dishes," I of course, declined. She seemed somewhat amazed at how quiet and peaceful sailing was. We made our way back to the cabin and I grabbed a bite to eat. I asked my dad, and he agreed to meet me at the east boat ramp in an hour so to load up the boat.
    I headed for the boat ramp at about 1700 in 0-5 knot winds from the SSE. I cracked open a beer and reflected on what a great weekend it had been. I am sure I patted the boat a few times and told her how pleased I was with her performance. This is never a good thing to do on a boat because of course bad things are sure to happen shortly thereafter.
     How true it turned out to be. I scanned the north shore of the lake and noticed much to my surprise, a line of what appeared to be black water headed our way from almost exactly 180 deg. out (NNW) from the wind I was sailing in. I assumed this could not be a good thing, so I took a few quick tugs off the top of the can, dumped the rest over and stowed the empty. By now the situation was becoming all too clear and I was absolutely certain this was a very bad situation. Still not sure how to handle a 180deg. wind shift, if you can call it a shift, I pinched toward the new wind as it hit, to dump any wind I didn’t want, which turned out to be almost all of it. I would guess the wind was a solid 30 with gusts to 40 or more. One of the Hobie sailors had left his sails up and cleated all day while the boat was pulled up on shore. It went straight over on its side as the wind hit it. I managed to tack over on the second try and headed toward the shelter of my brother’s cabin on the west side of the lake. This is of course nowhere near the boat ramp I intended to go to and my dad was probably headed for with the trailer. Spilling as much wind as possible the jib fitting to the clubfoot failed. I suspect it was because it is a carabineer type clip (is this where the plans say not to use a spring style clip?) and the flapping of the sail caused it to open momentarily, allowing the clubfoot to fall to the deck and the jib to helplessly flail in the wind, I did manage to get a look at the jib and could see that the carabineer was still attached to the sail. With the jib not helping, she had very little pointing ability but managed we to get to the west side of the lake in the lee of some cabins, which was not the best of situations either. In the wind shadow of a cabin the situation was almost manageable, but where the wind was not obstructed, it would slam into the sails uncontrollably and heel the boat well over. I can remember thinking I wish I had installed the splash combings as I was getting quite a bit of water over the gunnels. We lit on a nice stretch of beach and lowered and secured the sails. I went in search of the cell phone to tell my folks that all was fine and that I would motor over to the ramp sooner or later. I was sure that the cell phone was in the cabin of the boat. It wasn’t, it was found floating in the water in the cockpit, limp, soaked and lifeless.
     In figuring out what might be the best list of options from here, near the top would be to sitting and waiting for the wind to die down a little and then try to motor to the ramp, of course not going with the best option is my normal modus operandi. I went with an option that was much further down the list, which was not to wait, but to motor over straight away. Spent some time thinking this one over while bailing and sponging out the water she had taken on the way over. I cranked up the trusted trolling motor and hugged the shore in the lee of the cabins and a small cliff and all was fine, but the ramp was dead east of our position and the waves were coming from the north. I would guess they were in the 3 ft. range with the peaks much wider apart than the boat. She took a lot more water over the side while paralleling the waves. The motor did a fine job but I had to have the helm and the motor turned to windward quite a little to make sure I was going to make land to windward of the boat ramp. I didn’t try to point the boat straight into the waves and wind but I am fairly sure that would not have been successful anyway. We made land just south of the ramp, jumped out and with the help of my 73 year old dad, who was waist deep, standing at the end of the trailer, with his pants still on, winch cable in hand. We managed to get her loaded onto the trailer with some pushing and shoving.
     I was kind of worried that Genesis would not be overly sea worthy in a huge blow and had intended never to subject her to such things. Of course, sometimes these things can’t be avoided but I think most other boats would have failed miserably in this situation. I am not worried in the least that she can handle any situation handed her. She and I of course, prefer the 5-20 kt. winds, but the Weekender will behave nicely even in the worst of conditions.
     I asked Genesis how she felt after her first big weekend on the water and I thought I could hear her mutter something about being the saltiest boat you’ve ever been on.
     Mike and I would like to thank all those that have contributed to the building process and completion of these two fine craft. The Admirals of both of our households deserve a lot of credit for putting up with, and assisting in the boat building process. I especially want to thank Dick Palmer for loaning me so many tools, time, knowledge and muscle, the Pappones for donating time over Christmas Vacation to cut parts. Special thanks to my folks for allowing us to use their lake cabin and beach.

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