Ahoy, Mates!
Western Kentucky resort offers a grand getaway

Whether you’re hankering for the feeling of the Kentucky wind in your face as you navigate the bounding main, or just looking to watch snowy sails scuttling past your lakefront cottage, then head west, where just off I-24 a nautical nirvana awaits practical and vicarious sailors alike.

“Kentucky Lake has the best sailing between the Great Lakes and the Gulf,” says Marty Colburn, who with his wife, Brenda, owns Lighthouse Landing Resort & Marina in Grand Rivers. “It’s large enough that you’ll never feel crowded. There are destinations to cruise to where you can go “cove out” (or drop anchor) and enough coves to assure privacy, if that’s your goal. Or you can raft up in large groups, which boaters often do.

“We’re right on a peninsula, surrounded by water on three sides, yet there’s easy access to the interstate,” he continues. “Once you get here, it feels like you’re in the boonies. A lot of city people come here to get away from traffic jams.”

In fact, the only backup you’re likely to find in this tiny community nestled between Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley is the line of hungry folks waiting to chow down on “two-inch pork chops and mile-high pie” at Patti’s Settlement, a local eatery with a national reputation.

With expanses of natural water on two sides and 170,000-acre Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area (LBL) just minutes down the road, Grand Rivers is a paradise for nature worshippers. LBL alone offers an elk and bison prairie, nature station, planetarium, living history site, Civil War sites, mountain biking and cycling, fishing, hiking, canoeing, horseback riding, hunting, bird watching, miniature golf and off-road vehicle trails.

Home dock for the Kentucky Lake Sailing Club, Lighthouse Landing’s facility is idyllic, with cottages hugging the water, a lighthouse on a private beach with a fire pit and picnic tables; and a marina filled with graceful sailboats.

“Lots of people driving by stop just to take pictures.”

A few of those beautiful bobbing boats – four Colgate 26s, to be exact – are practical as well. Used by the marina as rental vessels and for instruction, the C 26s are “good day sailors – very safe, unsinkable and won’t turn over.” They’re even good enough for the United States Naval Academy’s sail-training program in Annapolis. Thanks to a large cockpit, these sturdy sailboats can accommodate up to six people as a rental or four plus an instructor in a class.

A winner of the American Sailing Association’s (ASA) Instructor of the Year from 1996 – 2004 and School of the Year from 2002 – 2004, Lighthouse Landing offers a popular four-day Practical Sailing Course that results in certification for both ASA Basic Keelboat and ASA Basic Coastal Cruising. Or if you just want to get your Docksiders wet, two-hour private lessons cover the basics and then you get to take the helm of a rental.

“Our instructor, Steve, does a great job of getting across lots of information,” says Colburn. “Even people who have sailed a while say they learn a lot in our classes. But he makes sure students have a great time, too. For most people, it’s part of a vacation, and they should have fun.”

He’s been there long enough to know. In 1977, Coburn and a few partners started Kentucky Lake Sales, which flourished while specializing in sailboat sales and service. In 1982, he and Brenda bought the whole shebang and added cottages and a campground. These days, in addition to rentals and instruction, the busy couple offer one-, two- and three-bedroom cottages (many with sunset views); a meeting room with an expansive deck; a ship’s store; and an RV park set to open in Fall 2005.

Opened in 2003, the Grand Rivers Walking Trail & Jetty – a brick-lined concrete path with early 20th-century lampposts – runs from Lighthouse Landing to downtown Grand Rivers, conveniently passing right by Patti’s. The trail’s second phase will head toward Lake Barkley.

In the next couple of years Coburn plans to add 12 more cottages on a bluff overlooking the lake. “We’re more than just sailboats,” he explains. “More people rent cottages here that don’t sail than those who do.”

Though all Lighthouse Landing rentals hoist sails, fishermen can bring their own boats and connect with a fishing guide service there, or can rent any sort of power boat at Green Turtle Bay, another Grand Rivers resort and marina nearby. Known for years as the Crappie Capital of the World, Kentucky Lake – one of the largest man-made lakes in the country, with 2,400 miles of shoreline from head to tail water – boasts two-pound crappie, catfish up to 100 pounds, bluegill and three varieties of bass.

Would-be sailors, savvy navigators, fisherfolk and people looking to rest their tootsies by the water can learn more at www.lighthouselanding.com or by calling (800) 491-SAIL.

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
editorial@lanereport.com

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