Sailing Story: Bill Pope

Bill Pope’s introduction to sailing sounds a bit like a clown car trying to take to water.

“We probably had seven people on [the sailboat] and it probably shouldn’t have been more than three or four and no motor… so this was just going off the dock and expecting to get back to the dock,” Bill said about his first time on his uncle’s sailboat as a 6 year old. “The cussing started when he had a hard time getting the keel in.”

Then, the real fun began as his uncle began instructing Bill’s mother and father how to help. “My father, love him to death, but he is a complete klutz,” Bill laughed. “They were both pulling on jib sheets– at some point the boom swings round and nearly knocks my brother off of the sailboat!”

However, the hilariousness of the experience on Lake George in New York didn’t take away from the general beauty Bill saw in sailing.  

“I also picked up on hey this is pretty cool there is no motor here we are trusting in this guys ability and this boat’s ability,” Bill explained. “It’s just some cloth and some wood and some people that knew how to put them together in the right direction at the right time.”

While Bill was able to get out another dozen or so times on a sailboat as a kid, sailing took a backseat in his life as an adult. Bill went to a military university, spent 27 years in the military, and then spent another 15 years as a civilian engineer. During that time, Bill only sailed once. 

“I had one chance to take a dinghy out from the sailing club in Annapolis where the sailing academy is,” he said. However, recently, Bill has been able to bring sailing back into his life. 

This summer, he bought a home in the Flathead Valley with his wife, an area they have visited “enough times to know how much we like it,” he said. “I just love the air there, it’s so clear and fresh to breath.”

Two weeks after closing on their new home, Bill was already out on the water— taking ASA courses with Go Sail Flathead Lake! 

“I came to the class with some fuzzy memory and that was about all,” Bill laughed. “It was the right amount of information over the right period of time. It was terrific.”

As soon as Bill took to the water, he couldn’t hold back on his excitement to get back to sailing. 

“[My instructor] was looking for someone to grab the tiller and I just reached over and grabbed it,” Bill explained. “He looked over at me and was like ‘you’ve done that before, haven’t ya?’ and smiled.”

Now that Bill is ASA certified, he would like to buy his own sailboat and start sailing more frequently on Flathead Lake and even join a sailing club. He also hopes that one day, he’ll be able to live in the Flathead full time to enjoy both of his hobbies— skiing and sailing!