Sailing Story: Tom Bansak

As the associate director of the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, an ecological research and education center on Flathead Lake, it probably isn’t much of a surprise that Tom Bansak’s life has always revolved around the water. It was a love he inherited from his father, a Navy veteran and sailboat racer himself.

“I was always a water person and my whole childhood was in or on the water,” Tom said. “Some of my first memories of sailing were before I could sail.”

Tom remembered attending his dad’s Saturday races at their local yacht club when he was only 4 or 5 years old. 

“There was a rotating crane that would pick up and move the boats— I was more interested in that than sailing,” he laughed. 

However, it wasn’t long before the sport piqued his interest too. Starting around age 7, he began taking children’s sailing lessons and joined the children’s sailing program. 

“Sailing instilled in me early on that the wind is in charge,” he said. “It’s really empowering because you have to go where the wind will take you or if you want to go against the wind you have to tactically figure out how to get there.”

As Tom grew up, his interest in the water never faltered— but he did find himself more interested in different water sports. Tom became a river ecologist and was drawn to whitewater kayaking, rafting and leading river expeditions. 

“Most of my professional career has been on flowing water,” he said. However, after 20+ years on the rivers, he could see himself pivoting back to his childhood hobby. “I’m older now, my shoulders don’t work the way they used to, my family can’t join me on remote expeditions– so I could see myself getting involved in sailing later in life.”

Tom has sailed on Flathead Lake a half dozen or so times with his work at the Bio Station and thoroughly enjoyed it every time. One of his favorite memories was going out with a now retired faculty member. This former co-worker was a limnologist who used his personal sailboat for research. 

“I went out with him as crew one day to help him deploy these drogues,” he said about the trip that used a special type of device with a GPS monitor (called a drogue) to track the currents in Flathead Lake.  

“We dropped in one of them at the surface and the surface buoy went to the north. Then we dropped one at one-meter depth and it went to the east. The one at a five-meter depth went south. All of the different buoys we dropped in went different directions,” he said. “That really blew my mind because you think there is a general water current driven by the prevailing southwest — It really just opened my eyes to how complicated water currents are in the lake.”

Tom’s most recent sailing trip on Flathead Lake wasn’t for work though— it was all about fun! Tom and his co-workers set sail with Go Sail Flathead Lake as a thank you from Go Sail for all the collaboration over the years. With any luck, this trip will become the first of many that Tom takes with Go Sail as he reignites his childhood passion for sailing! 

The Flathead Lake Biological Station and Go Sail Flathead Lake bring sailors and scientists together in the Flathead for shared goals, like creating Flathead Lake’s first navigational map specifically for sailors. Learn more about the VIP sailing tour Tom and other The Flathead Lake Biological Station employees went on here. 

For more information about the partnership between Go Sail Flathead Lake and The Flathead Lake Biological Station, click here.