Home	One Fine Door Prize January 12-14, 2009

(If you like, you can skip down through the prose and go straight to the pictures below!)

What do you get when you combine 42 Longhorn cattle, 100 acres of Texas, the 500+ mile shoreline of Lake Texoma, a delicious Bed & Breakfast, and a tour of the Valiant Boat Factory? One Fine Door Prize! And it's all thanks to Bill & Terry Ray (Exit Strategy).

Bill & Terry came to the 2008 All Islander Rendezvous, bringing their neighbor and our featured speaker Rich & Jan Worstel. Rich had one of the largest Islander dealerships in the country right there at Cedar Mills on Lake Texoma. As Islander went out of business, Rich eventually became the owner of Cedar Mills Resort & Marina, and Valiant Yachts - made right there at the marina. When Betsy Fowler put out the request for Door Prizes for the Fall Meeting, Bill & Terry offered two days at their bed & breakfast, The Front 30 Ranch as a door prize.

After the original winner, Rich Shoenhair (Windwalker), determined he was not going to be able to use it, Rick & Sandy Van Mell (Vanishing Animal) combined a trip to Dallas to see their daughter and son-in-law with a visit to Bill & Terry's Front 30 Ranch Bed & Breakfast. And what a fun trip it was!

We arrived at the Front 30 on a Monday afternoon and were immediately ushered into a warm and inviting, two bedroom, stone guest house. Hardly had we set our bags down, when Terry served coffee in their house which is a bigger version of the guest house and just a few steps away. Over the barking objections of lookout and watchdog Zigi, Bill took us across the front yard to meet their resident bovines. They were curious about these new arrivals, and wandered in from spacious pastures surrounding the houses and utility building. After some head scratching and horn shakes, they were more interested in finding food. Bill put Rick at the wheel of a golf cart, and with Sandy on board, directed us across mowed hay fields rimmed with cedars and oaks for a tour of the ranch.

Now it's not often, with 100 acres and a herd of cattle, you can turn right from your driveway and in a short ride pull up to your boat in a 500 slip marina. Cedar Mills is a combination of a resort with small cabins and even RV & trailer parking places, the marina, a ships' store, the Pelican Restaurant (the best for perhaps 20 miles), and the Valiant boat factory. Cedar Mills sits on Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma. Lake Texoma was created by the Corps of Engineers in the late 40s for power generation and flood control. The shores of the lake are all Corps land with almost no private ownership except for perhaps a dozen marinas. Over the years Rich Worstel worked with local industries to get recreational considerations added to the Congressional mandate for the lake's use.

Bill gave us a great tour of the marina and their boat too. Since this was once the center of Islander sales, it's not surprising that there are about a dozen Islanders still at the marina. There are 2 or 3 I-36s, a Freeport 36, two Freeport 41s (big ketches), and a half dozen I30s / Bahama 30s too. They can have their own All Islander Rendezvous right at the marina! Plus, there are many more Islanders scattered at marinas around Texoma.

Texas winter weather goes from 65 degrees to 25 degrees with regularity, so it's important to have boats winterized though they stay in the water all year. On rare occasions, ice forms along the lake shore and in marinas. We had bright sun and 60 degree weather to start, but nights were below freezing, and an arctic blast was due by Thursday.

Terry served a delicious Chicken Monterey for dinner, with sweet potatoes & green beans. This was just the start of great food - home baked nut breads, cherry scones, ricotta cheese pancakes with glazed pears, and a delicious pork tenderlion with glazed carrots. It's worth a stay at Front 30 Ranch just for Terry's great food!

It's been a dry winter in Texas and the "tanks" of water for cattle are running dry. A "tank" is like a large pond that is excavated along a dry creek bed that fills to a certain level when it rains and holds water when the stream runs dry. Texas is famous for it's heavy rains in a short period of time. While this can create a "tank full" of water in short order, it's flash flood nature also can scour out a tank embankment. Bill took Rick to one such to scope out ways to rebuild a bank and also open an overflow culvert that have been plugged by beavers who wanted the tank water level even higher!

Rich's Sales Manager, Rick Lemon, gave us a thorough tour of the Valiant factory. It's seven buildings provide space for engineering, fiberglass lay up of hull and deck molds, assembly of interior spaces and joining of hull & deck, painting, and the fabrication of metal parts, wood parts, rigging, and even cushions and canvass work. Superb craftsmanship was evident everywhere we went. Stainless steel welds were smooth and polished; curved cabinet trim was hand laid up in thin laminates for strength and durability; all hulls are painted with Imron; and hull-deck joints get 3M 5200 plus a set of screws and bolts as the cap rails are installed. One of the boats in the paint shed had been driven ashore in Hurricane Ike. It's heavy, stainless, Monitor self steering had been mangled on the stern, but the hull was hardly scratched. A Valiant is a boat you can count on anywhere.

Lake Texoma straddles the Texas - Oklahoma border. In the first picture of the lake below, at the left edge, you an see the stripe of the north-south bridge to Oklahoma. As part of the grand tour, and in deference to Past Commodore Skipper & Nancy Wall who are from Oklahoma, we ventured north for a view back south across the lake to Texas.

It was a great way to wrap up a wonderful two days, and demonstrated once again the hospitality and support of Islander Association members wherever they are. If your travels ever take you south to the Dallas - Ft. Worth area, be sure to look up Bill & Terry Ray and the Front 30 Ranch!

Pictures by Rick Van Mell. Click on images to enlarge, click "Back" to return.

Lake Texoma	Big Mineral Arm	CedarMills	Marina
Fine hospitality ...	Guest house has ...	great view.	Cozy & ...
inviting.	Bill & Terry's house	Zigi on guard.	Down the road is ...
the waterfront.	Cedar Mills Yacht Club	Snug in slips ...	ready for ...
nice sailing days.	Down Big Mineral Arm	A black pearl!	Bill's dock for ...
Exit Strategy	Great layout ...	nav station & ...	snug for winter.
Sandy & Bill ...	round up crew ...	just step over here ...	Who, us?
maybe a sheet puller ...	Watch Captain ...	with mates.	Foredeck crew.
We'd rather ...	just eat!	Masthead lookout.	Source of hay.
Back at the marina ...	it's Valiant tour time.	Ships Store	Canvas & cushion shop
Valiant 42 mold	Deck mold	Rig shop	Metal shop & templates
Fine bowsprit	New spar	Wood shop & patterns	Assembly building ...
lots to do ...	Forming bulkheads ...	for future deck.	Farther along ...
looking below ...	Galley	Engine & generator space	Neatly organized
Paint shop ...	Hurricane Ike repair	A finished boat ...	looks fine ...
want one?	Happy crew! Bill, Terry, Rich Worstel, Sandy & Rick	Pelican Landing restaurant	In Oklahoma, looking back to Texas
Lots of open water	Toward Big Mineral Arm	Someone's having fun.

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