About Us

The Harper Lake Model Yacht Club (HLMYC) is a Denver area club whose members build and race model yachts. The club is sanctioned by the American Model Yachting Association (AMYA) as club #56. We meet to race our boats every Saturday from 10:00am - 1:00pm, lake and weather conditions permitting, at Harper Lake in Louisville, Colorado.

Our racing season runs from the first Saturday in April to the third Saturday in November, but we continue sailing for fun and practice December through March as long as the lake is not covered in ice and there is not enough snow on the banks to make for hazardous footing.

We sail three standard One Design Class club boats: the Thunder Tiger Victoria, the ODOM, a slightly larger higher performance class boat, and the DragonForce 65 that was added to the fleet in 2018. These boats rely completely on the wind for their propulsion and have only two small servo actuators on board - one to control the position of the sails, and another to control the rudder. The models are operated from shore using radio-control (R/C) transmitters. Visit our Boats page for pictures and more information about these boats.

The principles involved in sailing these models are exactly the same as for full sized yachts. If you've sailed before, you'll find that the models handle amazingly true to life. If you don't know how to sail, the skills come quickly and easily, and it's great fun.

For more information, check out our club flyer (PDF Word).

Take a few minutes to explore our site and learn more about model sailing and the Harper Lake Model Yacht Club!

Harper Lake Weather

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News

May 11, 2024 - April / May ODOM Regattas

Today we held the first doubleheader regatta. The ODOM regattas were run for April and May after the April regatta got rained out . The doubleheader format ran the first regatta from 10:15-11:45 and the second regatta from 12:00-1:30. Skippers seemed to like this solution to rescheduling postponed regattas.

The weather was a typical spring day with temperatures starting around 50 and ending in the mid 60s. Skies were mostly sunny. We had 9 skippers in attendance and we got in 7 races for the April regatta and 8 races for the May regatta. See the Regatta Results page for the full report and results.

May 4, 2024 - May Victoria Regatta

After 2 weeks of rainy Saturdays, we were finally able to hold another regatta today. The May Victoria regatta was sailed under overcast skies until just before noon when the sun decided to make an appearance and warm us up a bit. Temperatures started around 45 and climbed to about 60 when we finished.  We had 8 skippers in attendance and we got in13 races. See the Regatta Results page for the full report and results. 

April 13, 2024 - April Victoria Regatta

Today we held our first regatta of the new season for the Victoria class. It was postponed from last week due to the extreme winds that went through Colorado. We had partly cloudy skies that developed into mostly cloudy skies at the end of the regatta. It was unseasonably warm with temps starting around 70 and climbing to the upper 70s when we finished. We had 8 skippers attend and we got in15 races.  See the Regatta Results page for the full report and results.