MAGNA, Utah — As advocates for the Great Salt Lake celebrated Lakefest on Saturday, sailboat owners readied their boats to leave the marina due to shallow water.
Grow the Flow and the Great Salt Lake Yacht Club hosted the event at Great Salt Lake State Park to celebrate the lake and to raise awareness of efforts to restore it.
"Trying to be a celebration, try to get public awareness - all the people up there, all the entities trying to help save the lake advocate for it. It's a great thing. That gives me optimism," said Great Salt Lake Yacht Club board member Steve Harty.
Harty has been sailing on the lake for nearly 30 years. However, as the water level dropped lower and lower, Harty moved his boat to California. This year, the water has become so shallow that sailboats in the marina are unable to stay.
WATCH: Boats pulled from Great Salt Lake marina again
"All these boats, a lot of the keels are stuck in the mud, and so that's why we have to pull them out. It's not good for the boats or the marina," Harty said.
Virgil Grillone is one of the sailboat owners preparing to remove his boat.
"Boats were meant to float and be blown around by the wind, not sit on trailers and go into storage," Grillone said.
Grillone has been sailing his boat, "Selah," on the Great Salt Lake since 2018. He worries about the loss of community as the boats leave the marina.
"It's hard to talk about it. I've been here for eight years. There's guys that have been here for their whole lives. It's huge, you know?" he said.
Grillone isn't sure he'll be able to bring his boat back to the marina in the future. He's not optimistic about the future of the lake.
"It's sad. I have a bigger boat that I'm getting ready to go to San Francisco, and that's going to be my retirement. That's my personal answer to this problem," he said.
As children tried to race cardboard boats around a course marked by buoys, Grow the Flow organizers hoped to make a difference.
"We're gathering hundreds of Utahns to show them why the lake is worth saving," said Jake Dreyfous, managing director of the organization.
By bringing more people to the shores of the Great Salt Lake, Dreyfous believes they'll feel compelled to act.
"To really see the scale of the lake's decline is both impactful, but also empowering. It's to say, 'I want to do something about this now and play my part in saving Great Salt Lake,'" he said.
As advocates rally to save the lake and the marina prepares to empty for the season, the boat owners hope to set sail on the lake again soon.
