Special Report: Lake Tahoe’s Deadly Freak Storm

Lake Tahoe Boating Disaster: Captain Recalls Deadly Storm

During the afternoon of June 21, an unexpected, ferocious thunderstorm swept across Lake Tahoe. Before the storm, scores of boaters were out enjoying a Saturday on the lake. One was longtime Tahoe fishing charter captain Mike Nielsen. The owner of Tahoe Topliners sportfishing, Nielsen has grown up on the lake and from his 22-foot Duckworth, he had a front row seat to a storm that sank or capsized many boats and tragically, killed eight in what may be the worst marine disaster in Tahoe history.

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Chris Dixon

Senior Editor, Power & Motoryacht
Chris Dixon is the author of Ghost Wave and The Ocean, The Ultimate Handbook of Nautical Knowledge. His writing has appeared in The New York Times bestseller The Southerner’s Handbook. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Outside, Popular Mechanics and Garden & Gun. He grew up boating, fishing and surfing along the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia, once spent a year working and traveling with Jimmy Buffett and today lives in Charleston with his wife, son and daughter.

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