Vermont or non-coastal NH sailing/marinas?

[CloveHitched]

Hello, All.

My husband and I are considering a relocation to Vermont or New Hampshire. My husband thinks we'll have to give up our sailing days and ways with this purely optional move. I'm not ready to concede.

Anyone in Vermont or New Hampshire care to give me their input on the sailing opportunities in either state? Marinas (not finding much on the internet)? We toured the Portsmouth NH coast and were a bit discouraged with what we found.

We currently own a 40' Tartan but are open to downsizing to a 30'.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by CloveHitched

Hello, All.

My husband and I are considering a relocation to Vermont or New Hampshire. My husband thinks we'll have to give up our sailing days and ways with this purely optional move. I'm not ready to concede.

Anyone in Vermont or New Hampshire care to give me their input on the sailing opportunities in either state? Marinas (not finding much on the internet)? We toured the Portsmouth NH coast and were a bit discouraged with what we found.

We currently own a 40' Tartan but are open to downsizing to a 30'.

Live in seacoast NH and keep your boat up in Casco Bay, about an hours drive... Heck we have people commute up from CT and RI every weekend just to be able to keep their boat in Maine..

[estarzinger]

Or live on lovely lake Champlain - nice fresh water sailing. There is a bit of a community of retired blue water sailors there.

It is lovely country - where I grew up.

[CloveHitched]

Could you rattle off some of the better yacht clubs and marinas on Champlain?

We looked in/around York. 12 foot tides (!), if I recall correctly.

[estarzinger]

The folks we know live in and around Burlington, and I know there are a couple basins with slips right in/near town. My wife had a 'girl cruise' there and loved it.

Let me ask them.

[sailorboy1]

Lived 8 years in NH and was 1 hour away from the boat and ocean

[Mirage35]

Originally Posted by CloveHitched

Could you rattle off some of the better yacht clubs and marinas on Champlain?

We looked in/around York. 12 foot tides (!), if I recall correctly.

Uh, did I misunderstand something here? There are no tides on Lake Champlain.

[CloveHitched]

No, not Champlain.

York, Maine - 12 foot tides.

[CloveHitched]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Lived 8 years in NH and was 1 hour away from the boat and ocean

Where did you keep your boat? Moored or slip?

[Elie]

I sail all summers on lake Champlain. Its a fantastic place to cruise or race. Fresh and clean water, nice picturesque suroundings, many well protected bays and infinite mooring areas. Plenty marinas, yacht clubs, from the very fancy(Gaines marina, Willsboro Bay Marina,) to very simple moorings fields (Lakehurst, Mallets bay, etc..). Good restaurant, some accessible by boat.
This lake is considered the 6th Great Lake and sailing is realy fantastic, with long runs and sometimes ocean like waves, without tides or current. It is also close to Montreal(50 miles!) a large french city with all the summer pleasures, festivals, shows and absolutly fantastic cuisine...

[2geer]

We are residents of Vermont and live in South Hero. I would recommend looking up the information available on ActiveCaptain.com. Basically the Tripadvisor of the floating world. Lots of information on marinas etc.

FYI - We store our boat at Gaines Marina in the winter - the only heated storage that I am aware of on the lake.

Dave and Lisa Geer
M/V Stout
kk42-087
STOUT

[buddysattic]

You might want to consider the Newport Vt area. It is on Lake Memphremagog which is about 25 miles long and 5 miles wide. It has some interesting wind, seems to come from 2 directions at times. The city marina is not bad and really inexpensive.Good bunch of people there. Quite a few 30ft and bigger boats. Real estate is dirt cheap. The north end of Champlain is really nice too, you are close enough to Burlington but far enough away that you can get a nice lake front house for 300K or so. Winter is very cold here though!

[CaptTom]

Actually, the tides in York max out around 10'.

As for NH lakes, I'd avoid Lake Winnipesaukee. Seems there must be some regulation against having a vessel that goes less than 100 MPH on the lake. And against traveling at anything less than full throttle. Unless you're in one of the narrow channels on a weekend, at which point it looks more like Massachusetts Route 128 during the morning commute.

Only been on Champlain once, and that was very early in the season. From what I saw, I'd certainly go back. Just a little worried about the marinas filling up with lake weed, but you'll want local knowledge to be sure on that one.

[sesmith]

+1 for Lake Champlain (though Maine sounds really good too). Champlain is a great lake for sailing, lots of anchorages, has a big lake feel, like one of the great lakes, so the sailing is fantastic.

On the Vermont side, Point Bay Marina was very good to us when we had a breakdown one year. Mallots Bay Boat Club (on Mallots Bay) seems to be a very reasonably priced club with moorings. We spent a couple of days there on July 4th this year. Great bunch of people and one heck of a 4th celebration there. Burlington's a nice town. There's an excellent local sail loft just outside of Burlington in Winooski (Vermont Sailing Partners).
Can't recommend them enough. You can get to the Great Lakes from Champlain, and down to the Hudson and NYC the other direction.

As I'm sure you can tell, Champlain is one of our favorite sailing destinations. Just spent a week up there this month. We're also heading to Penobscot Bay, Maine, in Aug. so we might just fall in love with that area, as well. Since our boat is mobile via a trailer, we can try out new sailing areas easily...possibly an idea in your downsizing search (though your 40 footer would feel quite at home on Lake Champlain).