California Lake Sailing

[snort]

Howdy,
Any advice on nice lakes to sail in California, especially the northern part?
Will be taking my world traveling, Tinker Traveller across the mighty stretches of vast lake expanses of one or more lakes in CA.
Suggestions of lakes without massive amounts of Jet skis and powerboats would be a real bonus. Will take any options though.
Thanks in advance!

[Montanan]

My two favorite clean water, large lakes in Northern California be Tahoe and Lake Almanor.

[snort]

Originally Posted by Montanan

My two favorite clean water, large lakes in Northern California be Tahoe and Lake Almanor.

Great suggestions! I was looking at Lake Almanor (having never been there). I think Tahoe is great, but it's very crowded this summer, even more than the usual.
I also found Huntington Lake in an online search. Smaller, but people seem to like it quite a bit.

[snort]

I found this resource online, which is very helpful:
California's Greatest Lakes

[Montanan]

Whiskeytown outside of Redding was a beautiful recreation area, but with the catastrophic fire I suspect it is not quite as grand as it used to be.

Sailing being much less popular than motor boating and PWCs and requiring proper wind and navigation Long, narrow lakes generally do not make for great sailing, particularly as to any upwind direction of travel, which one often has to do to recover the boat onto its trailer. Of course if the lake is really long and can be accessed by boat ramps on either end then one can just bring two cars or hitch a ride so as to just transport the trailer instead of the boat. The prevailing wind will often shift on mountain lakes up canyon during the afternoon and down canyon in the evening, but is hard to count on. Motoring becomes common during the calm and / or for upwind travel.

The Tahoe basin and lake can be crowded but it is a large lake and one can get away from most boaters if you simply avoid the shoreline, and then head to a protective cove on the windward side to anchor for the night. Very few power boats and no PWCs on the water after sunset. The PWCs are annoying, like gnats, their buzz can be heard for miles away and they seldom just stop motoring and float quietly, whereas most power boaters just drift when they are not active with their towed watersports.

As a young child, I learned to sail at the Boathouse of Lake Merritt in Oakland, [cute little El Toro's] then graduated to bigger boats and moved onto sailing the Bay and California coast. Lake Merritt is a great urban lake, and has many attractions in the parks around it, e.g., Fairyland and the Petting Zoo for children. Now during the summer months I sail on Alpine Lakes in the mountains of western Montaña. We trailer to remote lakes, some via 4WD, and keep our larger boat at a marina for the season on Flathead Lake, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi. Similar to but larger than Tahoe but without any developments; often we are the only boat on the lake, or at least within eyesight, with numerous islands and coves. Winter often finds us to the tropics for chartering and to get out of the snow and cold.

If you like real alpine lake sailing, a tremendous trip would be Jackson Lake at the base of the Grand Teton Range in Wyoming, then just travel a bit north to Yellowstone Lake in the National Park, and then head to northwest Montana and sail the Flathead, and then can take boats into Glacier National Park or to Hungry Horse [fifty miles long] leading to the adjoining wildernesses. Figure a two or three weeks of getting away.

[snort]

Thanks! Montanan for adding more suggestions.
I've also rented a sailboat on Lake Merritt years ago.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by snort

Thanks! Montanan for adding more suggestions.
I've also rented a sailboat on Lake Merritt years ago.

I fondly recall the sailing instructor instilling fun into the classes. If the wind picked up such that we heeled over hard, she would start a contest to see who in the class could fill their boat with the most water. Soon everyone's boat was completely a wash and just a floating tub. Then she taught us how to jump into the water and force the stern under and elevate the bow to allow some of the water to exit the aft then bail the boat while remaining in the water. 20 soaked kids having a great time swimming in the lake. Gave confidence that one could handle a swamped boat and having water come over the side. And there also were the chase the ducks sessions which provided a lot of practice in tacking and gybing. The diving ducks were more challenging as you never knew where they may resurface so your head was kept on a swivel as a lookout, great for teaching situational awareness, particularly if the class fleet was kept in close proximity such that you had to avoid other boats while still pursuing a duck. Then she would have us try to work together to herd the ducks toward a specific direction which required coordination of many boaters. Literally trying to get the ducks in a row.