Lake sailing near San Diego?

November 23, 2008 9:44 AM

Anywhere to rent a sailboat on a lake near San Diego?

I know all about the bay and ocean sailing rentals, but I'd like to go sailing like I did back home in Wisconsin - Go to a park, rent a little boat for cheap, have a picnic on shore, maybe BBQ a bit... Are there any county or state parks nearby where you can rent a sailboat on the cheap and go lake sailing?

posted by mamessner to sports, hobbies, & recreation (4 comments total)

Well, Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet allows sailboats (October through May). It's a big reservoir, 4,500 acres, 4 1/2 miles long and 2 miles wide. I don't where to rent a boat around there, though. Perhaps via the Diamond Valley Yacht Club. Unfortunately I've never been sailing myself; I've only been in the area for dayhikes.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 10:33 AM on November 23, 2008

Generally lakes around here aren't big enough for you to really get any sailing in on - as far as I know, boat rentals are all just for fishing. I could be wrong, but as far as I can remember, I've never seen a sailboat on any lake in the county. Lakes around here are pretty much all man-made reservoirs. If you're willing to go a little further afield, Big Bear Lake might have something, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

You might want to reconsider Mission Bay, which is so landlocked it might as well be a lake, and is also man-made, but was created for the express purpose of being an aquatic recreation area. To my knowledge, that's the closest you'll be able to get to what you're looking for.
posted by LionIndex at 11:42 AM on November 23, 2008

The activities you are describing are exactly the type of thing I did when I lived in San Diego, and like Thoughtcrime and LionIndex, I can't think of a single time anyone I knew went sailing on a lake in Southern California. Although I bet you could have a whopper of an outing on the Salton Sea.
posted by billtron at 2:33 PM on November 23, 2008

Lake Poway, but the sailboat rentals are apparently seasonal.
posted by posadnitsa at 7:51 PM on November 23, 2008