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Perhaps this is crazy but does anyone sail on the upper hudson aside from just passing through. I did the trip as a kid with my parents but I am now an adult resident of the Albany region and passionate about sailing. Buy a boat aside. Is is worth the time to keep a boat in the the albany area and sail the hudson (up and down)? At least I'd be able to sail on a regular basis.
The other options are to drive 3 hours to Lake Ontario, 3 hours to Lake george, or 3 hours to the Atlantic. Each one would significantly decrease the days I could spend on the boat.
Any thoughts about feasibility, worth-wild-ness would be greatly appreciated. Also, any suggesting as to where to keep a 22 - 32 foot sail boat near albany would be most helpful!
Albany to Lake George is less than an hour, tops. What part of the Capitol Region are you in? There is also Ballston, Saratoga & Round lakes. I have only been on Ballston and Round when frozen but Saratoga is a nice lake to be on in the summer.
Having spent a summer boating on the lower Hudson as a kid, I can say that it gets fairly boring. I grew up there, although, our boat was normally on LI Sound. You go north or south, south or north, a little of both. Same thing every time. In Albany, the river is very narrow, so all the more limiting. Barge traffic is also a PITA when sailing, they have ROW.
I would get a trailer sailer. The lakes are much closer than you think and there are many. Sailing out to one of the islands on Lake George and camping for the weekend is great. Lake Champlain is not really that far either. You might research launch sites to be sure that isn't frustrating. You can always drop her in the Hudson after work during the week to get a quick fix.
Since yyou will sail in fairly small places, I would focus entirely on ease of launching/rigging over performance. A 19 ft ComPac with articulating mast would be perfect IMHO. I want one for the lake near my home. I'm just sane enough not to have two boats!
The Hudson is tidal so plan your sailing trips to always be with the tidal current. There are a lot of advantages to having the boat close to home, like going for a few hours sailing after work.
If it gets boring, longer sails down the Hudson to NY Harbor and beyond.
From my times there it seemed that the winds tended to be upstream or downstream (or not much wind). I would think you would want a smallish boat that performs very well with an easy to use spinnaker system. I don't know candidate boats well enough to recommend one, but something with a self-tending jib would be good.
I keep my boat up on the shores of Lake Champlain for the winter and sail down the Hudson to get to some actual sailing with steady wind and ocean swell. I do not like even hoisting sails in the capricious winds on the Hudson or for that matter on the lakes. Am sure it's a different story on the Great Lakes where you can get away from land effects. One design boats like Bluejays and Lightnings can be fun on the Hudson for day-sailing. The summer afternoon onshore breeze goes pretty far up, at least to Haverstraw. If you live in Albany there are plenty of places to keep a boat and then just use the river to get to the ocean. If I were a bit closer, would keep the boat down that way to avoid having to travel the Champlain Canal which is novel about once and then just tedious thereafter.
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