Sailing California

San Francisco Bay is the most spectacular sailing arena in the country: a summer westerly funneling through the Golden Gate at 15 to 25 knots and more, with the cityfront, Alcatraz and the bridges as the backdrop, and Berkeley, Sausalito, Alameda, Tiburon and the South Bay all sailing on it. Upstream, the California Delta trades that for warm water, a thousand miles of sloughs, and anchoring out where nobody finds you. South of Point Conception the sailing turns warm and blue: Santa Barbara, Channel Islands Harbor and Ventura launch crossings to the wild National Park anchorages of Santa Cruz Island, Marina del Rey and Newport are the charter capitals, Long Beach hosts Olympic-caliber racing, and the 26-mile crossing to Catalina is the classic California passage. Add Tahoe and Huntington Lake, where a legendary dinghy regatta runs at 7,000 feet.