Join us in Jamaica Bay for a sailing charter tour! Cruise around the bay while watching the sunset over NYC. Book a NYC boat tour online!

    NYC is hands down the most water-borne city in the US. With over 520 miles of shoreline, we surpass the littoral measurements of Boston, Miami, L.A. and San Francisco combined. Within those confines we’ve got one of the worlds busiest commercial harbors, an incredibly vibrant water-based tourism industry, miles upon miles of public beaches, waterfront parks on her rivers…and the gem of it all is the only wildlife refuge within the boundaries of any major city in the US, Jamaica Bay. 

   For us, it all starts here. We began sailing on the bay in 2005 when we acquired our first small sailboat after years of motor boating - a late 70’s O’day 22 shoal-keel sloop. We became addicted immediately, sailing her on Jamaica Bay for 7 years, generally only skipping the month of February. If you watch the weather, you can always find a decent day or two to get out with a nice thermos of hot coffee and put up some cloth. 

  At roughly 8 miles long and 4 wide with an area of 26 square miles, Jamaica Bay offers something not found anywhere else in the city. Peace and serenity. Migratory birds numbering in the hundreds of thousands make stopovers every year, a critical nesting area for nearly 100 species - including over 20 which are endangered. A crucial location for the mating of the Horseshoe Crab and Diamond Back Terrapin. One of the only havens in the city for species of amphibians and reptiles. A place to regularly see Sea turtles, even a resident population of harbor seal. And a backdrop of the entire skyline of Manhattan. 

   One of the most common comments we get from new clients, something to the tune of “I had no idea this was even here,” is generally delivered with a sense of awe as the individual experiences a real sense of decompression from the city’s frenetic state of being. No sirens. No traffic. No subway cars or cabs. Most of the time there’s no noise at all but the wind powering our sails and the water sliding beneath our keel. A harken back to the times of NY’s early development, when the only way to get to her was by sail or oar, when her oyster beds were so thick you could just hop in the water at the Battery with a bucket and come up with dinner in a matter of minutes, and a day of fishing would provide all the protein one could ever need. 

   The bay, you see, she plays second fiddle to the beach for most. Folks coming to NYC’s southern extremis for some R&R must pass over or through her, but generally the offerings of her waterways and shorelines are an afterthought. Her waters lack the wave action found on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Rockaway Penninsula, the boardwalk and concessions, the “beach vibe” many are coming to find. But those that stumble to her by plan or accident will always walk away with the same feeling. There was no fighting for space. No putting up with 10 radios within earshot all playing someone else’s version of “beach tunes.” No disappointment of overflowing trash cans or ill -maintained public restrooms. No avoiding collisions with bicycles crossing the boardwalk or waiting in snaking lines for a libation. 

   Whether it’s fishing, kayaking, paddle boarding or sailing, there’s always that fist REAL exhale. You’re out. Out of the city. Out of the city but IN the city. The confusing moment you realize how long you’ve passed over this spot, having no idea what your slice of NYC’s largest open space would do for your state of mind. Calm. You notice a different bird than you’ve ever seen before. You marvel at the beauty of its outline, it’s plumage. You wonder where it came from, where it’s going. Your world gets both larger and smaller simultaneously. It’s the moment of Descartian “Cogito ergo sum,” “I think, therefore I am,” singularly displacing yourself from the noise of 10 million other New Yorkers and smacking you right back in the womb of nature and your own reflection on her calm waters.  

   That’s why we’re here, doing what we do. It’s the very contrast that had us falling in love on our first launch, and a constant search for which kept us sailing later and later each season until we found ourselves one of the only vessels tossing our lines mid-winter. As many trips as we’ve done on this diamond, we’re still enamored with the lack of traffic on the most beautiful days of summer, where a sojourn 10 miles in any direction would tell a much different story - one more reflective of the densely populated areas that surround Jamaica Bay. 

    Come join us out here - your soul will thank you for it.