Astoria sailing

[Mark F]

My Wife and I just took a drive to Astoria (OR). I was blown away by the amount of seemingly sailable water. It was beautiful Saturday and Sunday and I only saw one sailboat motoring. Is there a reason for this? Plenty of sailboats in the marina (a handful of Ericsons) but no one sailing.

 

[bigd14]

I have often thought the same thing. With lots of shoal water, strong currents and tides and heavy commercial marine traffic it may be less desirable for sailing than it appears. I also suspect the area’s timber and fishing background hasn’t really lent itself to the development of a strong sailing community. All this is pure speculation, I have no practical experience with the area.

 

[Loren Beach]

If you look at a chart for the bay area, note that the area with decent draft is lots less than the whole of the surface of the water you see at high tide. The whole center section of the bay dries at low tide. Once you get west of the last green buoy you can tack clear across and back. It's quite roomy compared to the upper river, but just not as much as some folks think it is.

 

[Mark F]

Thanks Doug and Loren. I figured it must be something like thin water or currents but what a gorgeous looking sailing venue! I did find online that the area Yacht Club has Tuesday races, I wonder how many boats go out. There were a few clean bottom boats in the marina that I'm guessing are likely suspects ;-)