[deanrit]

Hello everyone, I'm a small boat sailor. I enjoy smaller sailboats like the Flying Dutchman. My wife and I are moving to SW Florida soon but are still trying to figure out which area will be best for us. My wife is mainly interested in living within 15 minutes to a beach and I am interested in being near sailing water that isn't open ocean. I can either dry dock, water dock or trailer sail. Just wondering which gulf coast area offers beaches and sailing that we are looking for? It would be great to be part of a sailing club too if any are available.

[bbronston]

If the Sarasota area is a possibility, you might want to check out https://sarasotasailingsquadron.org/

[deanrit]

I checked it out. Looks really good. Sarasota Bay must be a fantastic place to sail. Many thanks!

[Fredesch]

Lots of areas have homes on canals. On the east side of Florida, homes my have a canal ajoining their back yards,. The canals connect to the intercoastal waterway, large rivers or bays. We had friiends in Palm Coast that docked their 30' sailboat in their back yard. I'm guessing you can find a similar situation on the gulf coast.

If you would consider Atlantic coast, you could satisfy both your wife and yourself. In my zip code 32176, many houses on John Anderson Dr have docks. They have the Halifax River/Intercosastal waterway to sail. If you want to sail in the ocean you simply sail through Ponce Inlet to the Atlantic. If you lived on John Anderson, your wife could walk to the Atlantic beaches. I think you can find similar situations on chunks of Florida's Atlantic Coast.