Where to Live

Looking for suggestions - just starting my research for where to retire. I have a H16 mast up on the beach summers in the Chicago area. I am figuring out that what I have is more rare than I thought. I can ride my bike to the beach, wheel the boat a few feet to the water on nice sand, sail 20+ miles in any direction (well, 3 directions) or just get in a quick hour on the water and go home.

But, I am getting older and thinking about moving somewhere that is:

warmer (warmer water) but not beastly hot, not necessarily year round
mast up storage with cat trax access to/from the water (either club or my front yard), no trailering
not power boat lake, not crowded (Lake Michigan spoiled me), can be fresh or salt water
affordable (read - low taxes)
has 10-15 mph winds often enough
waves usually less than 4 feet if they are steep and not rollers, but not launching into big surf
bike friendly, not major city but close to medical center and some kind of town

I saw Lakes Murray and Marion in SC, but heard the wind is iffy and Murray gets crowded. If Lake Murray was not crowded and had dependable wind it would be great - close to Columbia but still open. Lake Keowee looks great but kind of small. Oceanside places seem to not like mast up catamaran beaches, or you're launching into breakers. Others in Arkansas, Texas and MO seem pretty rural. Wisconsin and Michigan have lots of great places but they are too cold. Anyway, just starting looking around.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

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1989 H16
2009 H16 squaretop

OZ

I.P.Freely - Well, it seems as though your prostate isn't causing you any problems yet.
San Diego, CA!!! It has everything you're looking for, except affordable housing. But, we don't need air conditioning, haven't used our heater in years, no mosquito problems, the only time we wear winter clothing is when we go to the Sierras to go skiing; So I believe that makes it more affordable to live here. I'm retired and we travel a lot, but I can't think of a better place to live and be very active. For mast up storage check with the lifeguards at the Mission Bay Park Administration Bldg. Ask about available space for a H 16 on a beach bar. Or, join the Mission Bay Yacht Club. Either way you'll be sailing in Mission Bay and going out the channel to the ocean. Some seals & dolphins, and whale watching during the winter when the Grey Whales migrate south. We have an active fleet here - Hobie Fleet 4 (check us out on Facebook), and the MBYC has an active multihull fleet. Also, so many places to trailer your boat and sail within several hours drive.
Check out San Diego. It's like heaven on earth for active people - with or without boats.
Richard

There are a couple of clubs here in Florida that might interest you. They seem to meet a lot of your criteria.

Sarasota Sailing Squadron: http://sarasotasailingsquadron.org

Lake Eustice Sailing Club: http://www.lescfl.com

Hey, thanks for the ideas.

Both places are pretty nice looking, and I've enjoyed myself when I've been there. Sailed out of Mission Bay and dove the kelp beds once. That was awesome until the wind died and our motor broke, but I always enjoy SD. Never sailed that bay in Sarasota.

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1989 H16
2009 H16 squaretop

Hi I.P.!
Are you sailing in Winnetka? Nice beach there! I had a similar setup in Manitowoc. I found when the wind was good on the Lake, the waves were so choppy I had problems making any progress. Now mostly I sail on Lake Mendota in Madison. And I too am looking for a longer sailing season.
If you want to stay within a day's drive of Chicago (family there?) Kentucky Lake or the So Ill lakes like Rend or Crab Orchard are pretty big with a long season.
Can't argue with San Diego being a sailing paradise, but the house costs eliminate it for me-I don't know how they do it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Yet another Bob!
"Firefly" - 2012 Hobie Getaway with wings and spinnaker
"Sparky" - 1978 Sunfish (OK, it's not a Hobie, but it's a fun little craft)
Too many canoes and kayaks

Somewhere on the "Inner Banks" of NC. Too many places to list. Warm and great sailing 9+ months of the year. But if want mast up storage, you need waterfront property.

Thanks for the input. I sailed Currituck Sound once in a rented Getaway, when they were new. They told me they could not pitchpole. It only took us 15 minutes to pitchpole, then we couldn't right it. Finally figured out we hooked a crab pot with our rudder, fixed that and got it up. The Sound was great but I saw no mast up storage either side other than the rental place near Duck. Worth looking into more.

I recently heard South Carolina winds are iffy inland (and hot) between Charleston and Greenville. That's one reason I have not focused on the Gulf states - too hot for me.

I have been looking at Kentucky Lake. Affordable, warmer, etc. It seems kind of long and narrow in most places. I went fishing on it when I was a kid. It is a lot closer to the family farm, but that's not a driving factor.

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1989 H16
2009 H16 squaretop

There are a lot of transplants from the Midwest in the Tampa Bay area. If you are within a few miles of the gulf it's not too hot, although humid. An our costs are really low. Check out http://www.clearwatercommunitysailing.org/ where I store my boat and sail once or twice a week year round.

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1985 Hobie 14T
2014 Hobie T2

I spent most of my life in the Chicago/Rockford area, and also used to sail my sunfish on lake mendota. We moved to sarasota in 2007 and never looked back, I'm Canadian and never thought I would get used to the heat but acclimated to the Florida heat in about a year. We used to be snow birds with a couple houses in Chicago area, one in Sarasota FL, and another near Santa Ana CA, we ended up selling everything else and just live in Florida now. Ideal for you would be to winter in Florida and summer in Chicago (we did that for a long time), you get the best of both worlds. Many have told me sarasota bay is supposedly one of the top sailing venues in the world ( I have no idea if true), but we are out every weekend in the sarasota/Tampa Bay Area and the keys (we have another place in key west). We sail all year round every weekend and have a blast.
Sarasota and Key West are both kind of pricy though, a decent house in Rockford costs around $100k, in sarasota that same house would be around $400k, that same house in KW would be about 3 million, anything on the water is 4x the price. In Sarasota the water gets down to the 60's in January, we sometimes sail in January but have wetsuits on, Dec - Feb typically we don't dive a lot in the winter. In key west the water seldom gets below 75, and we can dive year round (and we do). It gets a little crowded in Florida in the winter though, we have 19 million full time residents, but a hundred million visitors in the winter (kind of crowded). The coolest thing about Florida is Disney and most theme parks allow Florida residents to buy season passes for almost nothing then we can go anytime we desire for free ( no taxes here, and homestead laws are very strong). Many places like sarasota sailing squadron where you can store your cat mast up right on shore for reasonable cost.
Obviously we like Florida and are biased (lol).
Bob

Yes, Inland lake sailing in NC/SC is completely different story. It can be fun, but's it's a very different thing. On the inland lakes, light winds prevail in mid-summer. Most of the good sailing happens before July and after August.

Winds on the sounds/big river mouths between the NC inner coast and outer banks are great, very consistent, and much better sailing in comparison. Places like Morehead/Beaufort/Newport, New Bern, Bath, Manteo, and Oriental have excellent sailing. The A-Cat NA Championship [http://vimeo.com/98240020] and Sunfish Worlds were both held in NC this summer. [http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2014/10/16/francisco-renna-wins-sunfish-worlds/]

The southern 1/3 of the coast toward SC is not as sailing friendly. The southern NC sound waters are shallow, narrow and crowded and the ocean is rough.

We're in Minnesota, and have a very short season, so I am watching this thread. How about outside the US? Or Puerto Rico.?