Best Buoy Locations For Cruisers


The buoy drawing is less than two weeks away, so it it time to start thinking about where you want to keep your boat. Generally, the larger cruising boats congregate together, and do so for several reasons:

  • The owners know each other, and want to be close to friends
  • The most popular area is quiet and secluded
  • It is easy to reach from a dinghy off the sea wall, but less so with the tenders
  • Birds of a feather; it's more fun being close to similar boats
  • There is more to monitor on a larger boats, and the owners tend to watch over other boats
  • The outer buoys are easier for larger boats. Casting off and returning is simplified, and the prevailing NW winds push you into the lake on launching, and allow you to nose into the breeze when returning.

If you have not read the post on using tenders vs dinghy's, you  should do so HERE.

The green area in the map about is the area favored by larger boats on Lake Harriet, for the reasons mentioned above. The red area is favored by the Sailing School boats, LHY Club scows, and other smaller craft. Also, if you choose here, there is lots of tender traffic going by. That makes it harder to sit in your cockpit and enjoy the peace. And if there is a concert at the bandshell, it can be quite loud.

If you want a map of the buoys to see the actual buoy numbers, you should see this post HERE.

None of these are actually hard and fast rules, and in fact you can have your boat on any buoy available, and should feel free to do so. See you at the drawing, or on the water!

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