Boating in NYC
With the incredible weather (more accurately known as a heat wave) New York is enjoying at the moment, it can be hard to be as active as you might like. While jogging in Central Park is wonderful on most days, when the dial is pushing 100F it gets a lot harder…and it’s not exactly healthy! Thankfully, there’s a solution. Free kayaking and sailing trips are fun for all the family, good exercise, and – being so near the water – a nice way to keep a little cooler this summer. As usual, New York City offers a wide variety of options:The Downtown Boathouse offers free public activities on Saturdays and Sundays on a first come, first served basis. With locations at Pier 40, Pier 96, and 72nd Street, they offer kayaking, boat trips, and even introductory classes. Weeknights at Pier 40 and Thursday nights at Pier 96 are also free and open to the public. There are changing rooms and showers on some of the sites, and it’s run by volunteers – a great service for you to take advantage of! If you’re interested in the three-hour trips, they suggest you get to the boathouse by 7.45 a.m., to enter a lottery for places on high demand days. Once on the water, the city looks amazing – but keep in mind, you’ll still get that work out. There’s quite a current on the Hudson.The Gowanus Dredgers Club in Brooklyn is also volunteer-driven, and offers self-guided canoe trips through the Gowanus Canal and other locations. The scenery is quite different here: You’ll pass through quite industrial areas of Brooklyn. The Canoe Club itself admits that “Gowanus may never become the Venice of Brooklyn” but there are interesting signs of revival in this neighbourhood, and you’re unlikely to have seen it before. Though parts of Queens, Red Hook and Brooklyn Bridge Park are off-limits due to conservation efforts, there’s still plenty to explore with a canoe at your disposal!City Island, meanwhile, the historic home of Americas Cup racing Yachts and all things maritime, is home to a huge variety of sailing clubs and yacht charters. Surprisingly, many New Yorkers have never been to City Island. which is part of the Bronx. If for nothing more than a great day out, the island is worth a trip – there’s a good selection of restaurants, and the community’s history stretched back to European settlement in c. 1614.If you’ve got the time to commit, sailing boat courses and rentals are a fantastic way to enjoy City Island and improve your skills. New York Sailing Center and Yacht Club offers lessons and the option of renting our your own boats and acting as skipper once the course is complete, and the City Island Nautical site has a full list of marinas and clubs, including charters, and a great How To section on sailing.Hoboken Cove Community Boathouse, on the other side of the river to the Downtown Boathouse, also offers free activities open to the public on the Hudson River. Running Saturdays and Sundays, weather permitting, the season runs till September. Kayaking in a small bay area means even kids under 16 can have a go, as long as they have a guardian. Sessions are limited to about 20 minutes to make sure everyone who wants to can have a trip, but it’s a great way to enjoy the weather – and the water!Brooklyn’s Red Hook Boaters, at Louis Valentino Jr. Pier Park, also provides all the equipment you could want to explore the cove at your own pace. They also run a beach clean-up program to keep the area as beautiful as it can be. Walk up kayaking this year runs Sunday afternoons, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. and every Thursday evening from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. Paddlers are free to enjoy the cove as they wish, though riders are again asked to limit their time to about 20 minutes.There’s certainly no shortage of opportunities to get out and about on the water this summer – so what are you waiting for?