Ideal Chesapeake Bay Location
We are a volunteer-run, Chesapeake Bay sailing club located in the West River Yacht Harbour, Galesville, Md. This location provides easy access to interesting destinations on the West River and Rhode River and the Chesapeake Bay, many within an easy morning or afternoon sail. Explore the nearby creeks and tributaries, anchor or tie up and explore the natural beauty of the shoreline or explore local towns and villages. Annapolis and St. Michaels are not far. Oxford, Solomons and Tilghman islands are within easy reach of an overnight trip.
Sail More, Pay Less for this Chesapeake Bay Sailing Club
You have a choice when looking for a Chesapeake Bay sailing club. Commercial charter companies on the Bay generally charge more than $1,000 per day and single-day charters are hard to find. PSA’s fees vary depending on boat and day of week. Our highest daily rate is less than $200. If you sail mid-week, you can pay less than $100 per day for a radar equipped Catalina 34 or less than $50 for our Express 30 cruiser racer. We keep costs low by buying used boats and doing almost all maintenance in house. See why we say we are the best sailing value on the Bay.
Our goal is to make cruising and racing fun, safe, and as economical as possible. For over 50 years, (see our history, beginning in 1968), and incorporated in 1986) Parklawn Sailing has been a strong and healthy sailing club with a diverse membership.
Our Boats
We have owned many boats over the years. One of our first was a Rhodes 22, purchased in 1974.
Our current fleet includes:
- Pisces — Catalina 34
- Vivace — Express 30
- Summer Sun — Catalina 34 Mk II
Chesapeake Bay Sailing Club Cruising and Racing
We are not a yacht club, a sailing charter company, a boatyard, nor a sailing school.
We are primarily a cruising club where members can schedule a boat for a day, a weekend, a week or longer. There are also opportunities to crew with member skippers. Additionally, the club organizes day and evening sails and training cruises open to all members. In recent summers, club members have organized week-long sails around the DelMarVa peninsula.
Our sailing season begins in April and ends in December.
We usually race in the weekly Pirates Cove Race Club series, and some CBYRA point-to-point races on the Chesapeake. Vivace finished first in class in the overnight 2017 Governor’s Cup race to St. Mary’s City.
DIY Maintenance
To keep overhead low, we do most of our own maintenance. Participation is optional, but does lower your cost to sail.
- About every six weeks volunteers spend a Saturday doing routine maintenance.
- Larger projects are carried out over the winter.
- Beyond the educational value of working on the boat with more experienced sailors, maintenance volunteers earn coupons that can be applied to reduced fees for sailing.
Training
Our in-house training program allows novice members to learn new sailing skills and to progress toward skipper qualification. Members build experience with our training skippers and organized club day sailing and weekend cruising. Summer and winter, we have social events, some combined with training presentations.
Environmental
In all of our activities, we teach and apply environmentally friendly practices. Our members will often hear a skipper say, “nothing goes into the Bay that did not come out of the Bay.”
Our training materials and procedural checklists include:
Insured
All of our operations ashore and afloat are insured under a long established club sailing insurance program underwritten by major insurers.
See why we say we are the The best value in Bay sailing.
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