North Alabama Sailing Marina, Alabama, United States

5Ken P 5:00 PM Jul 25, 2015

Fun sailboat rental
Never wrote an online review but I had such great time at Browns Creek Sailing Marina and wanted to share this with my fellow yachtsmen. Business travel to Huntsville AL required a weekend stay so I decided to look into boat rentals at nearby Guntersville Lake. Being a life long sailor, I was hoping to find somewhere that rented sailboats. Browns Creek Sailing Marina (www.sailbrownscreek.com) offers a 14-foot Vagabond sloop rig and a 12-foot Hobie Bravo, either for $20/hr. I've sailed many different sailboats and currently own a 18-foot catamaran so I was intrigued with the Hobie Bravo. The wind was very light, in fact at 2-4 knots too light for sailing when I arrived around 2pm on a July afternoon. I decided to hang around and chat with Ginny, the friendly office manager. Browns Creek also has a sailing club whose members get free use of their fleet of Sunfish sailboats. When a member came by and decided to go out, hoping the breeze would improve, I decided to rent the Hobie Bravo and join him. And to my delight the breeze did fill in, picking up to 6-8 knots several times that afternoon. The Brave was very easy to sail and performed much better than any 12-foot sailboat could be expected to, moving along smartly in the puffs and leaving the Sunfish in its wake. A nice feature is that the rudder lifts when you lift the tiller, helpful for clearing weeds that float in patches around the lake. Later we were joined by another club member in a Sunfish, making for some fun camaraderie and a surprisingly fun afternoon sailing adventure. Browns Creek rents slips to many larger yachts and several families and couples took advantage of the gentle but refreshing breezes that afternoon. One of my new sailing buddies told me about the Somewhere lounge about 100 yards from there on the main highway, Rt 69. Just the right place to relax after a great sail with cold brews, good food, and even a Wounded Warriors benefit with live music on the waterfront patio. But I'll save that for another review ;-) I highly recommend Browns Creek Sailing Marina to anyone in the Huntsville AL area looking for a fun sailboat rental.