Steer a 34-Foot Sailboat Out of Manhasset Bay
A licensed captain hands you the wheel on Manhasset Bay, then bends the next two hours around what you want to do.
The dock is at the end of a long driveway off Main Street in Port Washington, past a six-room hotel built on the original site of the Knickerbocker Yacht Club. Walk to the far end and the boat is waiting. It is a 2007 Beneteau 343, thirty-four feet, rigged with a roller furling mainsail and headsail.
Every sailing is private, and the boat takes up to six. Two hours from the moment you cast off. Captain Steve runs it on a Coast Guard license, after more than twenty-five years of boating.
Booking confirms instantly and closes three hours before the scheduled start. All fees and taxes are already included. The same listing carries two longer options, a three-hour sunset sail and a July 4th fireworks sail, each picked at checkout.
Captain Steve's Sailing Experience on Long IslandTwo hours on a private 34-foot sailboat from Port Washingtonwww.viator.comOut of the Bay and Into the Sound
Manhasset Bay opens north into Long Island Sound, and this water has been sailed hard for a long time. The Knickerbocker Yacht Club moved here from Manhattan in 1907 and ran the Knickerbocker Cup, a race that pulled crews from well outside Long Island. The ground it stood on is where the hotel by the dock sits now.
The bay is narrow. Past its mouth the route opens on the Manhattan skyline, City Island, and the historic lighthouses of the western Sound. Captain Steve's own route notes point to the waterfront houses on the way out as the mansions that inspired The Great Gatsby. Execution Rocks Lighthouse and the Whitestone and Throgs Neck bridges both turn up in his photographs of the trip.
What Is Actually on the Boat
Below deck there is a full kitchen, a bathroom, and enough seating for the party to get out of the wind. A Bluetooth stereo runs off your phone. At the back, the transom folds down into a swim platform with a shower on it.
Food and drink are bring your own, and the kitchen is there to put them in. Anchoring to swim and tying up at a waterfront restaurant both sit on Captain Steve's list of what a sail can include. Two hours is the shortest slot on the listing, and a stop like that uses some of it.
The Two Hours Bend to What You Ask For
Captain Steve writes that each trip is customized to preference, and the options he lists are concrete. Sit still and watch the shoreline go by. Take the helm and steer. Learn to furl the sails and work the boat yourself.
The helm is an offer, and nobody has to touch it. His own listing names birthdays, family outings, get-togethers with friends, proposals, and photo shoots among what people book the boat for. One guide works the trip, and English is the only language aboard.
Getting to the Dock
📍 433 Main Street, Port Washington, on Manhasset Bay. The driveway runs down the left side past the hotel, and the boat sits at the far end of the long dock.
There is no parking on the hotel and marina property. Park on Main Street or in the Port Washington Town Dock lot, then call Captain Steve once you are parked. Public transport runs nearby.
- Everyone meets at the dock. There is no hotel or home pickup.
- Mobile and paper tickets are both accepted, one per booking.
- Infants ride on an adult's lap, and a pram or stroller is fine to bring.
- A moderate level of physical fitness is expected. The operator does not recommend the trip for pregnant travelers, or for anyone with spinal injuries or poor cardiovascular health.
All sales are final and cancellations are not refunded, which puts the forecast into the booking decision.
Two hours later the boat is back alongside the same dock, sails furled, with the rest of the day still ahead of you.