Sailing Osaka Bay

Sailing in Osaka

When most people think of Japan I doubt sailing is the first thing that comes to mind.  High density living, concrete jungle, super advanced city living, convenience stores, bullet trains and all that stuff but sailing in Osaka?  The fact of the matter is that we have a great deal of sailing going on around the Osaka area. The Osaka bay area is quite large and is host to all kinds of sailing. Dinghy sailing, keel boat cruising, keel boat PHRF (check this video) (Performance Handicapped Racing Fleet) racing, IRC racing and too many club races for any one boat to complete in any given year.
My name is Mark Smith and I love to sail at all levels here in Japan. Some of my favourite places to sail in and around Osaka are, Kansai Yacht Club based at Shin Nishinomiya Yacht Harbour. This marina is also the home for the most popular English language sailing and boat license school in the area BLISS.) At Kansai Yacht Club I like to join in both the “White Sail” inshore buoy races and the longer overnight races such as the “Around The Bay” race.  You may find other great marinas and clubs at Sumuto – Suntopia, Tannowa, Suma, Wakayama – Marina City, and Tokushima. I have personally raced out of each of these marina / clubs and can vouch for the friendly welcome you will receive.

If you have never sailed before yet think you would like to give it a try, well you are in luck, There is an ever growing number of English speaking boats out on the water. Many of these boat owners started out at Bill’s Little Informal Sailing School or as we know it BLISS. Bliss is operated by William Payne who is a sailor with a massive resume. So if your thinking to go sailing in Osaka drop us a line. If you are a beginner we would love to help you get started.  If you are an experienced hand then we would like to help find you a berth aboard a yacht here in Osaka.  In short we want to help those wanting to go sailing in Osaka.

 

Mark Smith.