On a sunny day at Wayzata Yacht Club, with Lake Minnetonka sparkling through the sailboat masts, it's easy to see why sailing draws so many locals out onto the water.
But how does Wayzata stack up against other sailing towns around the country?
Pretty well, thank you. Wayzata recently received some big time national attention among sailors.
"Sailing World" magazine featured Wayzata in a Sept. 15 story titled, "The Good Life: Five Great Sailing Towns You May Not Know About."
The story gives Wayzata play in one of the top magazines in the country for sailors, and more exposure in a sailing community that tends to focus on the coasts.
"We're in fly-over country," said Dallas Johnson, vice commodore of the Wayzata Yacht Club. "Our sailing programs in the Midwest so often don't get noticed by the sailing groups on the West and the East Coast."
But when newcomers do visit, "they are just flabbergasted to see the quality, and the quantity, of the racing that we have here," he said.
The article asks where would you relocate, if you were looking for an off-the-radar town with ample racing and a laid-back scene, a place where "everyone on the racecourse knows your name."
To be picked from the thousands of underrated sailing towns, there had to be a community sailing program, reliable sailing conditions, a fleet ready for newcomers and at least one good watering hole in town.
As for hangouts, the article names Sunset's and Wayzata Bar & Grill, and plays up Wayzata's quality of life and its proximity to downtown Minneapolis. It credits the Wayzata Community Sailing School for developing the next generation of sailors, and points to a racing scene that empties out the boat slips each Thursday night during the summer.
And it mentions ice boating and kite sailing for the winter.
It also likens the role of sailing in Wayzata to surfing in California coastal towns.
That description fit well with the sentiments of Wayzata resident Shannon Gale.
"Being from California, this is the next best thing to surfing," Gale said.
Gale's two boys, 8 and 13 years old, learned to sail at the Wayzata Community Sailing School. And Gale took adult sailing lessons from the school over the summer.
Gale said sailing is a way for families to get involved with the lake, and with a club that's open to anybody. Sailing is part of the culture of the lake, she said.
"We surround this lake. You can look at it any time and see the sailors. I think it identifies the city more than any other sport," Gale said.
Wayzata Mayor Andrew Humphrey said it's nice to have the secret out about Wayzata.
"The lakeside community is central to who we are," Humphrey said.
According to the article, the Wayzata Yacht Club has the oldest J/24 fleet in the world.
Even Wayzata's logo invokes the image of sailboats.
The other four towns featured were Marion, Mass.; Somers, Mont.; Burlington, Vt. and Bellingham, Wash.
Unlike some sailing spots, Johnson said, easy access is one of the features of sailing on Lake Minnetonka. A boat is 10 minutes away from his Minnetonka Beach home. Wayzata isn't just a vacation town, or a place where sailors must drive an hour and a half to get to a boat, he said.
Johnson said a competitive spirit benefits all the clubs and sailing schools on Lake Minnetonka, including high school and collegiate racing, and the Minnetonka Yacht Club and the Upper Minnetonka Yacht Club, clubs he said create a great rivalry on the lake.
"We work to be better than each other. And that helps everybody to grow and make better programs," he said.
