Windsurfing near Belle Haven
- Collingwood (5 km)
- Washington Sailing Marina (7 km)
- Kims Beach (7 km)
- Marshall Hall (11 km)
- Mason Neck (20 km)
Belle Haven is used by a small crew of Potomac windsurfers who are willing to put up with its conditions for an afternoon of sailing close to home.
This launch is better in two ways than Washington Sailing Marina (WSM), which is nearby to the north. For one, it's free. In addition, the river is wider this far downstream and the boat traffic is more dispersed.
But it's worse than WSM in other ways. The launch at the end of Boat Launch Drive is rocky and often littered with trash. Plus the river is more polluted here because Belle Haven is downstream from the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant, which still occasionally discharges raw effluent. You probably don't want to go windsurfing this far south of DC after a heavy rainstorm.
Like WSM, Belle Haven really only works on a northerly or southerly. Any wind with west in it will not work at all. An easterly can be okay as the river's width allows some fetch from the Maryland shore, but reaching room is limited along the Virginia shoreline. Generally speaking, April thru October is the best Potomac sailing. The summer can be a drag.
Look out for weeds in the late summer and steer well clear of any bridge construction operations.