The rental dock on a bright morning, sailboats and paddle craft tied off and ready

Sand Lake Rec

The lake is the point.

Sailboats, canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, and bikes on Sand Lake, by the hour or by the season. Family-run in Britt, Minnesota, since 1987.

Reserve a boat Learn to sail

Sand Lake Recreation is a small waterfront outfit on a granite point in St. Louis County: two docks, a rack of boats, a rental office with a woodstove, and people learning to love the water here since 1987. We teach sailing from age eight up, rent everything that floats (and some things that roll), run trips from moonlight paddles to Boundary Waters days, and give members free use of the dinghy and paddle fleet, with low maintenance rates on keelboats.

Four ways onto the water

Find your way in.

Rent

Sailboats, canoes, kayaks, SUPs, and cruiser bikes, by the hour or the day. Members float free.

Learn

Classes from first-timer to keelboat skipper, a youth camp kids beg to repeat, and free paddle clinics.

Go

Guided BWCA day trips, full-moon paddles, skippered sunset sails, and the fall colors circuit.

Belong

One membership, free dinghies and paddle craft all season, low keelboat rates — plus racing, work weekends, and a say in the next boat.

The Sand Lake rating ladder

Learn it once. Sail all season.

Skipper privileges here are earned, not just rented: every skipper has shown an instructor they can handle the boat and the weather. New to sailing? The two-course path takes four weekends. Already experienced? Most dinghy checkouts take under an hour; keelboat checkouts are more involved.

See how ratings work

A duck family paddling just off the beach in the evening quiet

A paddleboarder and a sailboat sharing the lake in warm evening light

A trip group working canoes through a boulder-strewn rapids together

Next on the calendar

Coming up.

Full calendar →

Classes

Learn to Sail IFour sessions per summer: early June, late June, mid-July, early August.
Learn to Sail IIThree sessions per summer: late June, mid-July, mid-August.
Keelboat I & IITwo sessions per summer: mid-June and late July.
Youth Sailing CampSix weekly sessions, mid-June through late August. These fill first — book in March.
Paddle SmartEvery other Tuesday evening, June through September.
Navigation & North Woods WeatherFebruary, annually. Registration opens January 2.

Guided trips

Boundary Waters Day TripJune – September, Saturdays
Boundary Waters Four-Day ExpeditionJune – September, one departure monthly
Full Moon PaddleEvery full moon, May – October
Skippered Sunset SailNightly by reservation, June – September
Fall Colors PaddleLast two weekends of September

Plans change with the wind. Call the office to confirm dates, openings, and weather calls before you drive out.

Call for the schedule

The office opens when the ice goes out and closes when it threatens to come back. In between, the flag on the point tells you the day's sailing conditions, the board by the door tells you what's rentable right now, and somebody — usually Dale — will tell you more than you asked about either.