The Best of Two Worlds
Boating and wine tasting in Canada’s Okanagan Basin
By | Mathew Channer
Interior British Columbia might not be as famous for recreational boating as Canada’s Great Lakes, yet it is no less a world-class boating destination. The mountains offer their own flavour of marine adventure with their series of long, deep ribbon lakes, and there is perhaps no area that embodies this more uniquely than the iconic Okanagan basin in southern B.C. One could be forgiven for assuming this valley was purpose-built for nautical fun, with a few delightful perks thrown in to make the area entirely irresistible (wine-tasting, anyone?).
The Okanagan is a 200km long valley stretching north from the Canada-U.S. border, thought to be carved out by glacial activity between 9,000 and 11,000 years ago. Now, the basin of the Okanagan holds a series of lakes, the largest of which, Okanagan Lake, covers 145km from Penticton in the south to beyond Vernon in the north. The lake snakes between closely situated mountains, ridges, and gulleys, offering myriad protected anchorages and natural attractions, literally perfect for every kind of recreational boating, as I was about to discover.
We cruised out from Kelowna in ultimate Okanagan style in a 2025 Chaparral 26 Surf. You’ll find every kind of boat carving these waters, but tow sports are particularly popular here thanks to the ample protected water and multiple beaches ideal for setting up for a big day of towing and spectating. Summer long weekends almost become impromptu festivals, with so many people out on the water and enough room for them all. Early spring mornings are quiet, however, and we cruised south in solitude along the lake’s western shore, passing little clusters of homes tucked along the waterline, the green swaths of vineyards checkering the hills behind them. We shot across a patch of water known locally as ‘The Washing Machine’—gentle today—to the eastern side.
