Ok, maybe I was a bit harsh on New England, but my wife went to Brown in Rhode Island and she says the weather in april was not generally that bad...about on par with what we have in Seattle in april. The funny thing was that Friday and Saturday, when the winds were about 10 knots and the sun was shining, we didn't see ANY non-comercial boats on the water (except I think one small powerboat). I can understand the charter and rental companies not wanting to open up for business and pay employees till may, but I would have expected to see a few sailboats out on such nice days. On the plus side, that community boating thing is really cool. They were established years ago to help kids learn to sail (they charged $1 for membership back then and charge $1 now for under 18 y.o.). They have a ton of mecury 15s and several Rhodes 19s. We actually stopped by there Saturday and found out we could have joined for a temporary 2 day membership (was told differently on the phone) but it was too late in the day and we were headed back to Seattle the next day.