Every summer for well over a century, the Muskoka Lakes Association has thrown the party that officially marks the season on the lakes. The MLA Aquatic Regatta is the longest continuously run regatta in Canada, a tradition stretching back to the early days of the association, which was founded in 1894 and remains the country’s oldest cottage association. The very first regatta was held at the Windermere Hotel on Lake Rosseau and was declared the most successful regatta in Muskoka history; in 1920 the association’s members bought the property that became the Muskoka Lakes Golf & Country Club, which has been the regatta’s permanent home ever since.
The early regattas were wonderfully chaotic affairs with motorboat races, sailing races, swimming and paddling events all sharing the water. The motorboats eventually bowed out, and today the aquatic regatta is a celebration of human-powered sport: swimming races, canoe and kayak events, and paddling competitions that draw whole families of cottagers down to the waterfront. Sailors get their own day too, with a separate MLA Sailing Regatta held each August, where dozens of boats race across the lake in multiple classes.
What makes the regatta special is that it feels like Muskoka itself: generations of the same families competing, picnic blankets on the lawn, kids who learned to paddle here now racing their own children. It is equal parts serious sport and summer social occasion, and winning an MLA regatta trophy still carries real bragging rights around the lakes. For visitors, it is one of the best windows into cottage-country culture at its most joyful — competitive, communal and completely unbothered by the outside world.