About
Augusta Yacht Club at a glance
Western Australia's far south-west corner is where two oceans meet — the Southern and the Indian — off Cape Leeuwin, and the nearest town to that meeting point is Augusta. It is an unlikely spot for anything half-hearted, and Augusta Yacht Club fits the setting: a small, self-reliant club founded in 1994 that has grown past fifty members and built its life on the calmer water behind the cape, along the Blackwood River and the broad estuary known as Hardy Inlet. The club is affiliated with Australian Sailing in category 21, the smallest-club band, and can be reached through its secretary at secretary@augustayachtclub.com.au or on 0419 953 369. Its clubhouse, opened in 2000, stands on the banks of the Blackwood, and in 2020 members renovated it themselves — recladding the exterior and reconfiguring the interior so it could house a fleet of St Ayles rowing skiffs alongside a clubroom for about fifty people. That skiff program, rowing from the yacht club three mornings a week, brought in roughly twenty-five new members in a single year and pushed membership close to seventy — a striking reinvention for a sailing club nearing its third decade. Add a Sunday racing rhythm that the local P
Service area: Augusta, WA
- Club type
- Yacht Club (mixed)
- Australian Sailing
- Affiliated · 2025-26
- Primary classes
- Yacht Club (mixed)
- Kids learn to sail
- Available
About Augusta Yacht Club
Western Australia's far south-west corner is where two oceans meet — the Southern and the Indian — off Cape Leeuwin, and the nearest town to that meeting point is Augusta. It is an unlikely spot for anything half-hearted, and Augusta Yacht Club fits the setting: a small, self-reliant club founded in 1994 that has grown past fifty members and built its life on the calmer water behind the cape, along the Blackwood River and the broad estuary known as Hardy Inlet. The club is affiliated with Australian Sailing in category 21, the smallest-club band, and can be reached through its secretary at secretary@augustayachtclub.com.au or on 0419 953 369. Its clubhouse, opened in 2000, stands on the banks of the Blackwood, and in 2020 members renovated it themselves — recladding the exterior and reconfiguring the interior so it could house a fleet of St Ayles rowing skiffs alongside a clubroom for about fifty people. That skiff program, rowing from the yacht club three mornings a week, brought in roughly twenty-five new members in a single year and pushed membership close to seventy — a striking reinvention for a sailing club nearing its third decade. Add a Sunday racing rhythm that the local Pelican Post newsletter documents with obvious affection, a strong catamaran fleet, and a town that stages its own skiff regatta, and Augusta emerges as one of those rare small clubs where the sailing, the rowing and the community all pull on the same oar. An older directory listing even preserves the club's former landline, (08) 9758 0502 — a small detail hinting at how long the club has been answering the phone in this remote corner of the state.
Training and sailing programs
Ask what makes Augusta Yacht Club different and the honest answer is: the rowing. In 2020 the club introduced St Ayles skiff rowing from its premises, with crews heading out three mornings a week in most weather conditions. The effect on membership was immediate — around twenty-five people joined in that year alone, taking the roll close to seventy — and the clubhouse was rebuilt internally by members to give the skiffs a home. It is an unusual second paddle for a yacht club, and it has made the place a genuine dual-craft operation. The sailing side runs on a relaxed but organised weekly rhythm. Racing is held on Sundays: sailors gather from about twelve noon for a 1.30pm start, two races are usually sailed, and the afternoon finishes with a social wind-up at the clubhouse. Catamarans and monohulls race their own courses from separate starts, reflecting a strong cat fleet alongside the keelboats, and RL24 trailable yachts have been a fixture of the racing since at least the mid-2000s. The season follows the southern summer — the 2020/21 season began with informal shake-down sails from 1 November and an Opening Day on 6 December, while an earlier season on record opened on 28 October 2007. On formal instruction, honesty applies: no Discover Sailing Centre accreditation, Tackers program or structured junior training could be found in the sources, so newcomers most likely learn the way small-club sailors generally do — by crewing with experienced members on a Sunday afternoon. Giving the cats and the monohulls their own starts keeps the racing fair across a fleet with very different speeds, and it lets each group sail courses that suit its boats.
Sailing waters
The clubhouse looks out over the Blackwood River, and the racing happens on Hardy Inlet, the river's broad estuary. Courses are set according to wind and tide, running over the estuary's broad upper reach and down toward the town jetty — a flexible playground of sheltered water that suits the club's mixed fleet of catamarans, monohulls and trailable yachts. The rowing skiffs use the same water, heading out in most conditions three mornings a week. The wider setting deserves explanation as general context: Augusta sits where the Blackwood reaches the sea, a few kilometres from Cape Leeuwin, the headland where the Southern and Indian Oceans are regarded as meeting. That gives the town a maritime character out of proportion to its size — the estuary offers protected small-boat sailing, while the ocean beyond is among the most exposed coasts in the country, a contrast sailors here live with daily. The town's boating culture extends beyond the yacht club's gates: the Augusta Rowers stage their annual Picnic Regatta, a St Ayles skiff gathering held on the Blackwood that draws crews to the town, and the yacht club's own skiff fleet feeds into that scene. For visitors, the practical details are simple. The club is reachable through its secretary by email or phone; the racing is on Sundays through the warmer months; and the clubhouse on the riverbank — renovated by members in 2020 with external cladding and a clubroom for about fifty — is where everyone ends up afterwards for the social wind-up.
Club history
Augusta Yacht Club is a young club by Australian standards, and its outline is refreshingly well documented. It was founded in 1994, and before the present clubhouse existed, members launched from a spot slightly north of where the club stands today. In 2000 the club opened its permanent riverside clubhouse, giving the growing membership — by then past fifty — a permanent base. The founders' names are not recorded in the available sources, but the pattern is the familiar one of regional Western Australia: local boat owners pooling effort until a club takes shape. The modern chapter is the most interesting. In 2020, under Commodore Peter Wallace, the membership renovated the clubhouse with their own hands — cladding the exterior, reworking the interior to house St Ayles rowing skiffs, and creating a clubroom for about fifty people. That same year the club introduced skiff rowing three mornings a week, drawing roughly twenty-five new members and lifting the roll toward seventy. Even the fundraising has a regional flavour: in 2020 the club signed up to receive benefits from the Lions recycling centre. The sailing heritage runs through the RL24 class — trailable yachts have raced at Augusta since at least the 2004–05 season, and by 2007–08 a fleet of four or more RL24s plus a mixed fleet was competing on Hardy Inlet, with that season opening on 28 October 2007. Three decades on from its founding, the club's documented trajectory is one of steady, member-built growth — and, lately, a second life as a rowing hub.