About
Carnarvon Yacht Club at a glance
Friendly club at 2 West Street, Carnarvon, on the Fascine channel with a 34-pen marina in a palm-tree-lined basin designed to withstand cyclones, built largely by volunteers in two stages (22 pens around 2003 and 12 more by 2006). Amenities include water, power, showers, laundry and a clubhouse.
Service area: Gascoyne
- Club type
- Yacht Club (mixed)
- Australian Sailing
- Affiliated · 2025-26
- Primary classes
- Yacht Club (mixed)
- Kids learn to sail
- Available
About Carnarvon Yacht Club
Carnarvon Yacht Club sits on Babbage Island, at the mouth of the Gascoyne River, beside one of Western Australia's most photographed structures — the historic One Mile Jetty reaching out into the bay. The town behind it lies roughly nine hundred kilometres north of Perth and serves as the gateway to Shark Bay, which makes the club a natural landfall for anyone cruising the state's coral coast. It is a small but formally recognised operation: affiliated with Australian Sailing in category 17, based at 2 West Street, South Carnarvon, reachable through its secretary by email or on 0439 196 534, and running its memberships and events through the revolutioniseSPORT platform like a thoroughly modern regional club. The club promotes itself as passionate about sailing and about making the most of what it calls its perfect climate — and as general context, the Gascoyne's warm, dry weather and reliable sea breezes do give local sailors a long, forgiving season. The club's week tends to revolve around its Friday-evening opening, when the kitchen and bar fire up from 5.30pm. But Carnarvon's claim on the national sailing imagination runs bigger than its size: this is the traditional host of the Fremantle to Carnarvon Yacht Race and Rally, an event due to return to the calendar in May 2027, and it is the club that farewelled solo circumnavigator Jon Sanders on his record tenth lap of the globe. Under Commodore Chris Hutchinson, listed for 2026, the club continues to hold a place in the sport well beyond what its member numbers would suggest.
Training and sailing programs
On formal training, the record is silent: no Discover Sailing Centre accreditation, no Tackers program, no raced-class list and no junior pathway appear on the club's website or in Australian Sailing's course finder at research time, so this section will not pretend otherwise. What the club demonstrably runs is its own social sailing rhythm — "Friday night at the yacht club", as it bills the fixture, with the kitchen and bar open from 5.30pm — the kind of weekly anchor around which regional sailing communities organise themselves. The club's larger contribution to the sport is as an event host and a coastal waypoint. It is the traditional host of the Fremantle to Carnarvon Yacht Race and Rally, returning to the yachting calendar for 7–12 May 2027 — an event that turns the clubhouse into the finish-line welcome for a fleet that has raced some nine hundred kilometres up the coast. And in May 2025, Australian Sailing's WA Club Support Officer visited Carnarvon to work directly with the club, alongside Exmouth Yacht Club and the local department office, as part of a Gascoyne development swing — evidence that the state body sees an active club worth investing in. As general context, regional clubs of this scale typically build skills informally: new sailors crewing on members' boats, juniors learning in whatever club dinghies exist, and accredited instruction brought in from larger centres when numbers justify it. Whether Carnarvon follows that pattern is a question for the club itself, and the secretary's inbox is the honest place to ask it.
Sailing waters
The geography here is the story. Carnarvon stands at the mouth of the Gascoyne River, roughly nine hundred kilometres north of Perth, and the yacht club occupies Babbage Island — the same island that carries the historic One Mile Jetty, a remnant of the town's port days. The sailing waters are the river mouth, the sheltered reaches behind the island and the open bay beyond; as general context, this coastline sits at the southern edge of the tropics, where the weather is warm and dry for much of the year and afternoon sea breezes are a dependable feature — the kind of conditions that let a small club plan a season with confidence. The club itself leans into this advantage, promoting its passion for sailing and for what it calls the local perfect climate. The wider region adds real depth for visiting sailors: Carnarvon is the recognised gateway to Shark Bay with its sheltered gulfs, and the coral coast running north toward Exmouth and Ningaloo — all regional context rather than club program, but exactly the waters that make a Fremantle-to-Carnarvon race finish feel like an arrival worth celebrating. On land, the club's documented footprint is modest — the record confirms the address at 2 West Street, South Carnarvon, and the Friday-evening kitchen and bar, but says little about pens, moorings or hardstand, so visitors should ask ahead. What is certain is the setting: a club on an island, beside a jetty a mile long, at the mouth of the river that gives the whole region its name.
Club history
No founding year is documented for Carnarvon Yacht Club — the club's website carries no historical material, and newspaper archives proved inaccessible during research — so this account is built from the events that are on the record, plus honest general context. The most stirring documented moment belongs to Jon Sanders. In December 2016 the veteran solo sailor departed Carnarvon on what became his record tenth circumnavigation, later writing that the Carnarvon Yacht Club was the outfit that, in his words, sent him off solo. He arrived back at Carnarvon aboard his S&S 39, Perie Banou II, on 20 December 2017 — fourteen months after departing Fremantle — closing the loop where the club had waved him out. Few clubs anywhere can claim a send-off and homecoming like that. The club's other signature role is as traditional host of the Fremantle to Carnarvon Yacht Race and Rally, announced as returning to the calendar for 7–12 May 2027 — a revival that restores one of the coast's classic ocean passages to the town it honours. More recent history is administrative but telling: in May 2025, Australian Sailing's WA Club Support Officer worked with the club during a Gascoyne region visit, and the committee list for 2026 names Chris Hutchinson as Commodore. As general context, Gascoyne port towns grew sailing clubs out of their maritime trades through the twentieth century — but Carnarvon's own founding chapter awaits someone with access to the club's minute books. The race's return is presented by the club as a homecoming for an event with deep roots in the town, and the May 2027 dates are already published on its events page for crews planning the long passage north.