About
Castlecrag Marine at a glance
Small boatyard and mooring operation at the head of Sailors Bay specialising in restoration of older craft, with a 35 t (50 ft) slipway.
Service area: Middle Harbour
- Marina type
- boatyard with moorings
- Operator
- Castlecrag Marine
- Region
- Middle Harbour
- Water body
- Middle Harbour (Sailors Bay)
- Berth types
- swing moorings
Facilities and services
- slipway
- repairs & maintenance
- floating berths with power & water
- hull surveys (pre-purchase/insurance)
- painting & varnishing
- DIY slipway bookings
- dinghy storage
- courtesy berth
About Castlecrag Marine
Castlecrag Marine occupies a slender strip of foreshore at the head of Sailors Bay, on the Middle Harbour side of the Castlecrag peninsula, and it trades on more than a century of continuous boating use. The yard's own lineage is usually dated to 1910, and local history records show R.W. 'Bob' Carr leasing a boatshed off Sailors Bay Park by 1914, running hire boats and picnic outings for families long before the suburb around it filled in. The Castlecrag boatshed became a well-known meeting place for boating families, and the 1st Sailors Bay Sea Scouts still keep their clubhouse next door at Mowbray Point, so the place retains the feel of a working neighbourhood boatyard rather than a polished marina precinct. Reaching it is part of the character: a steep single-lane sealed track drops from the end of Rockley Street through bushland reserve to the water, and there is no passing traffic because there is nowhere else to go. The operation today is deliberately small scale, a mix of swing moorings, modern floating berths, work pontoons and twin slipways, with a harbourside car park at the water's edge. What sets it apart from the bigger Middle Harbour yards is its declared specialisation in the restoration of classic timber cruisers and yachts. Shipwrights here are as comfortable replacing a deck or re-fastening a carvel hull as they are touching up fine paintwork, and that timber-boat pedigree draws owners of older craft from across Sydney. The clientele is a blend of local mooring holders, restoration projects that may sit in the shed for seasons, and owners who simply want their boat worked on by people who own and mess about in boats themselves.
Marina facilities
The yard runs two slipways rated to 35 tonnes, taking hulls to 50 feet with a draught of up to 2.4 metres, and the cradles can handle swing keels thanks to a removable centre section. Slipping is available for DIY bookings by arrangement, a genuinely rare offer on Sydney Harbour, and owners can park right alongside their boat while they work. For jobs done afloat, the work pontoons accommodate vessels to 75 feet, so there is no need to haul for smaller repairs. Qualified shipwrights cover the full structural range, from localised repairs through to deck replacement and full restoration of timber yachts and cruisers, and the paint shed handles both conventional and two-pack polyurethane systems along with high-grade varnish work. Hull surveys are a distinct service line: staff will inspect a vessel on the yard's own slipways or travel to another location, producing written reports for pre-purchase, insurance or other purposes. Alongside the yard sits a boutique marina of modern floating berths with power and water, suitable for boats to 60 feet, and a courtesy berth is normally kept free for loading and unloading. The swing moorings in Sailors Bay are offered for short or long-term hire and include storage of a fibreglass dinghy up to 2.4 metres with direct water access; inflatables are not accepted, but courtesy dinghies are provided for the run out to the mooring. Practical details are well thought through: parking at the water's edge, a phone line answered by tradespeople rather than a call centre, and an email contact for quotes. What you will not find is a fuel wharf or chandlery; this is unapologetically a repair and mooring operation, and the pricing and culture reflect that focus on skilled hands rather than retail services.
Local sailing knowledge
Sailors Bay sits on the western, inner side of Middle Harbour, well up the harbour system, which shapes everything about using Castlecrag Marine. Masted vessels must pass the Spit Bridge, a bascule bridge that opens on a fixed published schedule, so a slip booking for a yacht is usually timed around a bridge lift; powerboats and trailer craft are unaffected. Once through, the run up Middle Harbour past Seaforth and under the Roseville Bridge is sheltered in nearly all conditions, and Sailors Bay itself is a calm, tree-lined anchorage with good holding. The bay's edges are rimmed by bushland, including Sailors Bay Park, a 2.1-hectare reserve dedicated in 1896, with Mowbray Point at its tip set aside for wharfage and recreation back in the 1880s; middens recorded nearby recall the Cammeraygal people who occupied these shores. Castlecrag itself is the Walter Burley Griffin-planned garden suburb, and the Griffin streetscape above the bay is heritage-listed, which partly explains why the foreshore has stayed so quiet. For provisioning and fuel, boats head back toward the Spit: fuel and pump-out are available at Roseville Marina and d'Albora Marinas The Spit, and there is also fuel at Clontarf Marina for suitable vessels. Anchorages worth knowing nearby include Sugarloaf Bay around the point, Quakers Hat Bay and Pearl Bay further downstream, all popular weekend stops with tender services run by their operators. The yard suits owners who keep their boat on a mooring and slip once or twice a year for antifoul and varnish, plus the restoration fraternity for whom Middle Harbour has long been a centre; several notable classic yacht rebuilds have come out of this end of the harbour. Access by road is via Rockley Street off Edinburgh Road, and the final descent is tight for trailers, so big rigs should scout it first.