About
Clontarf Marina at a glance
Full-service marina at Sandy Bay, Clontarf, on the ocean side of the Spit Bridge: 64 floating berths, 18 swing moorings, 22 t EPA-compliant slipway, 7-day tender service and 24/7 gated access.
Service area: Middle Harbour
- Marina type
- full-service marina
- Operator
- Clontarf Marina Pty Ltd
- Region
- Middle Harbour
- Water body
- Middle Harbour (Sandy Bay)
- Wet berths
- 64
- Berth types
- permanent berthing, casual berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- fuel
- slipway
- pump-out
- repairs & maintenance
- power & water
- showers & laundry
- ice
- boat sales
- EPA-compliant slipway waste-water treatment
- 7-day tender service
- 24/7 gated access
- free parking
- shallow-draft berths
About Clontarf Marina
Clontarf Marina has a locational advantage that no amount of money can replicate: it sits in the northeast corner of Sandy Bay at Clontarf, on the ocean side of the Spit Bridge, making it the closest full-service marina to Sydney Heads. For a masted vessel that means no waiting for bridge openings on the way to sea, a freedom that the marinas further up Middle Harbour cannot offer, and the operator makes much of the point that all masted vessels here have direct ocean access at any time. The bay itself is unusually well protected; tucked into the northeast corner, the marina is sheltered from all weather directions despite being barely ten minutes' steaming from the Heads. Ownership and management have been in the same hands for more than 60 years, an almost unheard-of tenure in the Sydney marina trade, and that continuity shows in the operating style: one experienced team manages storage and every marine service under the one company, and the client base is built on long-standing repeat customers from across the Sydney region. The scale is modest by harbour standards, 64 floating berths and 18 swing moorings, and demand comfortably outstrips supply; cruisers report that berths rarely come up while moorings are available at short notice, at around $500 a month for a 42-foot yacht, reckoned among the best prices in the northern part of the harbour. The crowd is a mixture of local Middle Harbour sailors, powerboat owners who value the quick run to the ocean, and yard customers hauling for antifoul or repairs. Clontarf's foreshore setting, with its beach, reserve and Spit Bridge views, and the free parking extended even to Northern Beaches Council residents, gives the place a community feel that the glossier Mosman marinas across the bay do not match.
Marina facilities
The marina's 64 modern floating berths carry shore power and water, with 24/7 owner access through two security gates; a note for deeper-keeled yachts is that some berths are shallow-draft and better suited to powerboats and shoal-draft craft, while the 18 protected swing moorings take larger sailing boats and are backed by a seven-day tender service. The haul-out facility is a full EPA-compliant slipway rated to 22 tonnes, complete with a slipway waste-water treatment system, so antifouling and washdown runoff is captured rather than discharged into Sandy Bay, a genuine point of difference in an environmentally sensitive part of the harbour. Repairs and maintenance are handled in-house across all marine trades under the one company rather than by outside tenants: mechanical, shipwright, electrical, painting and general refit work are quoted and managed by the marina's own team, and boat sales are also conducted from the site. Fuel is sold at the marina for boats up to a certain size, making it the only fuel point on the ocean side of the Spit Bridge in this part of Middle Harbour, and ice is available. Amenities are straightforward: toilets and showers, ample on-site car parking that is free to all Northern Beaches Council residents as well as customers, and a small office that answers on 02 9949 5399. Operating hours are 8am to 4pm weekdays and 8am to 5pm weekends, extending to 6pm during daylight saving, closing only on Christmas and New Year's Day; VHF contact and email addresses for the managers are published. Cruising guides consistently rate the pricing here the sharpest on the northern harbour for moorings and fuel, though some note yard services sit at the expensive end, so it pays to quote first. There is no restaurant or chandlery on site; the value proposition is the slipway, the fuel, the location and one-account simplicity.
Local sailing knowledge
Approaching Clontarf Marina is as easy as Middle Harbour gets. From Sydney Heads the run up the main channel past Middle Head and into Middle Harbour is deep and well marked, and Sandy Bay opens to port just before the Spit Bridge; the marina lies in the bay's northeast corner, clear of the moorings that crowd the southern shore. Because you never pass the Spit Bridge, there is no tide-or-timetable constraint, which is precisely why race crews and offshore-bound boats like it. The one caution on a busy weekend is traffic: the reach between the Spit and Clontarf is a playground for kayaks, paddleboarders and hire craft, and the mooring fields of Pearl Bay and the Spit are dense. Once in, Sandy Bay is a fine anchorage in its own right, and the neighbouring bays, Pearl Bay, Quakers Hat Bay and Chinamans Beach, offer classic Middle Harbour overnight stops, with Balmoral Beach and its baths a short dinghy ride around the point. Ashore, Clontarf Reserve and its sandy beach adjoin the marina, the Spit-to-Manly walking track passes nearby, and dining options around the Spit include the hatted Ormeggio at The Spit across the water; supplies and cafes are at Seaforth village up the hill or Mosman Junction by bus. Public transport is a plus: buses run along Sandy Bay Road to the city, unusual convenience for a harbour boatyard. The marina's position also makes it a favourite staging point for events: Sydney Hobart race preparations, Middle Harbour Yacht Club regattas and summer twilight racing all pass within sight of the berths. For visiting cruisers, the practical loop is to moor here cheaply, explore the harbour, then use the slipway for antifoul before heading back to sea, all without ever queuing for a bridge lift.