Marine services in Ballina

Sailing club

Ballina's club on the banks of the Richmond River wears two hats and wears them both well. The Richmond River Sailing & Rowing Club combines a busy sailing program — catamarans, trailer-sailers, fast twin-wire skiffs and dinghies — with a rowing section the club itself calls "a non-competitive, social bunch", on the water most mornings in everything from six-person sculls to single kayaks. Entirely volunteer-run, it calls itself "a very relaxed and friendly club" and means it: new members are invited to drop down any Sunday. The results, though, are anything but casual. The club took out NSW Small Club of the Year honours for 2023, and the same year it reached the finals of Australian Sailing's Club of the Year award in Category B — recognition earned after posting thirty-one per cent membership growth inside twelve months, despite COVID restrictions, the loss of foreign visa holders and the catastrophic 2022 flood that devastated Lismore upstream and sent water through parts of Ballina itself. The ranks hold current and former state and national champions across several classes, and a number of past and present members have raced in the Sydney to Hobart. The club matters to its t