Marine services in Bayview

Sailing club

Few volunteer-run dinghy clubs anywhere in the country can point to a honour roll like the one at Bayview Yacht Racing Association. From its beachfront base on the southern shore of Pittwater, BYRA has produced Moth world champions Emmett Lazich, Mark Thorpe, Rob Brewer and brothers Steve and Stuart Shimeld, along with Laser great Brett Beyer — a striking return for a family club that rigs on grass and launches off soft sand. Yet the mood is deliberately unpretentious. BYRA describes its ambition as being the most fun, inclusive and dynamic club on Pittwater, and its own catchcry — that the club is about community as much as sport — is backed up by social, water sports and affiliate membership categories kept affordable through volunteer labour. It is a club where a world champion might be rigging beside a first-season junior, and both are equally at home. Racing is the club's backbone, as the name promises. Lasers, Spirals, Flying Elevens, Manly Juniors and Optimists have filled recent start lines, and Sunday afternoons bring Combined Fleet Racing alongside the other Pittwater clubs. The calendar revolves around two occasions with genuine personality. Each May the Peter Loft Mara