Marine services in Forster

Sailing club

"This is what good life looks like!" declares the club motto, and at Great Lakes Sailing Club on the shore of Wallis Lake near Forster, it's easy to see the thinking. This is a relaxed, family-oriented off-the-beach catamaran club on the NSW Mid North Coast, the sort of place where the sailing season from September to March is anchored by Sunday social family sailing and where the biggest weekend of the year combines championship-standard racing with camping on the lake shore. Catamarans are the heart of the operation. The club's signature event, the WildCat Regatta, welcomes every class of off-the-beach cat and in 2026 reached its 53rd running over the October long weekend — a lineage stretching back to the early 1970s that makes it one of the longer-lived fixtures on the regional regatta calendar. Sailors tow their boats up the Pacific Highway, pitch tents beside the rigging lawns and spend three days racing on a lake the club describes as one of Australia's most picturesque waterways. The appeal cuts both ways. Competitive sailors train year-round here even outside the official season, drawn by open water and reliable room to stretch a catamaran's legs, while families treat th