Marine services in Gladesville

Sailing club

From the tip of Looking Glass Point at Gladesville, Parramatta River Sailing Club runs keelboat racing on the main tributary of Sydney Harbour — a stretch of water where tides, sandbanks and tight river bends matter as much as boatspeed. It is a small, self-described friendly and unpretentious club, and Afloat Magazine went further, dubbing it "A Jewel on the Parramatta River". Racing runs in two handicap divisions, one for smaller yachts and one for larger, with spinnaker racing each Saturday through spring, summer and autumn, alternate Saturdays in winter, plus Wednesday-evening twilight racing without spinnakers while daylight saving runs. Saturday starts go off after half past one, when, as the club cheerfully admits, it is hoped a good wind will pipe in. The ethos is stated plainly: competitive without being untrustworthy, celebrating good skippering, wilyness, skill and strategy. After racing, members gather in the clubhouse for a beer, the results, a debrief and — the club insists, most importantly — a ribbing and roasting of rival yachts, skippers and crew. The trophy shelf reflects that humour: alongside some genuinely old silverware sits the Flotsam and Jetsam Award, awar