Marine services in Grafton

Sailing club

Grafton has two sailing organisations, and Clarence River Sailing Club is the one that launches dinghies and catamarans from beside the Grafton Bridge. By the club's own account it was the first sailing club on the Clarence River, and it has raced on that broad Northern Rivers waterway continuously since 1944 — a remarkable run for a volunteer outfit that has had to rebuild its clubhouse twice, once after a flood literally washed its first shed away and again after the March 2000 flood collapsed the roof of its successor under accumulated silt. The sailing is unapologetically grass-roots. Saturday afternoons from September through April, with racing from 1.00pm, the fleet spreads across the river: Hobie 18s, Arrows, Cadets and Mosquitos on the catamaran side, Lasers filling out the monohull ranks, and Open Bics carrying the juniors. The mix reflects a club that has always followed the classes its members actually want to sail rather than chasing trends — cats were admitted on trial back in 1964 and have ebbed and flowed ever since, picking up again from 2012. This is a town club in the best sense. Local businesses donated to the 1947 shed build, members supplied the labour, and t

Sailing club

Where Grafton's other sailing club launches dinghies off the beach, Clarence River Yacht Club is the town's keelboat and trailer-sailer home — the organisation for people who want to race a yacht on a big river and then point the bow downstream for a hundred kilometres of cruising water. The two clubs are complementary rather than rival: the council's own open-space planning treats them as distinct tenants of the Grafton foreshore, with Big River Sailing Club at Harwood Island completing the picture further downstream. The rhythm of the sailing week was recounted on the Ocean Sailing Podcast in 2016 by visitor Andrew Randell: twilight racing weekly, competitive racing roughly every second Sunday, and a very big regatta every Easter. Around a dozen yachts turned out on a typical race day at that time, drawn from a pool of 25 to 30 boats — a healthy strike rate for a regional club. The Easter regatta has become entwined with Grafton's Highland Festival period, and recent council sports committee minutes record it as a success. Cruising is as much the point as racing. Club boats have sailed down to Yamba for Australia Day, and the club leans into the camaraderie side of the sport —