Marine services in Tanilba Bay

Sailing club

Catamarans rule at Tanilba Bay. On the southern shore of Port Stephens, at the tip of the Tilligerry Peninsula, this small family club has built its identity around two hulls: A Class cats, Vipers, Taipans, Maricats, Nacras, Hobies, F16s and F18s fill the boat park on a Sunday, and the club sits on the boards of both the Australian Maricat Association and the Taipan Association of Australia. Founded in 1978 and based at its present waterfront site since 1982, it describes itself as a family-based sailing club on the shores of Port Stephens — and the camping in the tree-lined rigging area shows the description is meant literally. For a club of modest size, Tanilba Bay casts a long competitive shadow. Its February Big Boat Regatta draws multihull crews from Canberra, Sydney Harbour, Palm Beach, Kurnell and beyond for two days of racing on Port Stephens, and its sailors have made national news: club members Daniel and Nathan Van Kerckhof took out SailFest Newcastle's "Cock of the Harbour" in 2021 — a trophy counted among the oldest in Australian sailing — sailing a new Goodall Akurra F18, at that time one of just two anywhere in the world. That campaign, run under the brothers' "Send