Marine services in Wallagoot

Sailing club

On an estuarine lake ringed by national park bushland, midway between the towns of Merimbula and Tathra on the far south coast of NSW, Wallagoot Lake Boat Club runs one of the most welcoming mixed-fleet sailing scenes in the state's south. The membership card makes no distinction between monohull and multihull, first-timer and old hand — the club's own pitch is that all classes, learners and veterans are welcome, and the Saturday afternoon start line bears that out. A good day sees somewhere between eleven and seventeen boats on the water: Sabres, MG14s and Lasers mixing it with catamarans and trailer-sailors, all scored together on yardstick corrected time. The culture leans heavily on family. Father-and-son and father-and-daughter combinations are a fixture of the results sheets — the Dorroughs and the Hastings crews among them — and the club's race reporting dwells as much on the laughter and chat after the finish as on who won. It draws members from well beyond its postcode, with sailors travelling from Mallacoota across the Victorian border, the Bega Valley and further afield; some hold their membership largely so they can line up at the annual regatta. By its own account it