About
Navy Sailing at a glance
Navy Sailing is the friendly, public-facing name under which the Royal Australian Naval Sailing Association invites ordinary Sydneysiders to learn the ropes at Rushcutters Bay. Behind the brand sits one of the harbour's more unusual clubs: a volunteer-run organisation operating from what it cheerfully describes as a heritage tin shed sitting on the water at Sir David Martin Reserve, with a mission it states plainly — to encourage sailing within the Navy, while warmly welcoming local non-service sailors as members. That dual character runs through everything. Membership categories span Naval Members from past and present service, through Service Members from the wider defence forces, to Sailing Members drawn from civilian life, plus Associate and Country categories and a free event-day SailPass that lets a curious newcomer crew a race before deciding anything. The atmosphere the club sells is casual and sociable rather than blazer-and-brass. Members gather at The Whaler Bar, grab a coffee at the Navy Bear Cafe on the harbour, and fill a calendar that mixes Friday twilight racing with trivia nights, comedy evenings and guest speakers. There is even a radio-controlled yacht group rac
Service area: Rushcutters Bay, NSW
- Club type
- Other (defence sailing association)
- Australian Sailing
- Affiliated · 2025-26
- Primary classes
- Other (defence sailing association)
- Kids learn to sail
- Available
About Navy Sailing
Navy Sailing is the friendly, public-facing name under which the Royal Australian Naval Sailing Association invites ordinary Sydneysiders to learn the ropes at Rushcutters Bay. Behind the brand sits one of the harbour's more unusual clubs: a volunteer-run organisation operating from what it cheerfully describes as a heritage tin shed sitting on the water at Sir David Martin Reserve, with a mission it states plainly — to encourage sailing within the Navy, while warmly welcoming local non-service sailors as members. That dual character runs through everything. Membership categories span Naval Members from past and present service, through Service Members from the wider defence forces, to Sailing Members drawn from civilian life, plus Associate and Country categories and a free event-day SailPass that lets a curious newcomer crew a race before deciding anything. The atmosphere the club sells is casual and sociable rather than blazer-and-brass. Members gather at The Whaler Bar, grab a coffee at the Navy Bear Cafe on the harbour, and fill a calendar that mixes Friday twilight racing with trivia nights, comedy evenings and guest speakers. There is even a radio-controlled yacht group racing in "the pond" on Wednesdays, and a cruising division that heads for Pittwater and marks an annual Pirate's Day. The club backs the Sir David Martin Foundation as its official charity, a fitting link given the reserve carries the former governor and rear admiral's name. It also pitches itself, with some justification given the location, as outstanding value for a yacht club berth on Sydney Harbour.
Training and sailing programs
Women's sailing is where Navy Sailing's development effort really stands apart. RANSA has thrown its weight behind the female side of the sport with a structured pathway: boats competing in the Sydney Harbour Women's Keelboat Series — the club hosts one of the series' seven races each season, with female helm and all-female crew divisions in both spinnaker and non-spinnaker formats — Tuesday twilight racing at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron with RANSA entries under female helm and all-female crew, and the Ladies of the Sea coaching regatta held over the October long weekend. A dedicated contact through the club's Rear Commodore steers interested sailors into the program. Beyond that signature stream, the learn-to-sail offering at Rushcutters Bay caters for sailors of all levels, and membership carries full Australian Sailing affiliation and membership. Race development for members happens across a full calendar: the Friday Summer Twilight series from October to March, a Winter Wednesday afternoon series from May to September, the Combined Clubs Winter Point Score on Saturdays shared with the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, plus the annual RANSA Regatta, the Sprint Series and the Australian Defence Force Sailing Regatta. Cruising members are not forgotten either, with gatherings on Sydney Harbour and Pittwater giving newer sailors miles and mentorship in company. A Crew membership category, required once a guest has sailed more than three events in a year, gently converts regulars into committed members. It is a broad ladder, and anyone can step onto it without a boat of their own.
Sailing waters
Few Sydney clubs can claim an address like this one. The club occupies the former naval boatshed at Sir David Martin Reserve on New Beach Road, Rushcutters Bay, in the Woollahra municipality — one of four historic depot buildings surviving on the site, alongside the Drill Hall, the Cottage and the Sail Loft — every one of them National Trust classified. The heritage Sayonara Slipway survives too, and members still use it as a DIY slipway for small yachts. The reserve itself forms part of a precinct listed on the NSW State Heritage Register, and it hosted sailing events for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, when a grandstand was built reaching out into the bay. On the water, the club's world is Rushcutters Bay and the wider harbour. Racing takes in harbour passage courses, and the protected eastern corner of the bay makes a natural classroom for learn-to-sail sessions away from the main ferry lanes. Summer's north-easterly sea breezes funnel through the harbour in the afternoon, giving the twilight series its familiar rhythm, while winter racing tends to run on softer westerlies. Practical facilities support an active boating membership: swing moorings, hard stand and marina berths are offered to members at what the club describes as very affordable rates, subject to availability. A members' key gives after-hours access to the clubhouse and barbecues, and the venue — boatshed, bar and harbour outlook included — is available for hire for functions and weddings. It is a working corner of maritime history that happens to run a sailing program.
Club history
The association's roots lie in the Sydney Naval Depot at HMAS Rushcutter, the Rushcutters Bay establishment that had trained naval forces since 1901. The depot itself had been Sydney's naval home since 1901, when the drill hall was shifted across from Fort Macquarie and a boatshed and cottage were built fresh on the Rushcutters Bay foreshore. Generations of sailors passed through it, from the NSW Naval Brigade era right through both World Wars. In 1947 the Australian Naval Sailing Association — the body that would become RANSA — was founded in the depot's boat shed, a beginning recorded both in the site's heritage listing and on a plaque of the Rushcutter Naval Memorial on the reserve. A 1966 date also circulates in some directory and heritage references, describing the formation of a navy sailing association to promote the sport in the Royal Australian Navy; the 1947 foundation remains the documented origin of the association itself. The site's naval story wound down around the club rather than ending it. HMAS Rushcutter paid off in July 1968, and when the RAN Research Laboratory departed in 1984, RANSA was left effectively as the last naval occupant. The Commonwealth had transferred the land to NSW in 1979–80; it was named Sir David Martin Reserve in 1991 after the former NSW governor and rear admiral, and Woollahra Municipal Council has managed it since 2001. Through those changes the club kept sailing from its tin shed, and the Navy Sailing brand has now opened that remarkable corner of harbour history to anyone who wants to learn.