Marina service
Tamar Yacht Club Beauty Point Marina
About
Tamar Yacht Club Beauty Point Marina at a glance
Modern 100-berth floating marina at Beauty Point on the Tamar estuary, 7 nautical miles from Low Head, operated by the Tamar Yacht Club for members, visitors and guests. Distillate fuel at a nearby fuel berth during business hours; public pontoon adjacent for late arrivals.
Service area: Tamar Valley
- Marina type
- yacht club marina
- Operator
- Tamar Yacht Club
- Region
- Tamar Valley
- Water body
- Tamar River estuary
- Wet berths
- 100
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- power & water
- public pontoon for late arrivals
- short-term berthing agreements
- nearby distillate fuel berth
- SB20 sports boat hire
- slipyard at Launceston base
- berth allocation by on-site caretakers
About Tamar Yacht Club Beauty Point Marina
The Tamar Yacht Club runs two distinct footprints on the river it is named after: a historic home base in Launceston with clubhouse, slipyard and moorings, and, forty kilometres downstream at Beauty Point, a modern 100-berth floating marina that does most of the club's heavy lifting for visiting boats. The club itself claims the mantle of the oldest yacht club in the southern hemisphere, and its silverware cabinet backs the lineage: it finished the first Melbourne to Launceston race back in 1907 and still co-hosts that category-two Bass Strait classic with the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria each summer, while the Launceston to Hobart race it runs with the Derwent Sailing Squadron starts off Beauty Point every 27 December. The marina is therefore something of a front door for interstate racing and cruising yachts alike, sitting seven nautical miles inside Low Head with deep water and an easy approach. Day to day it serves club members, permanent berth holders and a steady trickle of guests, administered from the Launceston office with caretakers on site who allocate berths by phone. The Beauty Point Waterfront Hotel next door covers meals and a cold drink, and the club's SB20 sports boats are available for member hire from the Beauty Point clubhouse, giving the place a livelier sailing scene than its quiet riverside setting might suggest. The split personality works well: Launceston handles the club's administration, learn-to-sail programs and river racing in the upper reaches, while Beauty Point provides the deep-water, all-tide berthing that the silted upper Tamar cannot, which is precisely why interstate yachts heading for the city so often pause here first.
Marina facilities
The marina comprises 100 floating berths for yachts and powerboats, offered on both permanent and temporary terms, with power and water laid on. Bookings are handled through the caretakers on 0418 321 339, and the system for late arrivals is well thought out: a public pontoon sits immediately adjacent to the marina where incoming boats can tie up overnight and collect a berth allocation in the morning. Visitors must complete the club's Short Term Berthing Agreement, which requires evidence of liability insurance, and there are practical rules that speak to hard-won experience: skippers supply their own mooring lines of a proper standard, two bow lines, two stern lines and two springs, with retired sailing rope specifically discouraged after breakages in bad weather, and shore-power leads must be tested and tagged to AS/NZS 3760. Visiting race fleets have been charged at the club-members' rate of $15 per day under reciprocal arrangements. Fuel is not sold on the pontoons; instead, distillate is available at the nearby fuel berth during business hours. The support network around the marina is mapped out on the club's own site: shipwright services close at hand, sailmakers in Launceston and Wynyard, mast and rigging work through Almasts in Launceston, electronics technicians covering both Launceston and Beauty Point, and chandlery supplies from Tamar Marine in Launceston and Gravelly Beach Marine further up the West Tamar. In Launceston the club also maintains its slipyard, available to visiting yachts needing a haul near the city. Visiting yachts are asked to phone ahead on arrival in the river during daylight so a berth number can be assigned before tying up.
Local sailing knowledge
Beauty Point lies on the western bank seven miles inside the heads, so the approach threads the well-marked Tamar channel past Low Head's pilot station and the Bell Bay shipping wharves; the tidal stream in this reach is strong, and outbound skippers traditionally work the eastern shore to soften it. Cruising crews who have stayed here report one genuine caveat: the marina is exposed to easterly winds, and a severe blow from that quarter can push a damaging swell into the berths, so in a forecast easterly gale the free anchorage south of the moorings, good all the way to just past Shag Head, or the shelter of West Arm around the corner are worth considering. Ashore, provisioning is limited to basics; the Beauty Point Waterfront Hotel does meals, while George Town, Australia's third-oldest settlement, provides full services a short drive away, and serious restocking happens in Launceston. The river itself is the recreation: a run of forty-odd winding miles past the Batman Bridge, the West Arm anchorage and the Rosevears wineries, with MAST pontoons spaced along it for lunch stops. Offshore, Beauty Point is a natural jumping-off point for the Furneaux Group or a Bass Strait crossing, and every Boxing Day period the marina fills with race boats preparing for the start line off the clubhouse. Pelicans, sea eagles and the occasional seal working the tide are part of the scenery, and sunset over the western hills behind the club is a nightly fixture. Cruising guides describe the club as notably welcoming to visitors, and that reputation, combined with fuel next door and trades within reach, keeps the visitor berths busy through the summer cruising season.