About
Yaringa Boat Harbour at a glance
One of Australia's largest boat harbours on the northern arm of Western Port at Somerville, with nearly 600 boats on site. Floating marina berths, trailer boat storage, 35t and 40t straddle carriers, an extensive boatyard, shrink wrapping and the licensed Cptn Jacks restaurant.
Service area: Western Port
- Marina type
- boatyard with berths
- Operator
- Yaringa Boat Harbour
- Region
- Western Port
- Water body
- Western Port
- Dry storage
- Trailer boat storage; undercover storage
- Berth types
- permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- travel lift
- hardstand
- repairs & maintenance
- restaurant/cafe
- power & water
- dry stack storage
- 75t travel lift & 38t hydraulic trailer (yard listings)
- travel lifts to ~50t at Hart Marine shipyard
- weatherproof painting sheds
- welding & fabrication
- hydraulic repairs
- rigging repairs
- full refits
- shrink wrapping
- undercover trailer storage
- boat hire
- Jack's Green events lawn
- live music & food caravan
About Yaringa Boat Harbour
Yaringa Boat Harbour spreads across the northern arm of Western Port at Somerville, an hour south-east of Melbourne, and with nearly 600 boats on site it ranks among the largest boat harbours and marine servicing precincts in Australia. It is a boatyard-first operation: the yard, storage and marine trades dominate the waterfront, with floating marina berths, dry berths, trailer boat compounds and heavy lifting gear arranged around a dredged basin and channel that dry to mud beyond the markers at low tide. The harbour's character changed when Hart Marine, the Mornington boat builder with decades of experience in pilot boats and patrol craft, relocated its manufacturing and servicing headquarters onto the southern half of the complex from 2019, bringing a working shipyard's skills in composite, mechanical, engineering and electrical work to the site. Alongside the industry runs a hospitality layer unusual for a boatyard: the licensed Cptn Jacks restaurant overlooking the marina, Jack's Green with live music and a vintage food caravan in summer, and walking trails through the surrounding bush. Yaringa's owners have leaned into the destination angle with Yaringa Boat Hire for self-drive fishing trips into northern Western Port. The clientele ranges from trailer-boat fishos storing boats in the compounds, to yacht and cruiser owners on the berths and hardstand, to commercial operators whose workboats share the travel lifts with weekenders, all of it a few minutes from Hastings. Owner Stefan Borzecki spent years assembling the harbour as a working marine precinct, and the partnership with Hart Marine cemented its reputation as the place on Western Port where boats are not just stored but built, refitted and kept genuinely operational.
Marina facilities
Berthing options cover floating marina berths for vessels to about 17 metres with shore power, freshwater, secure gateways and 24/7 CCTV, plus hardstand dry berths with power and water and trailer boat storage in open and undercover compounds; secure winter storage and shrink wrapping are long-standing yard services. Lifting is handled by 35-tonne and 40-tonne straddle carriers, backed by heavy haulage gear including a large travel lift and hydraulic trailer, and Hart Marine's on-site shipyard runs travel lifts accommodating vessels to around 50 tonnes with drive-in weatherproof painting sheds. Hart Marine Services fields a full trade list from the Yaringa base: antifouling and paintwork in economical and commercial grades, certified welding and metal fabrication, polishing and detailing, deck hardware refurbishment, hydraulic system repairs, standing and running rigging work, and full refits, serving commercial and recreational vessels alike. The yard's scale means several projects run at once, and the tenant mix covers most marine trades. There is no fuel wharf or chandlery retail operation advertised on site, so crews organise fuel and stores through nearby Hastings. The licensed Cptn Jacks restaurant serves steaks and seafood over the water and handles functions, while the casual side runs to the cafe coffee and wraps, barbecue and picnic areas around Jack's Green. Practical amenities include public toilets, an enquiry desk, coach and car parking, tide and weather information for trip planning, and boat hire for visitors without their own vessel. Enquiries run through (03) 5977 4154 or info@yaringa.com.au. The harbour also publishes tide and weather information for trip planning, reflecting how tide-dependent movements are on this part of the coast.
Local sailing knowledge
Yaringa sits inside the northern arm of Western Port, a shallow, tide-dominated embayment where the channels snake between mudbanks and the rule is simple: stay in the marked channel, and mind the tide. The harbour's own channel and basin are dredged, but Western Port's tidal range approaches three metres on big tides and the flats outside dry, so deeper boats plan arrivals and departures around the top half of the tide, and everyone learns the leading marks quickly. The reward is access to some of Victoria's most productive and least crowded water: whiting over the banks toward Stony Point, snapper on the deeper edges in season, gummies and elephant fish in the channels, and quiet anchorages off French Island and up the Barmah-like creeks of the north arm. Phillip Island's north coast and the western channel toward Flinders open up for longer legs, while the eastern arm toward Corinella and the Bass Strait entrance suits settled-weather exploring. Ashore, the township of Somerville and the larger centre of Hastings, both a few minutes by car, cover supermarkets, marine hardware, pubs and the Hastings jetty's fish-and-chip institutions. The Moonlit Sanctuary wildlife park and the Tyabb antique village sit practically next door for family lay days. Hart Marine's presence means the harbour occasionally launches brand-new pilot boats and patrol craft, a spectacle berth holders have front-row seats for. Winter sees heavy demand for the undercover storage and shrink wrapping, and booking haul-outs ahead of the pre-season rush is standard practice. Kayakers and paddleboarders share the harbour's quiet backwaters, and the birdlife on the adjacent mangrove fringes rewards a slow dawn paddle.