Marina service
Yowie Bay Marina (Andrew Short Marine)
About
Yowie Bay Marina (Andrew Short Marine) at a glance
Marina at 1 Wonga Road on the western shore of Yowie Bay with slipways and rentable berths; berthing by appointment.
Service area: Port Hacking
- Marina type
- marina & slipway
- Operator
- Andrew Short Marine
- Region
- Port Hacking
- Water body
- Port Hacking (Yowie Bay)
- Berth types
- permanent berthing
Facilities and services
- slipway
- repairs & maintenance
- swing moorings with dinghy storage
- jet dock dry storage
- shrink wrapping/encapsulation
- antifouling
- Propspeed
- vessel towing
- survey slipping
- import/export services
- Mercury dealership access
About Yowie Bay Marina (Andrew Short Marine)
Yowie Bay Marina pairs one of Port Hacking's oldest waterfront buildings with one of the marine industry's best-known retail names. The marina occupies 1 Wonga Road on the western shore of Yowie Bay, where its heritage-listed boatshed, built in the late 1800s, still anchors the waterfront even as modern floating berths have been added along the shore. The operation is run by Andrew Short Marine, the Taren Point-based dealership long described as Australia's largest Mercury Marine dealer, and the Short family's ties to the district run deep: the family settled around Port Hacking in 1978 after patriarch Fred Short, a boat builder and former commodore of the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria, sailed the family north from Melbourne aboard their 42-footer. Andrew Short built the retail business while campaigning a string of successful racing yachts, and the Yowie Bay site became the group's marina and slipping arm. Today the facility functions as a working boatyard-marina hybrid rather than a lifestyle berthing precinct: berths and moorings for local owners, a slipway with a steady throughput of antifouling and survey work, and a role as the Port Hacking service point for the dealership's engine and boat brands. Pelicans and ducks work the shallows beside the adjacent public boat ramp, the bay is still and bush-fringed, and the overall feel is of a small, practical yard that has outlasted most of its competitors on the port. The contrast between the weathered old boatshed and the modern pontoons sums the place up: a facility that has modernised its berths and services without surrendering the working-waterfront character that made Yowie Bay a boatbuilding address in the first place.
Marina facilities
Berthing at Yowie Bay Marina is by appointment, with modern floating marina berths taking vessels up to about sixty feet. Each berth has its own pedestal providing 240-volt power through individually protected outlets up to 15 amps plus fresh water, and floating berths carry rubber fender protection. Access is controlled by security key with lighting throughout, entry limited to berth and pass holders, and off-street parking in a private car park; the office operates five days a week while berth holders enjoy 24-hour, seven-day access. Swing moorings with dinghy storage round out the on-water options. The slipway is the commercial core of the site. Services advertised include slipping for survey, comprehensive repair and maintenance work, hull washing, antifouling, anode replacement, Propspeed application, cut and polishing, fibreglassing, painting and vinyl lettering, boat detailing and vessel towing. A jet dock storage facility offers dry storage for personal watercraft and small boats, and shrink wrapping and encapsulation services are available both on and off site for storage, transport or worksite protection. Through Andrew Short Marine's wider business, berth and yard customers have ready access to Mercury outboard servicing, brokerage and parts, and import and export services are also advertised from the site. There is no fuel wharf at the marina, no public cafe and no chandlery storefront; diesel and petrol are available at neighbouring marinas on the port, at Burraneer Bay and Cronulla. Mechanical work beyond the slipway list, including outboard servicing, is coordinated with marine technicians who attend the site regularly. Enquiries for berths, moorings and slipway bookings run through Kylie Short on 02 9524 3621 or yowiebaymarina@gmail.com.
Local sailing knowledge
Yowie Bay lies on the western shore of Port Hacking, inside the port and well clear of the entrance bar, so the approach for berth holders is about as undemanding as Sydney boating gets: deep, marked water from the main channel into the bay, with the marina on the point beside the public boat ramp at the end of Wonga Road. That ramp is one of the busier trailer-boat launches on the port, and the foreshore around it sees a constant coming and going on summer weekends. Port Hacking rewards exploration. The whole southern shore is Royal National Park, so within a short run of the marina there are bush-backed anchorages at South West Arm, Audley at the head of the Hacking River, and the beaches at Gunyah and Warumbul that have served as Sydney picnic grounds since the nineteenth century. Skippers heading outside should know that the port's ocean entrance carries a shallow, shifting bar between Jibbon Point and Cronulla that breaks heavily in any swell; it is a fair-weather passage, and local knowledge or a chat with Marine Rescue is worth having before a first crossing. Ashore, Yowie Bay is quiet and residential, with the E.G. Waterhouse National Camellia Gardens a few minutes away and Caringbah's shops and station the nearest serious provisioning. Fuel is a short run across the port at Burraneer Bay or Cronulla. The bay's character is set by its mix: the sailing club around the corner, dragon boat crews training off the point, yard boats hauled on the slip and pelicans loitering at the ramp, all of it under green national park hillsides.