Goolwa Regatta Yacht Club (GRYC) is located at the historic river-port of Goolwa, a few miles upstream of the mouth of the River Murray in South Australia and in the final section of freshwater before the barrages that separate the river from the sea. Historically, Goolwa was one of the most important river-ports along the entire Murray Darling system with early cargoes from right along the river system brought to Goolwa for transfer to ocean ports via Australia’s first railway. Goolwa was also a significant boat building centre for river steamers and barges.

The history of the club and its name date right back to those early days of the colony of South Australia with the Goolwa Regatta Club (as it was originally known) formed some time prior to August 1854, and less than 18 years after European settlement of South Australia. Its original objective was to organise an annual regatta featuring various types of water sports between members of the fishing fleet based at Goolwa and those of the whaling fleet at nearby Victor Harbor. It considers itself to be Australia's oldest yacht club in continuous operation.

Today it is the home of Goolwa's yachting community with modern Clubhouse facilities, including a licensed bar, lounge, showers, dining facilities, and a marina providing berthing for over 100 yachts.

Racing and events:

The regular fleet is mostly made up of trailerable yachts, vintage timber racing boats including a fleet of Restricted 21’s, and a growing number of sports boats. Special events attract a wide range of off‑the‑beach classes including catamarans. The common element to all is lifting keels or centreboards needed to navigate the shallow waters of the Lower Murray Lakes and nearby Coorong tidal waters.

The club’s program is built around Friday night twilight racing, weekly in summer and monthly in winter. These Friday races routinely see 25-30 boats out for a 60-75 minute race around the South Lake and upstream of the Hindmarsh Island bridge. Easy viewing of the racing is available to both club members from the end of the marina and locals who come down to a nearby low cliff which provides excellent viewing out and across the South Lake. Following twilight racing, meals are provided at the clubhouse which allows sailors and families to socialize together, building the camaraderie which is a feature of the club.

The twilight program is complemented by weekend daylight sailing which incorporates a mix of round the buoys sailing and longer races upstream along the river channel and into Lake Alexandrina.

Each January Goolwa Regatta Week continues the boat racing tradition started back in 1854. The highlight of the week, the Milang Goolwa Freshwater Classic, is the State’s premier freshwater long-distance yacht race. Commencing at Milang, a fleet of 200 plus boats crosses the southwest section of Lake Alexandrina before heading down the main river channel to Goolwa. The 2021 Freshwater Classic was the 51st occurrence of this race.

Membership

The club has around 400 members. Membership has always drawn a mix of Adelaide based sailors (Adelaide 80km, 1 hr drive from club) and locals from Goolwa and nearly towns. The club often attracts the mature sailor looking for calmer conditions after years of sailing in choppy coastal waters. The club is actively looking to grow women’s participation in the sport and introduced a Women’s Helm Series in the 2020-21 season. The first-year response was very pleasing with many benefits emerging from the greater engagement of women within the club, and the club will be further developing this program under the She Sails banner. The club has also been growing a sports boat fleet to provide high performance sailing attractive to a younger 20-40 years old demographic.

The club supports School Teams Sailing championships (hosting the State Championships in April 2021). The club is keen to support the development of young sailors anticipating that some of these sailors will one day become GRYC members.

The club has a strong community focus and in addition to supporting Schools Teams Sailing also runs a regular Sailability program with its own fleet of Access dinghies to make the sport of sailing accessible to persons with disabilities. Access into and out of boats is easily arranged from a sheltered area with the club marina with an electric crane available to sling sailors into and out of a boat where required.

GRYC offers a range of Australia Sailing accredited training courses, including: 

•    Start Crewing and Start Helming

•    Start Racing and Spinnakers

Behind every great club is a great group of volunteers that ensure club events are able to be held. The club employs a full-time manager to provide administrative support and to coordinate/manage the bar and catering offerings but otherwise the club is totally volunteer operated. This includes the committee, the on-water and on-shore racing officials, catering activities and the never-ending minor maintenance tasks of the clubrooms, boats and marina.

The club was severely affected by the millennium drought which saw the large areas of the Lower Murray Lakes partially dry out and salinity to rocket upwards to levels beyond seawater. At one point, the remaining water was some one metre below sea-level! Fortunately, water eventually returned and allowed the club to resume operations.

Over the last year, COVID -19 has brought with it a new set of challenges and some interruptions to operations. Fortunately, South Australia has seen limited community infection, mostly operated without lockdowns, and the club was able to deliver the great majority of its summer season program.

The club would like to extend an invitation to all who wish to visit GRYC, to review their club program for events throughout the season on their website.