The Leven Yacht Clubhouse is on the riverbank roughly a kilometre upstream from the river mouth leading out into Bass Strait.

The Leven Yacht Club is located on the North West coast of Tasmania in the town of Ulverstone which has a population of around 12,000 people.

Establishment date: 

The current club was formed on the 31st of March 1950 although a pre-war club existed under the same name from the 7th of December 1933. Recreational sailing races on the Leven River in 16’ dinghies are documented back to the mid 1800s.

Commodore: 

Isaac Mearns has been a member of the club for twenty of his thirty years and is currently serving his second term as Commodore.

How many members? 

The Club currently has an active membership of 74 people ranging in age from 1 to 93. LYC enjoys a healthy junior membership with nearly half of members in the junior ranks. The average member age is 37 with a 70/30 percent male female split.

Classes supported and types of sailing:

Learn to sail sessions are conducted in the Clubs fleet of mixed RS dinghies and sabots. Senior racing attracts a completely mixed bag of classes from trailer sailers, through classic Olympic dinghies to B14 skiffs and various off the beach catamarans and even the odd windsurfer. All classes compete in the same fleet which is typically around 20 boats strong. The Club proudly advertises that anything watertight that can hoist a rag on a stick is welcome to race and this attitude has dramatically lowered the financial commitment required for new sailors with old shed finds lining up against the latest carbon designs. An in house developed performance handicapping program keeps the playing field remarkably level with race times often split only by seconds on corrected time. Races are primarily around the cans with some twilight events and occasional dashes around local islands.

Key club events: 

LYC enjoys close relationships and tight competition with four other local clubs which all support each other's interclub events. The Leven signature event is The Cock o’ the Leven and is held in February each year on a high tide and encompasses both junior and senior events.

What programs do you offer, i.e  Discover sailing, SheSails, Sailability etc:  

Leven Yacht Club doesn’t currently offer any Australian Sailing programs. Saturday learn to sail sessions are run by volunteers and a once per season Try Sailing Day is the Club’s primary source of new members. The 2019 event attracted 66 participants onto the water with many more friends and family spectating from the riverbank and pickup boats. The Club has developed Project Broad Reach which works with local support groups to give disadvantaged kids sailing experiences with a focus on goal setting, literacy and teamwork outcomes. Four seasons have been run to date.

Club history/achievements: 

LYC hosted the 1990 Mosquito catamaran nationals and more recently, the 2016 Tasmanian Youth Championships. A precursor event to the Youth Champs – the Tasmanian Schools Championship originated at the Club in the nineties and was hosted several times over the years. More recently, the lack of launching facilities has prevented the Club from hosting events including a Masters Games event for which preparations were underway before the flood damage.

What is special/ unique about your club? The atmosphere of Leven Yacht Club is one that truly fosters participation and promotes sailing for enjoyment. Members recognise that they aren’t sailing for sheepstations, indeed, there hasn’t been a formal protest lodged in over a decade. With that said, the skill level is still high enough to provide members a springboard to more demanding competition should they desire.

Member achievements: 

In the 2018 B14 national championships, the yardstick winner was a Leven boat crewed by then Class President Adrian Beswick representing the Club and the handicap winners were Isaac Mearns and Tom Killalea also representing Leven Yacht Club sailing together for the first time in a boat that they’d borrowed for the week in exchange for a carton of beer.

Any recent issues or challenges your club has had to overcome? how did you go about this?

In 2016, a once in 100 year flood event scoured several thousand of cubic metres of sand and riverstones from the riverbank below the clubhouse. Both Club boat ramps and much of the seawall on the edge of the rigging lawn were swept away. Due to complications in how the crown lease was administered, repair costs became a political football and although proceedings are now underway to effect a repair, the club has been operating without ramps for three years which has had a significant negative effect on membership.

What has been the clubs biggest success story from the last three years? 

Maintaining an active sailing calendar in the absence of on site launching facilities has been a massive struggle for the Club but it is surviving and taking the opportunity to upgrade assets. Grant money has been secured to re-create a beach once replacement ramps are installed later this year all going well. One pickup boat has been replaced with funding for a second one being organized while the clubhouse has received a new, more efficient hot water system.