Brighton & Seacliff Yacht Club

Sailing waters

Seacliff, the last beach suburb of Adelaide's inner metropolitan coast, gives Brighton & Seacliff Yacht Club a front-row seat on Gulf St Vincent from its Esplanade clubhouse. It is strictly an off-the-beach operation: there are no permanent wet berths here, and boats launch and retrieve across the sand with the help of club-operated tractors. Sailors wanting a formal boat ramp must look about five nautical miles away, to West Beach in one direction and O'Sullivan's Beach in the other.

The beach that defines the club also shapes its sailing. Prevailing summer sea breezes can build a large chop offshore and a small-to-moderate shore break on the sand — conditions that produce capable, surf-smart dinghy sailors and make the tractor crews as important as any race official. Onshore, the club provides secure undercover boat storage and wash-down areas, so the fleet stays close at hand despite the lack of moorings.

Then there is the clubhouse itself. Downstairs, the club keeps what it describes as one of the last true wet bars, where dripping sailors can walk straight in from the sand without ceremony; upstairs, a bistro and bar open onto a large balcony overlooking the course area. The club takes bookings as a function centre, and with the gulf as wallpaper it is not hard to see why. It is an arrangement that captures the club's character — serious about the sailing, relaxed about everything else — and it has made the Seacliff clubrooms a favoured function venue well beyond the sailing fraternity.