Yarrawonga Yacht Club

Sailing waters

You will find the clubhouse at 87 River Road, Yarrawonga, where a reclaimed foreshore block gives the club permanent frontage on Lake Mulwala with water at the doorstep twelve months a year. The lake itself is the asset — one of the Murray system's great impoundments, spread across the state line and big enough to offer genuine open-water sailing well beyond most inland venues. Practical arrangements are generous.

Boats launch straight off the clubhouse lawns, or from a pair of concrete ramps, one an all-weather facility dropping into the protected Chinamans Island lagoon, which also carries moorings; trailable yachts lie in a sheltered mooring ground nearby. When regattas arrive, the site converts into camping ground and boat park combined: powered grassed sites for tents and caravans at the shoreline, twin off-the-beach launching bays with sandy bottoms, and a working canteen.

The water in front of the clubhouse suits novices particularly well, remaining only waist deep for roughly forty metres offshore — beginners can stand, right a boat and try again. The club does not publish wind statistics for its courses, though lake weed has historically been controlled by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. Non-sailing visitors are catered for too: a two-kilometre return walking track to Chinamans Island departs from the club grounds and crosses wetlands celebrated locally for birdwatching.

The twin towns of Yarrawonga and Mulwala, facing each other across the lake, form one of the Murray's busiest holiday districts, so visiting sailors find accommodation, dining and supplies within minutes of the boat park.