Marina service
Whitsunday Sailing Club Marina Berths
About
Whitsunday Sailing Club Marina Berths at a glance
Whitsunday Sailing Club Marina Berths (Airlie Beach) provides marina berths and swing moorings close to the club on Port of Airlie / Pioneer Bay, plus on-site boat storage for tenders, off‑beach sailing boats, trailable yachts and motor boats (up to 12 m). Marina berths listed are 12 m and 18 m located on the “I” arm at Port of Airlie and are offered for short- or long-term lease. Swing moorings are available north of the club on Pioneer Bay. The club operates from Airlie Beach and publishes a contact phone number for enquiries.
Service area: Airlie Beach, Whitsundays, QLD
- Marina type
- yacht club marina
- Operator
- Whitsunday Sailing Club
- Region
- Whitsundays
- Water body
- Boathaven Bay (Port of Airlie)
- Wet berths
- 12
- Maximum vessel
- 18 m
- Berth types
- casual berthing, permanent berthing, swing moorings
Facilities and services
- licensed club
- restaurant/cafe
- boat storage (tenders & trailable boats to 12m)
- twilight racing
- learn-to-sail training
- function/event spaces
- swing moorings
- bar & bistro
Useful for sailors looking for
- Wet berthing and moorings
- Dry storage or hardstand
- Vessels up to 18 m
About Whitsunday Sailing Club Marina Berths
The Whitsunday Sailing Club occupies one of the best pieces of waterfront real estate in Airlie Beach, sitting right on Airlie Point between Boathaven Bay and Pioneer Bay with an open deck facing the Coral Sea. Locals routinely call it the best spot in town, and on a Wednesday afternoon, when the twilight fleet short-tacks past the club at 4.30pm, it is hard to argue. The club is first and foremost a sailing institution rather than a commercial marina: it is the home and organising body of Airlie Beach Race Week, a regatta founded in 1990 as the Hog's Breath Cruising Classic after cafe founder Don Algie sailed his 55-foot sloop Storm into the Whitsundays and saw the potential for a mainland event to complement Hamilton Island Race Week. The regatta has since grown into a week-long fixture drawing more than 130 boats and upwards of 6,000 attendees each August, with the club lawn transformed into the Festival of Sailing village. Against that backdrop the club's actual berthing operation is deliberately modest: a small cluster of 12 and 18-metre marina berths on I arm of the neighbouring Port of Airlie marina, held by the club and leased to members, plus a handful of swing moorings on Pioneer Bay directly north of the clubhouse. The licensed clubhouse itself, with its restaurant, bar and function rooms open seven days, is the real amenity, and it doubles as the social headquarters for visiting crews, race officials, volunteers and the town's remarkably active sailing community year-round.
Marina facilities
The berthing offer is narrow but useful. The club holds a limited number of 12-metre and 18-metre berths on I arm at Port of Airlie, an easy walk from both the clubhouse and the Airlie Beach township, and leases them to members on short or long terms; enquiries go through the club office on 07 4946 6138. Because the berths sit within the Port of Airlie marina, berth holders effectively gain that precinct's infrastructure: cyclone-rated floating pontoons, shore power and fresh water, fuel services, modern shower and laundry amenities, and after-hours gated security in a protected harbour built for vessels from 10 to 50 metres. Separately, the club administers a limited number of swing moorings on Pioneer Bay immediately north of the clubhouse, a cheaper option suited to shallow-draft cruisers and locals. On shore, the club runs boat storage on its own premises for full members: tenders, off-the-beach dinghies, trailable yachts and motor boats up to 12 metres can be kept on site for a monthly or yearly fee, with substantial discounts for boats actively raced in club events, and storage is restricted to full rather than social members. The clubhouse amenity list centres on the licensed restaurant and bar, which serves bistro meals at club prices across lunch and dinner seven days a week in a room seating around 120, opening onto the deck over the water. Function spaces host everything from regatta briefings to weddings, and the club runs maritime training through its Tackers program for children and Start Sailing courses for adults. Wednesday twilight racing is open to members and visiting yachts alike, and during Race Week the whole precinct becomes regatta central with briefing rooms, results boards and the lawn marquee.
Local sailing knowledge
For a visiting yacht, the practical play is to pick up a club mooring or berth and treat the clubhouse as your shore base: shower at the adjacent marina amenities, eat at the bistro, and walk five minutes into Airlie Beach for supermarkets, chandleries and the lagoon. Boathaven Bay, immediately south of the point, is one of the calmest corners of the Airlie foreshore, and the Port of Airlie marina next door is the town's ferry and cruise-tender terminal, so the area hums with passengers heading to Hamilton and Daydream islands; its waterfront dining strip, including La Marina, Rufus and Co and a gelateria, gives berth holders alternatives to the club. Racing sailors should time a visit for August, when Race Week fills Pioneer Bay and the Whitsunday Passage with fleets racing around the islands under the winter trade winds, though berths and moorings anywhere in town become scarce weeks out and prices rise accordingly. The trades blow strongly from the south-east through winter, and Pioneer Bay can develop an uncomfortable chop at mid-tide, so mooring pickups are easiest at the top or bottom of the tide. Shallow spots fringe the bay's southern edge, and newcomers should follow the leads into the marina rather than cutting corners across the bay. The club's twilight series on Wednesday afternoons is open to visiting boats and is the fastest way to meet the local fleet; the bar afterwards is where crews are recruited for the bigger offshore events. Everything about the place runs on volunteer energy, and visitors who join in tend to be welcomed quickly.