Davey's Bay Yacht Club

About Davey's Bay Yacht Club

"The Jewel on the Bay" is the tagline Davey's Bay Yacht Club gives itself, and for once the small club's self-assessment is widely echoed by those who sail against it. Tucked into a sheltered cove at Mount Eliza on Port Phillip's eastern shore, it is among the oldest yacht clubs in Victoria, founded in 1909, and it has spent more than a century demonstrating that size and achievement are loosely related. From this compact membership have come state, national and world titleholders, plus three Olympians — among them Jenni Lidgett, who crewed with Addy Bucek in the 470 at Barcelona in 1992 and Atlanta in 1996. The club's soul, though, belongs to one boat above all: the Flying Fifteen, the Uffa Fox-designed sports keelboat that dominates its senior fleet, launches from the club's two cranes, and brought the Australian championship to this little bay over the 2012–13 new year. Around that keelboat core runs a busy off-the-beach scene — Optimists and OziOptis for the juniors, Pacers for training and racing, with Sabres, 420s, Fireballs, ILCAs and even Finns regularly afloat, plus room for sailboards, paddle boards and kayaks. The weekly rhythm is distinctive: Friday evenings and Sundays carry the training and racing, and on Sundays the juniors take the morning while the Flying Fifteens and dinghies race the afternoon away. The social side has a century of practice behind it, and the whole operation rests, by the club's own account, on a committed band of members and volunteers with as many ways to help as to sail. It is, in short, the complete small yacht club.

Services

• Sailing club

Service area

Mount Eliza, VIC (Davey's Bay / Port Phillip Bay)