Griffith Sailing Club

About Griffith Sailing Club

Inland sailing clubs live and die by their water, and few illustrate that better than Griffith Sailing Club, which runs its season on the western shore of Lake Wyangan in the NSW Riverina, about ten minutes' drive north-west of the city. This is a small, family-oriented, volunteer-run organisation with a broader brief than most: sailing sits alongside kayaking and rowing, making it a genuine multi-sport hub for non-powered water activity in the district. The Australian Sports Foundation has described the club as "a community asset, a meeting place, and a source of connection for families, friends, volunteers and local residents", and that framing fits — when Australian Sailing visited in 2021 it found a well-established club with a friendly family atmosphere and leadership openly keen to grow the membership.

The sailing itself centres on off-the-beach dinghies and catamarans, with Sunday afternoon racing from the first of September through to the end of April. Every boat competes on Yardstick handicap, which keeps a mixed fleet racing on level terms regardless of class, and trailer sailors up to six metres are welcome too, launching from the club's own ramp or the neighbouring public area. A winter series carries on for the more committed, with the club itself calling those off-season outings "often the best sailing of the year".

What sets Griffith apart from almost any other club in this directory is the adversity it has absorbed. Drought dropped its lake well below normal in 2021, record floods then drowned the facility for roughly a year in 2022–23, and blue-green algae has periodically shut the water down altogether. That this club is still racing says plenty about the people behind it.

Services

• Sailing club

Service area

Lake Wyangan / Griffith, NSW