Portarlington Sailing Club

About Portarlington Sailing Club

On the north-facing coast of the Bellarine Peninsula, where the shoreline looks straight across Port Phillip toward the Melbourne skyline, Portarlington Sailing Club has built a reputation as one of the region's friendliest entry points into the sport. The club sits at Point Richards, a short hop east of the town pier, and runs the kind of program a community club should: racing every Sunday from September to April, a Winter Series for the committed, and an open door for visitors, who can sail for ten dollars a boat under Australian Sailing's SailPass arrangements.

The fleet reflects how people actually sail in this part of the bay. Monohulls and catamarans race off the beach, while trailable yachts get their own cruising days, so a family can graduate from a borrowed training dinghy to a weekend trailer sailer without changing clubs. The club is volunteer-run and affiliated with Australian Sailing, sailing under the PT prefix, and it leans on its neighbours in the best way — through Sail Bellarine, a cooperation with clubs such as Indented Head Yacht Club that shares volunteers and events across the peninsula's sailing strip.

Who sails here? Juniors working through the Green Fleet on Sunday mornings, adults learning to sail later in life, long-time racers chasing series points, and a steady trickle of Melburnians who keep a boat on the Bellarine side of the bay. The town itself is a north-facing coastal community famous for its mussel farms and its ferry link across the bay, and the club matches that unpretentious, working-waterfront character. It opens from 11am on sailing days, the kettle goes on, and by early afternoon a mixed fleet is out on some of the most sheltered racing water in Port Phillip.

Services

• Sailing club

Service area

Portarlington, Bellarine Peninsula, VIC