Newhaven Yacht Squadron

Camaraderie and larrikinism — those are the club's own words for its culture, and they fit a squadron where 6 o'clock Drinkies, BYO casserole nights and a competition for the Winner of the Biggest Other Fish sit comfortably alongside keelboat racing and a full-scale marina. This is a volunteer-run club on Phillip Island's northern coast that genuinely straddles two worlds: sailors in keelboats and off-the-beach dinghies on one side, power boat owners and anglers on the other, with more than 500 members — the facilities page says over 600 — keeping it all humming.

The physical asset that sets the squadron apart is its marina, the only one on Phillip Island. Its 188 berths give boats from six to twelve metres an all-weather haven on Western Port, and the clubhouse above it — function room, barbecue deck, showers, easy chairs — serves as the island's unofficial boating clubhouse. A committee of management runs the incorporated association, with a part-time staffed office handling the paperwork that volunteer committees generate.

The squadron is also one of the anchors of Western Port sailing cooperation. It races a triangular trailable-yacht series against Cowes and Rhyll for a shared trophy, and belongs to Yachting Western Port, the body behind the Western Port Challenge, whose events cover juniors and off-the-beach boats as well as keelboats, trailables and multihulls. Social cruises have reached around French Island, right around Phillip Island, and across to Refuge Cove at Wilsons Promontory — a proper cruising ground in the club's front yard, with sheltered anchorages for overnight stops.

The squadron's most distinctive commitment is not a course at all but a calendar: sailing and fishing competitions run year-round, so development here happens by doing, across every season. Summer keel and trailable racing gets underway in September, a six-race winter series starts around April or May, and cruising events fill the spaces between. Members are encouraged to train to "reinforce the competence and knowledge" needed to participate safely — an ethos backed by practical structure, including published Category 4 and Category 6 safety declaration forms that keep the racing fleet honest on equipment and preparedness.

Junior learn-to-sail does run — Australian Sailing's Victorian club directory lists the squadron with kids' programs confirmed — and the club supports Sailability Victoria, facilitating on-water activity for the local disability community. Those two threads matter on Phillip Island, where the nearest alternative sailing instruction involves a drive back across the bridge.

Racing development for keelboat and trailable sailors comes through the inter-club network. The triangular series against the Cowes and Rhyll clubs is a friendly but genuine rivalry with a series trophy, and Yachting Western Port's Challenge events open up bigger-fleet competition for everyone from junior off-the-beach sailors to multihull crews. Social cruises double as passage-making practice — an around-French Island day trip or a run to Refuge Cove at the Prom teaches tides, pilotage and anchoring better than any classroom. Saturday evenings at the clubhouse keep the whole structure socially glued together, which, in a volunteer club, is half the retention strategy.

Newhaven sits on Phillip Island's northern shore, tucked behind Cape Woolamai and facing the eastern arm of Western Port, and the geography makes the boating both excellent and interesting. The squadron's marina — 188 berths (the membership page says 187), officially opened in 2008 — is reached from Bass Strait through Western Port's eastern entrance, which means passing under the San Remo bridge. That bridge imposes an air-draft limit on the eastern route; deeper-keeled, taller-masted yachts can instead use the western entrance, where no such restriction applies.

Tide is the defining force. Up to six knots of flow rips through The Narrows separating Newhaven from San Remo, and every passage plan here starts with the tide book. Western Port itself rewards the effort: broad, sheltered, island-studded, with French Island and the Prom within cruising range and rich fishing grounds throughout — hence the club's proud angling culture, complete with Angler of the Year honours.

The shoreside plant is unusually complete for a club of this size. Alongside visitor and permanent berths there is a staffed boat maintenance yard with slipping facilities and a private boat ramp. The clubhouse overlooks the marina with a large function room, outdoor barbecue area, showers and relaxation space for members and berth holders, and the club makes its rooms available to other local community groups. Live weather, webcam and tide displays keep members connected to the state of the bay before they leave home. Traditional events — the Opening Day Sail Past, cruises out to "the Quarry" and beyond the Nobbies — mark the seasons on this distinctive stretch of coast.

February 1962 is the squadron's official birth month, at Newhaven, the old fishing hamlet behind Cape Woolamai — a date now literally set in stone on the Newhaven Historical Walk, whose ninth stop records the founding. The founders' names have not been published online, but the club has something better: its own historian, Wanda Stelmach, wrote the full story in "Mud Flats and Flowing Tides", a history covering both the squadron and the settlement of Phillip Island, with chapters titled for the club's early boats, "Esmeralda 1798–1962" and "Kityikana 1963–1972".

The new club hit the national stage immediately, hosting the first National Cherub Championship in 1962 — strong evidence of what a serious dinghy club it was in its early days. The connection has never been cut: the squadron's name still graces a perpetual trophy at the Cherub Nationals, presented to the winning pair as recently as 2023. From those dinghy roots the club broadened into the mixed sailing-and-power character it keeps today, with fishing woven into club life from the start.

The defining modern milestone is the marina. Phillip Island had never had one, and the squadron's new 188-berth installation, officially opened on 15 November 2008, transformed both the club and boating on the island, providing the only all-weather haven for mid-sized boats along this coast. Through it all the social traditions have held — the Sail Past on Opening Day, the Annual Squadron dinner, the casserole nights. A club that began with a handful of dinghies behind Cape Woolamai now operates infrastructure that serves the whole island, while keeping the deliberately informal spirit its history celebrates.