Tamar Yacht Club

Tamar Yacht Club (TYC) has two homes on the Tamar River. The administration office, clubhouse and slipyard are at 7 Park Street, Launceston, where the North Esk meets the Tamar, while the club's 100-berth floating marina and second clubhouse are at 1 Wharf Road, Beauty Point, about 37 nautical miles downriver near the mouth of the Tamar.

The club runs youth sailing and learn-to-sail for all ages and abilities, inshore, coastal and offshore racing, a SailPass program for people who want to sail without owning a boat, and motor boat licence training. The Beauty Point marina welcomes members, visitors and guests. The office is open Tuesday to Friday, 9am to 3pm, on (03) 6331 8013. See other clubs in the area on our Launceston sailing clubs page and Beauty Point sailing clubs page.

Learn to Sail with Tamar Yacht Club runs from the Beauty Point clubhouse from October to April, split into a pre-Christmas season (October to December) and a post-Christmas season (early February to Easter). Sessions run on Saturday mornings from 9:30am to about 11:30am. Younger children sail Optimist dinghies, while older juniors and adult beginners use Pacers, and every session is supervised by qualified instructors with the club's rescue boats on hand. At $118 per child per season, the fee covers membership, instruction, equipment and insurance.

Once sailors have the basics, Saturday afternoon racing gives them a friendly place to test their skills — with a weekly "Lucky Boat" prize to keep things fun. Coaching clinics such as the Northern Tasmania Coaching Clinic add ILCA sailing for more advanced juniors. Adults can join through SailPass, which offers a way to sail regularly without owning a boat, and the club also runs motor boat licence training.

The club's two bases sit at either end of the Tamar Valley. In Launceston, the Park Street clubhouse and slipyard are close to where the North Esk joins the Tamar, and historically races were started from a box in nearby Royal Park. Downriver, the Beauty Point marina — 37 nautical miles from Launceston — sits near the mouth of the river, giving easy access to wider water and to Bass Strait for coastal and offshore racing.

The Tamar is a long tidal estuary, and reading the tide is part of sailing it well. The 100-berth floating marina at Beauty Point is open to members, visitors and guests, with the Launceston slipyard available for maintenance. Nearby clubs include Port Dalrymple Yacht Club, also at Beauty Point, and Deviot Sailing Club further upriver.

The club's claim to be the oldest yacht club in the Southern Hemisphere rests on a report in The Cornwall Chronicle of 2 September 1837, which recorded the formation of a club with eight yachts and plans for a Queen's Birthday regatta. In its early years the club developed a clubhouse and slipyard at Park Street, Launceston, and ran races from a start and finish box in Royal Park.

In 1955 the club bought a new clubhouse at 7 Park Street, which helped membership grow. In 1996 it acquired the Beauty Point Marina to give members safe moorings, and expanded the Park Street site by converting a neighbouring house into club rooms. A new clubhouse at the Beauty Point Marina opened in 2008, allowing the club to expand its sailing programs. The club's story is told in The Tamar Yacht Club: A History of Sailing in Launceston Tasmania From 1837, written by member Julian Burgess.