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Sailing Schools the Gippsland Lakes
Australia’s largest inland navigable waterway: four hundred square kilometres of flat, sheltered water with effectively no tide. Different from every other training ground in the country, and better for some things than any of them.
The water you learn on
The lakes are almost tideless, which removes an entire dimension from pilotage and lets a beginner concentrate on the boat. It also means tidal work has to be learned somewhere else.
Water is shallow and channels are marked, so depth awareness and channel discipline are taught from the first day. Running aground here is soft, common and instructive.
Wind funnels between the lakes and can be gusty and directionally unstable, which is good boat-handling practice even though the water stays flat.
Lakes Entrance is the only opening to Bass Strait, and it is a working bar that demands respect and timing. Most lake training never crosses it.
Where courses actually run
Paynesville
The main sailing base, with clubs and moorings
Metung
Sheltered village base on Bancroft Bay
Lake King
The largest open expanse; room to manoeuvre
Lakes Entrance
The bar to Bass Strait — timed, not assumed
Schools within reach of the Gippsland Lakes
Yachtmaster Sailing School
RYA courses on Port Phillip from Competent Crew to Yachtmaster, taught on sea-going yachts rather than inshore training boats.
Blue Water Sailing School
Courses from Docklands and in the Whitsundays, covering learn-to-sail, Competent Crew, night sailing and a Bareboat Skipper program with ICC.
Smooth Sailing School
Teaching from the mouth of the Patterson River on the eastern shore of Port Phillip Bay.
The Boatshed
Victoria’s State Sailing Centre on Albert Park Lake, established in 2008 to complement the state’s clubs rather than compete with them.
Course types around the Gippsland Lakes
Other training regions
Melbourne
Sailing schools in Melbourne and on Port Phillip — learn-to-sail courses, keelboat and yacht training, RYA courses and Yachtmaster preparation.
Geelong
Sailing courses at Geelong and Corio Bay — sheltered water at the western end of Port Phillip, with a strong club culture and a short sail to open bay conditions.
All of Victoria
Melbourne · Port Phillip — 4 schools
Not sure which course to start with in the Gippsland Lakes?
Three questions — have you sailed before, what boat do you want to sail, and what is your goal — give you a starting course and the schools that teach it.