Our Story

Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club came into being almost 100 years ago as a club for people looking to test their sailing skills. The boats and the people may have changed through the years, but we are as passionate as ever about our racing, supporting our local community and providing a memorable dining experience to our guests.

Our History

1920’s

The Club traces its beginnings to the 1921/22 sailing season when a number of members of the Delwood Canoe Club decided to band together and conducted sailing races on Sunday afternoons. The Club was actually formed at a meeting held on Friday 23 February 1923 and was to be known as the Manly Sailing Club.

The Club carried on for a couple of years with a motley collection of different classes of boat, however, during this time it had been advocated that a definite class be formed. It was almost decided that the 14ft skiff would be the class, but the addition of several more 16ft skiffs during the 1925/26 season decided the issue. Any other type of boat racing with the Club then formed a “B” class.

The 16ft skiff class had its origins on Sydney Harbour at Balmain in 1901 and, by the time it was adopted by this Club, had already been established by other Clubs on the Harbour and Botany Bay and in Brisbane and Perth.

The greatest problem confronting boat owners and members of the Club at the time was that of suitable accommodation for their craft. Each individual owner had to find his own quarters. To this end the present site of the Club was leased from the Sydney Harbour Trust (now Waterways Authority) in January 1928 and a shed designed to accommodate ten boats was built at a cost of £298 ($596). This shed remained until 1992 when it was demolished as part of major renovations to the Club.

1930’s - 1960’s

By 1931 the country was in the grip of the Depression and the fleet had fallen to three boats, however, a small group of members managed to keep the Club viable. By 1934 the future looked brighter and the clubhouse was extended to accommodate a further ten boats.

During the Easter weekend in 1935 at Toronto ( Lake Macquarie), the skiff “Lightning” sailed by Russell Slade became the first skiff from this Club to win a N.S.W. 16ft Skiff State Championship.

The commencement of the 1936/37 season saw a change to Saturday sailing for the first time. This change had been proposed for some time but did not receive sufficient support until just before the start of that season. Saturday sailing has been retained since that time, although there were some unsuccessful moves during the 1970’s to change back to Sundays because of congestion on the Harbour on Saturdays due to large yacht fleets.

With the onset of the 2nd World War in 1939, the fleet and membership again decreased, with over 50% of the Club’s members serving in the Armed Forces. For the duration of the War an average of six 16ft skiffs and four “B” class boats sailed each weekend.

After the end of hostilities in 1945, the Club supported the formation of North Harbour Sailing Club to provide a training ground for juniors who would hopefully move on to 16ft skiffs. To this end the “B” class which by this time mainly consisted of junior members began to race with the North Harbour Club.

In 1952, with the Club now only racing 16ft skiffs, the name was changed to Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club. By that time there was a fleet of about twelve 16ft skiffs racing with the Club and further extensions were carried out to the building to provide a social area.

The latter half of the 1950’s and early 1960’s was a period of rapid and dramatic change both for the Club and the 16ft skiff class. In early 1960, the Club applied for a Liquor License. This was ultimately granted on 1 July 1960. Up to this time revenue had principally been raised by social functions, competitions, membership fees and debentures, shed rent and donations. In addition, much of the administration, building and maintenance work had been carried out on a voluntary basis by members, some of whom devoted many hours of their time. The increased revenue which resulted from the operation of the Club as a Licensed premises, was, and still is, applied solely to maintaining Club facilities and promotion of sailing.

The changes to the 16ft Skiff class at that time included – adoption of the bermudan rig to replace gaff rigs, hulls became significantly lighter in weight when ply construction began to replace the heavier planking method, and the use of trapeze wires as a method of balancing the boats was introduced, synthetic sails replaced cotton sails, wooden masts were gradually replaced by aluminium masts and buoyancy tanks were introduced to enable boats to be righted in the event of a capsize.

In 1963 the present concrete deck was constructed as the first stage of a rebuilding programme. Unfortunately, lack of finance and subsequent problems with this deck forced the shelving of this programme with exception of the addition of the timber deck in 1966.

1970’s - 1990’s

To cater for the growing numbers of members’ children interested in sailing and to provide a training ground for potential 16ft skiff sailors, the Club introduced the Flying Eleven division in 1971. This move proved very successful and by the mid 1970’s the Club not only had a good Flying Eleven fleet but also a fleet of up to thirty 16ft skiffs.

To comply with the State Government requirements, the Club was incorporated as a company (limited by guarantee) in November 1972. The purpose of this requirement was to protect the liability of members if a club became insolvent.

On 26th May 1974, the Club building was severely damaged by a very severe storm which, combined with an exceptionally high tide, saw waves actually breaking over both the concrete and timber decks. This same storm caused considerable damage around the Manly/North Harbour foreshore, including the total demolition of the North Harbour Sailing Club (and all boats stored therein).

Much of the repair work to our building was carried out on a voluntary basis during the off-season by club members. During the following season (1974/75), the Club hosted both the State and Australian 16ft Skiff Championships for the first time.

During 1976 in Perth, the skiff “Matana”, sailed by Bill McMahon, became the first boat from this Club to win an Australian 16ft Skiff Championship. Since that time, several skippers, both in the 16ft skiffs (Trevor Barnabas, Gavin Jones and Greg Hyde), Flying Elevens (Steve Norbis, Phillip Cooke, Michael Holmes, Malcolm Page, Lee Knapton, Ben Bianco, James Ward and William Moor) and Manly Juniors (William Moor, Craig Souter and Byron White) have won State and/or Australian Championships and this highlights the strength the Club has been able to achieve and maintain.

In 1979 the Club’s financial position had improved to the extent that a new boat storage area (the old Manly Diggers Swimming Club building) was purchased adjacent to the existing Club and significant refurbishment was carried out to the main building with the completion of a new bar, toilets, office and kitchen.

In February 1980, the Board was finally able to obtain a 20 year lease from the Maritime Services Board. Since the first clubhouse was built in early 1928, the Club had been operating on an annual lease arrangement. Whilst the new lease did mean that the annual lease payment increased quite substantially, it did give the Board some certainty and confidence to continue to invest in improvements to the premises.

During the early 1980’s, the 16ft skiff class underwent further significant changes. Most hulls were now being constructed from fibre glass, the traditional maximum 13 square metre single luff spinnaker which required the jib to be dropped while gybing was replaced by a larger maximum 30 square metre double luff spinnaker in 1983 and the minimum number of crew members carried by a skiff was reduced from four to three in 1986. By the late 1980’s, lighter weight synthetic materials such as kevlar (in lieu of dacron) was becoming more common place in the production of working sails. The 1980’s also saw a progressive reduction in the number of skiffs racing with this State. By the 1989/90 season the average fleet in this Club was eighteen skiffs each Saturday.

In the mean time, the Flying Eleven division continued to grow and by the late 1980’s was averaging a fleet of twenty eight boats each Sunday.

In 1984 is was decided to adopt a further class into the Club – the Manly Graduate as an intermediate class between the Flying Eleven and the 16ft skiffs. Unfortunately, the class did not grow to our expectations with an average fleet of only four or five boats. By the 1990/91 season there were only two or three regular starters and the class was disbanded.

In 1988, the Liquor Administration Board approved an increase from 800 to 2,000 in the allowable maximum number of members. Since the Club obtained its Licence in 1960 membership had steadily grown from around 300 to just under 800.

With the onset of a quite severe Economic Recession, the early 1990’s also saw a reduction in the numbers of the remaining classes in the Club, with average fleets of fifteen for both 16ft skiffs and Flying Elevens.

Despite the Recession, the Club continued to be in a strong financial position. During the off-season in 1992 extensive rebuilding work was undertaken on the Club’s main premises to provide larger and improved facilities. This work brought to fruition the sort of facilities which was envisaged, but eluded for various reasons, the Club’s administrators during the 1960’s.

The 1994/95 season again saw an increase in fleet sizes of both the 16ft skiffs and Flying 11’s. Towards the end of that season the Australian 16ft Skiff Association adopted changes to the class restrictions to allow skiffs to be decked in with self draining cockpits. This was the biggest change to have occurred in the history of 16ft skiff hull restrictions since the class began in 1901 and was done with a view to modernising the image of the class. Since 16ft skiffs were first sailed they were traditionally an “open boat” design which allowed only minimal restriction to the ingress of water and this made them a truly challenging boat to sail.

Two further substantial changes affecting 16ft skiffs were adopted for the 1996/97 season. Hulls now had to comply with a standard design and asymmetrical spinnakers with a fixed spinnaker pole replaced the double luff spinnaker. The approximate area of these new spinnakers is approximately 40 sq metres. During this season it was also decided to introduce a new junior class – the Manly Junior.

The changes to the 16ft skiff class in the mid-1990s seemed to have the desired affect as we had a fleet of 29 skiffs for the 1997/98 season. That season was also the Club’s 75 th and the occasion was marked by a dinner at the Manly Pacific Parkroyal in February 1998. A sell out crowd of 384 celebrated the event which also marked the launch of a 256 page 75 th Anniversary publication written by Dave Hooley.

The 1998/99 season saw a small reduction in the 16ft skiff fleet but a strengthening in numbers in both junior classes. In February 1999, permission was sought to increase the allowable maximum number of members from 2,000 to 4,000. Since the Club was renovated in 1992 there had been a dramatic increase in membership to the point where the maximum had been reached and there was a waiting list of some 1,200 potential members by the end of 1998.

At the end of the 1998/99 season work commenced on redevelopment of the boat storage area located between our Club and Manly Yacht Club. After an initial delay of three months because of concerns about the retaining wall on East Esplanade, the project was finally completed in March 2000 at a cost of $660,000. After being forced to trail their boats for most of the season, both the junior fleets were able to occupy the new boat shed and ramp for the last few races.

Unfortunately, whilst the new storage space did increase storage capacity, storage preference had to be given to our junior fleets (Manly Juniors and Flying 11’s) and the new 13ft skiff fleet. This only allowed space for six 16ft skiffs, so the remainder of the 16ft skiffs still had to continue to store and trail their own boats and rig on the East Esplanade Beach and Park area.

2000’s - Onwards

In February 2000, the 20 year lease negotiated in 1980 came up for renewal with NSW Maritime. Negotiations for the new lease ended up taking a further nine years.

At the commencement of the 2002/03 season, the Club formalized the introduction of the new intermediate class, the 13ft skiff.  The Class was developed through the Club over a two year period and was designed to fill the gap between our Flying 11 class and the 16ft skiffs.  The new skiffs had many of the features of the 16’s and with a crew of two people offered the opportunity of building their skills to sail in the 16’s.

In May 2004, after some 40 years of using contract caterers, the Board of Directors decided to take the catering in-house and this ultimately proved to be profitable move.

In August 2004, the Board sought a further increase in the membership limit from 4,000 to 6,000.  By May 2005, the Club had 4,502 members. It also had 22 poker machines, Club Keno facilities, Bistro dining and function facilities.

The 2005/06 season saw a record number of 33 skiffs (16ft) register with the Club, together with a fleet of ten (10) 13ft skiffs, 15 Flying 11’s and 15 Manly Juniors.  This season also saw the introduction of learn to sail classes for prospective junior sailors utilizing several Club owned Manly Juniors.

A highlight of the 2007/08 sailing season was that each of the four classes sailed at the Club (16ft skiffs, 13ft skiffs, Flying 11’s and Manly Juniors) won their respective Australian Championships – a first in the history of the Club. 

Despite the onset of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, the 2008/09 financial year saw the Club significantly increase its trading turnover and net profit and this allowed for some long awaited renovations to partially open up the inside of the Club’s trading area.

As mentioned earlier, in late 2009, after some nine years of negotiations, the Club was finally able to sign a long term lease with NSW Maritime up to 30th April 2042.  .This longer term lease gave greater certainty to its future.

Early in 2010, an opportunity presented itself to seek amalgamation with St George Sailing Club located on the northern shore of the Georges River at Sans Souci, just to the east side of the Captain Cook Bridge.  Established in 1897, St George is one of the oldest sailing clubs in Australia and has been a supporter of 16ft skiffs almost since the class started in 1906.  Over recent years they had suffered some financial difficulties and had been placed into liquidation.

For an outlay of around $800,000, the Board of Directors of the Manly Club made a decision to amalgamate with the club primarily to provide a base to help ensure the long term presence of 16ft skiffs in the southern suburbs of Sydney. It had been the last remaining club in the Botany Bay area to still have 16ft skiffs racing.  The amalgamation was approved by the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing in December 2010.  Whilst the Manly 16ft Skiff Sailing Club Ltd would be the legal entity operating both the Manly and Sans Souci premises, it was decided that the premises at Sans Souci would continue to trade under the name of “St George Sailing Club”.

At the same time, a partnership arrangement was reached with Doltone House (a function centre) to work towards a renovation or rebuild of the St George clubhouse which had been developing several structural issues due to lack of maintenance.  The idea was that both Doltone House and the Manly Club would occupy the St George clubhouse and trade separately with Doltone hosting functions and the Manly Club operating the St George Sailing Club as a licensed club and boat storage facility.  Work commenced without too much delay on plans for the renovations and the process required to get a Development Application and lease arrangements completed, but progress ultimately ended up being much slower than expected. 

Meanwhile, at Manly in 2012, work finally got under way to carry out significant remedial work on the concrete deck section of the club that was originally built in 1963, but had been slowly deteriorating with concrete spalling for some years.  The final cost of the work was $184,830.

In 2013, significant work was also carried out on the remaining timber sections of the understructure of the Manly Club building and also the outside timber deck, including repairs and the replacement of some piles.

During 2014 and 2015, the first major renovation of the Manly Club trading floor and associated services since 1992 were undertaken.  Apart from levelling out the floor of the whole trading area, several internal walls were also removed to open up at least two-thirds of the inside of the club building. 

After drawn out negotiations over about four years, the lease of the St George club building was finalized with Roads and Maritime Services in 2015 through the signing of a temporary lease, pending either a major renovation or complete rebuild of the premises. 

The combined club’s record profit for the 2015/16 financial year of $1,570,900 was by far the best financial result since the amalgamation and in either club’s previous history.  Membership numbers also surged with membership standing at 8,184 as at 30th April 2016.  These significant results were primarily attributed to the success of the major renovations undertaken at Manly during 2014 and 2015. 

Meanwhile, on the sailing scene, the 2015/16 season also saw each of the four classes sailed at Manly once again manage a clean sweep of their respective Australian Championships for the third season since first achieving that success in 2007/08.  The feat was also achieved in 2013/14.

By mid-2017, approximately 60% of the St George Club building had been shut down due to concerns about structural issues. Progress had been slow on the finalizing the Development Application in the partnership with Doltone House, so in July 2017, a decision was taken to dissolve the agreement with them and this was completed amicably. It was also now clear that the St George club building would have to be demolished and rebuilt, so work commenced on a new design and Development Application.  Estimated cost of the rebuild was $10-12 million.

By the 2016/17 season, there were a total of 135 boats from eight different classes sailing at the two club locations.  At Manly there were four classes - 16ft skiffs, 13ft skiffs, Flying 11’s and Manly Juniors.  At St George there were seven classes – 16ft skiffs, Skates, MG14’s, Moths, Sailboards, Flying 11’s and Manly Juniors.

After a number of unexpected stumbling blocks and several frustrating years, the Development Application for the rebuild of the St George Sailing Club was finally submitted to the local council in September 2018.  Approval was granted by the council in mid-2019.  Demolition of the old club building finally commenced in early 2020, however, some delays were encountered due to the poor condition of the old building and also some impacts from the worldwide pandemic caused by the Covid-19 situation.  As at July 2021, work on the rebuild is progressing well, it is hoped to have the new club building operational by April 2022.

Meanwhile, the 2018/19 financial year saw the Club make a record profit of $1,941,174, the fourth year in a row where the profit exceeded $1.5 million.  By 30th April 2019, membership had surged to 11,088.

The Club has now been operating profitably for many years under different Boards of Directors and as a result has been able to provide the sailing activities with the necessary resources to allow its sailing fleet to become one of the most competitive in Australia. At the same time the licensed facilities at Manly has become very popular with the members and their guests in recent years as a boutique club venue over the water in Manly Cove.

The Club offers members and guests a safe, friendly and comfortable environment and facilities in one of Sydney’s best harbourside locations at good value for money, which has assured a large repeat business with a high loyalty level.  It is expected with the rebuild of the St George Sailing Club building due for completion by early 2022 that this venue will also enjoy the same success.