Adults who have watched young sailors learn the ropes at Longueville’s sailing club now have their own beginner pathway onto the water, with adult lessons joining its long-running junior training program.
Lane Cove 12ft Sailing Skiff Club has introduced Adult Try Sailing and Adult Learn to Sail for the 2026–27 season. The shorter option offers a half-day introduction, while the full course provides 12 hours of instruction across three or four days. Both use the club’s Pacer dinghies.
The club is pitching the program, to take place on 25 October, partly to adults who have watched their children sail and want to experience the sport themselves or eventually share a dinghy with them.
From the shore to the tiller
Adult sailing is already well established at the Stuart Street club beside Longueville Wharf. Its racing program covers several classes, while its ILCA fleet alone includes sailors aged from about 16 to 75, with experience ranging from beginners to experts.
The new offering creates a structured beginner option for adults alongside a long-established junior program. Children aged 8 to 12 can begin in Sabots, while older students learn in ILCA 4s. Recent Learn to Sail graduates can continue into an eight-week Transition to Racing program, with club boats available as they develop their racing skills.
More than 70 children graduate from the club’s Learn to Sail programs each year, according to the club. Its wider community includes more than 270 sailors, families and supporters, and up to 80 dinghies and skiffs can race on Saturday afternoons during the September-to-April season.
Young sailors return as instructors
Volunteers underpin much of the activity, including young sailors who move into teaching roles. The club says its instructors are generally aged between 12 and 22 and are supported in gaining Australian Sailing dinghy instructor qualifications. Volunteers also run race starts and finishes, assist from response boats and maintain club facilities.
Makenzie Mayne provides one example of that pathway. She joined Lane Cove in 2015, progressed through Learn to Race and several boat classes, then began volunteering as an assistant instructor at 12. By 2025, she had contributed more than 400 volunteer hours and helped instruct and mentor more than 200 young sailors. Australian Sailing named her among its three Instructor of the Year finalists that year.
Another group of prospective instructors trained at Longueville on 4 July 2026, when Australian Sailing held a sold-out Dinghy Assistant Instructor course at the club. Successful participants who meet the accreditation requirements can qualify to assist instructors delivering sailing programs at accredited centres.
More than a century beside the wharf
Lane Cove 12ft Sailing Skiff Club was formed in 1918 by residents of Longueville, Greenwich and Northwood. Its first formal meeting took place in the pavilion at Longueville Cricket Ground, now Kingsford Smith Oval, before a clubhouse with boat storage was built near Longueville Wharf in 1936.
The club’s first formal youth program began in 1961 with the introduction of Sabots and lesson-based Learn to Sail. After the program had fallen away by 1985, the club rebuilt its Sabot fleet and reintroduced Learn to Sail. The club says more than 2,000 young people have been introduced to dinghy sailing through its programs over the past 25 years.
Boat storage has also shaped the small waterfront site. Space was fully occupied by the mid-1970s, prompting a major clubhouse redevelopment in 1975. An arson attack in 2018 later destroyed the western storage shed and 46 members’ boats. The rebuilt shed provided additional boat storage and expanded rigging areas.
The training fleet now includes 10 Sabots, four ILCAs and two Pacers. Those Pacers also give adult beginners an entry point into a training program that has introduced young sailors to the water for decades.
Published 29-Sept-2026
