Swan River Sailing Dinghy Heritage

16/09/2026

This 1976 view over Melville Water East towards Perth City is a good example of the many sailing craft seen each weekend enjoying their sailing. There is a variety of types of craft.

12/09/2026

An example of how many active Classes there were in past times, is this list of W.A. State Championships to be held in the 1982-83 season which was in the Yearbook of Yachting Association of W.A. This show that there were a lot of people enjoying our sport of sailing, each Class had lots of sailors and keen volunteers.
The second item shown here is the large list of W.A. State Champions from 1981-82. Lots of good memories of these people, some of whom may still be seen around the Clubs. Apologies for the poor image quality.

11/09/2026

07/09/2026

This is the Cadet Dinghy "Scylla" which is in the W.A. Maritime Museum at Fremantle. Also shown here is the information board with the display which has a 1965 photo of the Cadet Dinghy "Diana" sailed by Mike Finn, Mike Lefroy and Mike Lanyon sailing on Freshwater Bay.

05/09/2026

In 1954 there were 14 sailing Clubs listed in this report of sailing in the March 1954 newspaper, which indicated the growing popularity of sailing in the years after WWII.
It includes many of the current Clubs, but several have since closed. The A.N.A.S.C. sailed only Heavyweight Sharpies and didn't have a clubhouse which later led them to split up and join several other Clubs. The Mosman Junior S.C. only sailed juniors and later closed when the juniors moved to other Clubs to continue their sailing activities. Safety Bay S.C. has closed in recent years, partly due to the receding shoreline.
Some of the types of craft that were being sailed has changed since that time, as there were many self-built types of Classes in that era, including the VJ which are shown in the newspaper photo from later that year of one of their State Championship heats in Melville Water near Nedlands jetty.