South Australian Nacra National Championship from December 28th 2019 to Friday January 3rd 2020. Info
Meningie Sailing Club sits on the edge of freshwater Lake Albert with a surface area of 168 square kilometres, even though we are in drought our water depth for most of the lake and for the whole area in front of the club where we will be racing is currently between 1.9 metres and 2.3 metres. There are no obstacles to hit with boards fully down once a 5.8 is about 50 metres past the end of the jetty at the sailing club and Infusions would be recommended to go out another 75 metres before boards fully down. The lake bottom is about a foot of soft mud with no calcium deposits.
There are no sharks, crocodiles, leeches, drop bears at Lake Albert it’s like a bigger Lake Wallis or Lake Cootharaba, our wind at New Years is typically light in the morning until the sea breeze fills in, typically we would expect 10 to 20 knots each afternoon, the club is at the end of the lake that the sea breeze generally comes from so typically the chop is only about a foot high , temperature would expect to be mid 20 degrees to high 30’s.
Meningie is a very flat town, everything is walking distance with a modest hill on the other side of town from the club, there is plenty of parking available for trailers and boats, with holiday rental houses sprinkled through the town and some next to the club, there are two motels, a budget one right on the water about 500 metres north of the club and the better one on the opposite side of the road about 500 metres south of the club. The caravan park (Lake Albert Caravan Park) is on the waters edge 1.5 kilometres South of the club, it has terrific cabins and lawn camping areas as well as managing the school oval across the road from the club where camping will be available, they also set aside an area of lawn for those that prefer to sail in and out from their accommodation. There is a good pub with ok accommodation as well as separate bottle shop, a petrol station, ATM, hospital, doctors services, Foodland shopping centre good internet and all other normal town services.
Meningie is 150km south of Adelaide, whilst at the club you must take the time to visit the Coorong, it’s a terrific drive with spectacular scenery only 15 minutes South of the town, if there is enough interest we will organise a family day on the lay day so we can 4wd across the dunes at the 42 mile crossing to the sea for a BBQ on the beach, don’t worry if you don’t have a vehicle to do it we will shuttle people in the 4wd’s we have, it’s not far from the sea and there is a board walk for those that wish to walk the crossing. For those that like fishing there are plenty of salmon and mulloway at that time of year so bring your fishing rods, no swimming in the sea though because some fish are too big, but beach cricket, footy’s and frisby’s could be arranged. other attractions for the family are a 2wd drive to the barrages up near Narrung that hold the Murray River water from entering the Coorong, visit the Narrows the creek between the two lakes and see the only active inland lighthouse in Australia, have a look out the other side of the Narrows and look out on our other huge lake, Lake Alexandrina with 649 square kilometres of surface area. There is plenty of other tourist things to do and places to visit so just ask if you want more info from me.
Meningie Sailing Club management have run numerous National title events over the years and also run team sailing championships, they take their responsibilities seriously and will lay out the exact course we tell them and run the event according to what the association wants. The proceeds from this event will ensure that this small sailing club stays viable for quite a while. Holding the event at Meningie will continue the momentum we are building in the South East of SA with getting more Nacras on the water and you will be supporting a sailing club that has cat sailors that will do their best to reciprocate with a visit to your club. For those of you on Facebook, I would recommend looking at the picture gallery on the Meningie Sailing Clubs Facebook page so you can see the facilities and great sailing conditions.
Links
Meningie Waterfront Motel 0403 423565
Lake Albert Caravan Park https://www.lakealbertcaravanpark.com.au/
Lake Albert Motel https://www.lakealbertmotel.com.au/
Meningie sailing club http://www.users.on.net/~meningiesc/Meningie%20Sailing%20Club%20web%20page.htm
Jeff Southall southallj@adam.com.au