At the yacht clubs along the sandy beaches that Adelaide is built facing there are seven yacht clubs (not counting the keel boat basins). They vary in size and number of members, but all except one have catamaran members, (the one exclusion has a full membership of mono's, and in the seventies and eighties used to start 270 to 300 boats with up to 14 different starts 5 minutes apart). During the eighties, inclusive of all the clubs where cats sailed from off of the city beaches, there would have been approximately 300 to 350 cats (probably more) of different classes and sizes that raced each and every Saturday. Those numbers have diminished in recent times, but there are still 5 clubs that cat’s race at every Saturday. There are also several other clubs out of the metropolitan area that cats sail regularly at, all within an hour’s drive of the city. The facilities at each club are excellent and the launch and retrieve is straight out of the water onto the sand then onto your trailer and drive off the beach with your car and boat to go home (or park in the clubs car park and “use” all that the club has to offer). There are “lock up” facilities at some of the clubs where you can leave your cat with the mast up but the vast majority of sailers find that they prefer to tow their boats home and park them in their back yards or garages as nearly everyone lives no more than 30 minutes from their club, and the traffic by most America standards is non existent. You never “plan” to go racing, you just automatically go to your local club every Saturday afternoon to be on the water before your regular start time. Regattas are mostly held on Sundays or long weekends and then sailers from all the different clubs congregate to whichever club is having that regatta. Regattas such as the “Milang to Goolwa”, a point to point race across lake Alexandrina and down the river Murray to its mouth, and the “Goolwa to Milang”, sailed about a month apart, attract 200 to 300 starters year after year. This is in a state with a population of only about one million people.
As far as launching at beaches other than at yacht clubs, there are virtually no restrictions. All beaches in South Australia are “public”, there is no such thing as “a private beach” and as such all are accessible to the general public. This includes launching and retrieving your sail boat or cat wherever you can access the beach. Even by having that freedom of access, most sailers prefer to go to the clubs, - it is just so much easier and more pleasent.
