Overview

The WNBC is a private club that has provided boat maintenance and servicing facilities to dedicated boating enthusiasts for over 60 years.

It was established to:

· to provide a slipway service for members’ vessels with good quality facilities for the Boat Owners;

· to keep the cost of membership fees as low as possible within the constraints imposed on the club by outside regulatory bodies; and

· to provide a meeting place for members to socialise, discuss maintenance issues and arrange for their resolution.

The intent of the club is for members to work on their own boats and not to employ outside contractors. Exemptions may be made after consultation with the Committee on the proviso that said contractor/s carry their own Insurance Policy Indemnifying the club and its members from any possible claim.

Currently, there are about 50 members.

Capacity

The club’s yard is equipped with many boat cradles, a heavy lifting gantry and miscellaneous work benches, ladders, spacer blocks etc. Power and water is reticulated throughout the yard.

The limits on boat sizes for slipping are:

Maximum Length: 37 feet (11.25 m)

Maximum Beam: 14 feet (4.26m)

Maximum Draft: 5 feet (1.52m)

Maximum Weight: 8 tons (8.13 tonnes)

The club’s premises include a general meeting area, a kitchen, shower and toilet block together with a slipway winch, tool room and dinghy storage.

Formation

In the early 1950s, early boating enthusiasts formed a group called the “Progress Association Slipway”. Traces of the original old slipway are still visible opposite No 26 Rutherford Parade.

In 1954, local boat owners decided that the initial area used on Rutherford Parade was not large enough to support the number of boats requiring slipway services. A sub-committee of the Progress Association applied for and was granted a lease for the salt swamp land where the club now stands. After a name change, the ”Warneet North Jetty Slipway Club” was established.

To ensure security of tenure, an application was made to the Department Of Lands for the lease of the site to be transferred from the Warneet Foreshore Committee of Management to the club. This was achieved in 1977. Another name change resulted in the formation of the “Warneet North Boat Club”.

On the 5^th August 1999, the club was registered as a NOT-FOR-PROFIT Incorporated Association in Victoria and operates as such to this day.

On 1^st November 1999, the club was issued an AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS NUMBER to help administer its affairs.

Voluntary Effort

The progress from salt swamp land to today’s slipway club has been achieved by material and monetary donations plus the hard work of its members. All maintenance and construction works in the yard will be done if possible by the members during organised Working Bees. The trade skills held by the various members is extensive. The ongoing viability of the club is totally dependent on the willingness of its members to contribute and facilitate.

Major works will be organised by the Committee and contracted out as appropriate.

The efforts of the original members (approximately 20 in number) over the first 10-15 years to fill the site, to lay the sliprails and build cradles to carry the boats was extraordinary as the site constantly went under water at high tides. Occasionally, water ingress still occurs down the centre of the yard during spring tides.

Another 10 years saw more progress on laying concrete, building more cradles, erecting fencing, building toilets and building the kitchen. After a well-deserved rest, the work started again. The new phase of capital works included replacing 10 cradles, building the new kitchen and clubrooms.

By 2000, sufficient facilities had been established by the Capital Works programs to then focus on their on-going maintenance and upgrade. Over the last few years, the main slip rails and the cross-yard transfer rails have been totally replaced and the bespoke winch totally refurbished. Their life expectancy is now anticipated to be 50-80 years.

Enthusiasm and self-help by the members has made the Warneet North Boat Club a very cost-effective and enjoyable club to belong to.