Sailing in August

August has some of the best sailing weather in Australia and is the hardest month of the year to get a boat in the Whitsundays. Those two facts are related. This is the month where the regatta calendar, rather than the weather, should drive your decision.

The national picture

The tropical dry season is still in full effect, roughly May to October with south-east trade winds dominating. August trades are typically strong early in the month and begin to ease late. The south remains in winter.

In their window

The reef coast is excellent. Port Douglas and Cairns have reliable weather, and the trades often ease slightly through late August, which makes outer reef days more comfortable. Magnetic Island and Townsville is at its most pleasant.

Darwin Harbour is still in the best part of the dry, though the city is at peak tourist load. The Kimberley is mid to late season and running well.

The Whitsundays weather is fine. The problem is not the weather.

Not their window

Southern Australia is out: Melbourne and Port Phillip, Hobart and the Derwent, Adelaide and Gulf St Vincent, the Gippsland Lakes and Fremantle, Rottnest and Carnac all remain in winter with cold water and frontal weather. Sheltered New South Wales harbours continue year round when conditions permit.

The Whitsundays goes on the avoid list for a specific and unusual reason. Airlie Beach Race Week and Hamilton Island Race Week both fall in August. Between them they commit an enormous share of the local fleet, fill the marinas at Coral Sea Marina and Port of Airlie, fill the accommodation, and fill the anchorages. Charter boats are chartered to race crews, delivery crews and spectators. Prices are at their annual high and availability at its annual low.

If you want to be part of Race Week, August is the only option and you should book a year out. If you want a quiet bareboat week, go in May, June or October instead. See weather and seasons and the bareboat guide.

Price and availability

Whitsundays: booked out, expensive, and often with minimum charter lengths and restricted areas during the regattas. Some operators will not hire bareboats during Race Week at all because of the traffic.

Everywhere else in the tropics: busy but manageable. School holidays have ended in most states by early August, which takes some pressure off Cairns and Darwin.

The southern fleet is small but cheap, and a winter day sail on Sydney Harbour is the best value charter in the country in August. See costs.

Better in August than any other month

Racing, obviously, but also whale watching under sail. August is the heart of the humpback migration along the Queensland coast, and a sailing day out of Port Douglas, Magnetic Island and Townsville or even the Whitsunday passages carries a real chance of whales alongside in flat trade wind sea. It is not guaranteed and no operator should promise it, but August gives you the best odds of the year, and doing it from a quiet sailing boat rather than a crowded motor vessel is a different experience entirely.

See charter types, the operator directory and the region directory.