Sailing in January

January is the busiest and most expensive month to charter a boat in Australia, and it is also the month when the southern half of the country sails best. Both of those things are true at once, and planning a January trip is mostly about accepting the second while managing the first.

The national picture

The country splits cleanly. South of about Brisbane, everything is in season. North of the Tropic of Capricorn, almost nothing is. The official Australian tropical cyclone season runs 1 November to 30 April, and January sits in the middle of it. Cyclones can occur outside that window too, but January is the heart of the exposure.

In their window

Tasmania is at its peak. December to March is the season for longer Tasmanian expeditions, so January is when Port Davey and Bathurst Harbour are actually reachable, and when the D Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny is at its most pleasant. Hobart and the Derwent is busy and good.

Victoria is in full swing. Melbourne and Port Phillip has reliable afternoon sea breezes, and the Gippsland Lakes offer a flat water week with no ocean exposure at all.

Western Australia's south-west is on. November to April is the Perth season and January brings the Fremantle Doctor at full strength, which is excellent sailing to Rottnest and Carnac if you cross in the morning.

Adelaide and Gulf St Vincent works, with the caveat that a forty degree pre change northerly is unpleasant on a boat with no shade.

New South Wales sails well. Sydney Harbour, Pittwater and Broken Bay and Port Stephens and Broughton Island all run, with the afternoon nor-easter the dominant feature and abrupt southerly changes the thing to plan around.

Not their window

The Whitsundays will sell you a January charter and some people have a lovely time. Most of the fleet is still available, the water is warm, and the marinas are quiet. The reason it is cheap is heat, humidity, thunderstorms, marine stingers and cyclone exposure. If a system develops, your charter ends and you go home.

Port Douglas, Cairns and Magnetic Island and Townsville are in the wet. Darwin Harbour is in the monsoon and the Northern Territory season is the May to October dry. The Kimberley is not operating at all. See weather and seasons.

Price and availability

Australian school holidays create demand peaks and the Christmas and January break is the longest of them. Southern charter boats are booked six to twelve months ahead for January, and prices are at their annual high. The Festival of Sails in Geelong in January takes boats and berths out of Port Phillip. Sydney is still recovering from the Sydney to Hobart start on 26 December.

Tropical charters, by contrast, are at their cheapest. That discount is a risk premium, not a bargain. Read the weather cancellation terms before you take it, and read costs.

If you want southern sailing in January, book by the previous winter. If you cannot, look at late February or March instead.

Better in January than any other month

Tasmania's far south-west. January and February give the best statistical chance of the settled multi day window you need to get around to Port Davey and Bathurst Harbour, and there is no substitute for being there in long summer daylight with sixteen hours of usable light. No other month comes close for that one trip.

More context in the region directory, the charter types guide and the bareboat guide.