Fred

We live in Brisbane so I had hoped someone living further north from here may chime in first. My advice to anyone would be either Bundaberg or Scarborough in Brisbane. I certainly would never store Island Pearl II north of Bundy.

Bundaberg is handy being a port of entry and has great rates and facilities. The risk there is flooding however that risk is now very slight as during the biggest floods over the past 40+ years the marina hard stand has been dry as it is on higher ground.

Scarborough is excellent and perfectly safe. They have a smaller 40 ton travel lift which we have often seen lifting the SM53 and 54's but you will need to loosen your mizzen backstays. Also it is a smaller hard stand and make sure you insist on no tradesmen cars ever parking under your boat!

If you were to keep her in the water Mackay Harbour recently lifted the height of their Harbour wall and it certainly stood up to the test of a significant cyclone a couple weeks ago, however it is a little rolly in there, is in normal cyclone zone and I know some Mackay locals with expensive boats who keep them in Brisbane during summer and Mackay in winter for some good reasons no doubt.

The on water marina choices I personally use are firstly Newport Marina which is dead safe and cheap plus in 5km walking distance to a new rail station that gets you to the airport, city etc. In the past this marina had a shallow entrance channel however this was recently dredged to 2.2m and we have no issues anymore. This fact is not well known and not yet reflected in charts so you can often get a berth there at incredibly good rates.

Second option here would be Scarborough marina which is a little more expensive but has a larger cruiser community and all the folk I know there are pretty happy.

Good luck with it.

Colin Streeter 

SV Island Pearl II. Amel 53 #332

Newport Marina. Brisbane