Buyers shortlist a vessel, then find out what the water outside is like. On Pittwater that order costs you — the bays are unusually specific about draft, ground tackle and tenders.
The usual order is to fall in love with a vessel, then find out where it is berthed, then discover what the water outside is like. For a Pittwater share that order costs you, because the bays north and west of the berth are unusually demanding about draft, ground tackle and how you get ashore — and unusually rewarding once the boat matches them.
Four of BSA's 42 boats are berthed on Pittwater. Which models those are changes as syndicates fill and new vessels join the fleet, so the live list is on the fleet page. What does not change is the water they go to, and that is the part worth understanding first.
Both sit off Cowan Creek, both have a waterfall at the head, and both are drowned valleys — the bottom drops away fast and sandstone and bush run right down to the water. There is no shallow shelf to swing on and no room to lie to a single anchor with proper scope.
So the technique differs from a sandy harbour bay. You drop in deeper water than you would like, back down towards the beach, and run a line from the stern to a tree or a ring ashore. That asks for a windlass that will handle real scope, a stern cleat you can trust, and somebody prepared to swim a line in.
The Basin, on the Pittwater side inside Ku-ring-gai Chase, is the opposite problem. It is a near-enclosed lagoon behind a shallow entrance channel, with public moorings, a netted swimming enclosure and a campground ashore. Anything with real draft goes in close to high water, or stays outside in Coasters Retreat and takes the tender through.
Jerusalem Bay, off Cowan Creek, is long, narrow and steep, and shoals towards its head where the walking track comes down to the water. It is quiet in a way almost nowhere within an hour of Sydney is quiet. It is also a poor place to discover that your anchor light does not work, because there is nothing else out there to be seen by.
Once you know where you will actually spend the nights, a specification sheet stops being marketing and becomes a checklist. These are the items that change a weekend in Cowan Creek, in roughly the order they will matter to you.
The fleet spans both — Riviera and Belize flybridge cruisers, Sunseeker and Schaefer sport yachts, Longreef, an Azimut Magellano, a Fairline Targa. On the harbour the choice is mostly taste. Up the river it is not.
A flybridge gives you height for reading the water in an unmarked bay, an outdoor helm for the slow and pretty legs, and usually more shaded deck for people to sit on while somebody sets the anchor. A sport yacht gives you a lower profile, a better ride across a choppy Broken Bay and, generally, more sheltered saloon for its length. Neither is wrong. But if you are buying a Pittwater share and have never anchored in a steep bay, the visibility from a bridge deck is worth more than it looks on paper.
Ground tackle, tenders and generators are exactly the equipment that punishes a boat used fifteen days a year. Batteries flatten, windlasses seize, outboards gum up, and the failure is always discovered at anchor rather than at the dock. In a syndicate the boat is in constant use and on a 33-day-a-year professional maintenance schedule, so the gear you depend on in Refuge Bay is gear that gets used and checked rather than gear that has sat since Easter.
What a share does not do is make the boat yours to modify. A different anchor, a bigger tender, a specific electronics fit — those are syndicate decisions, not Saturday projects. Owners who genuinely want to tinker are usually happier owning outright, and that is worth knowing before you sign rather than after.
Coasters Retreat, on the western shore. It is sheltered, close to the marinas, has room to swing at anchor, and you can take the tender across to The Basin without committing a deep-draft boat to the shallow entrance channel. It is also an easy place to turn back from.
Not at any state of tide. The entrance channel is shallow, so deeper vessels either go in near high water or anchor outside and use the tender. Check the vessel's draft on its listing and the tide for the day before you commit.
It is a line run from the stern to a tree or ring on the beach so the boat lies bow-out and cannot swing. In deep, steep bays like Refuge Bay it is normal, because the water is too deep and the bay too narrow to swing safely on an anchor.
The vessel comes equipped as described in its listing, and the tender is part of the boat rather than something you bring along. How it is launched varies by model, which is worth checking if you plan to go ashore on most trips.