Exclusive yacht club splits with Boathouse Group, brings in team behind fine-diner Alpha

The dining arrangements at the exclusive Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Rushcutters Bay have had all the twists and tacks of a Sydney-to-Hobart classic in recent weeks, with its high-profile food operators already out of the race. The club has taken back its food operations, just over a year after The Boathouse Group – which has a glam stable of waterfront restaurants from Palm Beach to Wollongong – relaunched the club’s restaurant with a styled interior of lobster pots and a menu of prawn toast and crab pasta. In another twist, an email to club members informed them Dedes Waterfront Group – which operates CBD fine-diner Alpha – will hoist its ensign at the club from next week, news that excited skippers hoping to load up on slow-cooked Greek lamb before setting sail on Boxing Day for the big race.

CYCA commodore Sam Haynes praised Boathouse for improving the restaurant during its brief tenure, explaining the split was driven by cultural differences. “They are more of a commercial operation, we’re member-driven,” he said. The commodore used the example “that the club might want to do something not profitable because we’re providing a member service”.



“There’s no bad blood,” says Boathouse Group chief executive Antony Jones. “It’s a mutual parting, we just couldn’t find common ground.” Haynes explained that where the Boathouse tie-in had been a joint venture, the CYCA has taken control of the food at the waterfront venue, with Dedes as its hospitality partner.

It won’t stop restaurateur Con Dedes – whose stable of restaurants includes Pyrmont’s Flying Fish – navigating an ambitious food program. “We’ll look at doing pop-ups of [our] restaurants,” he says. Dedes also comes armed with experience catering to club members, as the food operator of the Sydney Rowing Club and the Regatta Club in Haberfield.

As his first step, the hospitality veteran will reintroduce a seafood platter to the club’s menu. Dining at the waterfront club, where annual fees are as high as $700, is a complicated matter for Sydneysiders who live within 5 kilometres and don’t have a member handy to sign them in. The NSW Government’s Vibrancy Reforms have given clubs leeway to scrap such restrictions.

Haynes said the incoming laws will allow clubs such as the CYCA, which has the 5-kilometre restriction written into its constitution, to either keep or discard the rule before December 2026. “We are reviewing this amongst our overall strategic review, which is under way,” he added. Why surf clubs are hotting up as hospo destinations.