Hi all,

I recently picked up a clunky old Skipper 14 and have been trying to get better at handling it. I did the Yachting Australia dinghy sailing courses with capsize drills etc a few years ago so I don't think I'm a danger to myself and others but I'm still pretty rusty and trying to get more time on the water to practice.

I've tried Lysterfield Lake and the Barwon River but the Barwon was deceptively narrow and was a bit of a hassle to launch at. The Barwon was also a bit limited as it's long and skinny, I wanted a bit more room to try different points of sail. Can anyone recommend any nice spots for relative beginners to launch sailing dinghies off the beach (or a ramp navigable for non-motorised craft) and potter about in Port Philip, Corio Bay and/or Western Port? Totally up for driving around places like the Bellarine and Mornington Peninsulas in search of fun places to go for a day's sailing.

Quite a big question I guess but I couldn't find many similar topics apart from in the windsurfing forum and those discussions were mostly about nice lakes around Melbourne. In the sailing forum someone suggested Somers/Balnarring in Western Port in a topic from about 3 years ago but there don't seem to be any public ramps there.

Thanks for your time! Here's a pic of the boat at Lysterfield for anyone who's idly curious. It does have a jib but I was going without for the maiden voyage.