The boat owner’s guide to the 2018 Newcastle 500

The narrow, twisty streets winding along the foreshore of Monaco’s Port Hercule, where Kimi Raikkonen famously stepped off the track onto the back of a boat after he crashed out of the 2006 Formula 1 Grand Prix? The canals of the island city of Montreal?

How about the rough and ready streets around Newcastle Harbour? The same place where last year’s freshly crowned Supercars championship winner, Jamie Whincup, famously necked a stubbie of beer and then back-flipped into the harbour off the stern of the Red Bull Racing yacht?

From November 23-25, the Supercars circus heads to the city for the annual Newcastle 500, the freshly minted season closer for Australia’s top motorsport category. And in the lead-up, NSW’s Roads and Maritime Services has laid down the ground rules ahead of the 2018 event for any boat owners keen to nose in for a look.

First of all, berths around the 500-metre-odd section of Wharf Road running almost up to Horseshoe Beach (boat owners are reminded that there’s a significant rock outcrop on the eastern side of the zone) go from the shore and almost up to the edge of the shipping channel.

Where you anchor will be allocated on a first in, first served basis, so you can’t bags one ahead of the event. However, before you start planning a concert ticket-style camp-out to snare your top spot on the harbourside, anchorages will only be available from noon on Thursday, November 22.

Not only that, but you also have to bounce by 9am on Monday, November 26 at the latest.

If you must arrive earlier or stay longer, boat owners will need to berth at an overflow area set up near Stockton, across the shipping channel from the event.

Last year, about 40 boats took up the opportunity to anchor up for the reborn Newcastle 500 race, according to the NSW Roads and Maritime Services.

Once you’re parked up, access to land will be “limited”, according to Roads and Maritime Services. Use of Tug Berth Four or the Custom House steps to gain shore access is prohibited.

Like it was last year, anchoring for this year's event is free. Last year, access to the wharf area was available via a dinghy at Queens Wharf, but if you want to get through the gates to sit trackside you'll need to have a valid Supercars event ticket.

Once anchored, you’ll be looking at turns 10 and 11 as the cars attempt to carry as much speed as they can down the main straight with Newcastle’s central city skyline before them, and then disappear through turn 1.

High tides will be mid-morning, and low tides mid-afternoon. Action for the main attraction, the Supercars, kicks off late morning each day. On Saturday, you’ll have an ebb tide for qualifying, and a flowing tide for the main race. For Sunday’s race day, you’ll have an ebb tide for qualifying, and wobble around low tide for the Supercars drivers' last serious chance to bang doors for the season.

Talking of banging doors, Roads and Maritime Services warns that the viewing area is adjacent to a shipping channel, and vessel wash and swell surge could start pushing anchored boats around. The government warns that all vessel owners assume responsibility and anchor up for the event at their own risk.

What will you see? Well, there’s no guarantee of anything. You’ll be captive to the tide, which varies by more than a metre, and there’s the risk that “temporary infrastructure” along the shoreline in the designated anchoring area will block your view. That includes deep concrete walls designed to stop an out-of-control race car leaving the track confines.

Boatsales.com.au made a few inquiries to see if anyone had a first-hand account of how much waterborne spectators can expect to see. However, they’re pretty hard to find. One told us it was possible to see glimpses of the cars flash past from the upper deck, but little else apart from the thundering noise. Not much point in sitting on the water, then.

The biggest advantage, though, appears to be the racetrack's geography. If you're among the crowd expected to attend this year's event – last year's attracted an official headcount of 190,000 – getting home once the race has ended is something of a nightmare as the crowds squeeze out of the narrow venue. Heading back to the boat, you'll be against the flow, but once on the water, you'll be free of the footsore masses. It's then just a simple matter of firing up the engine and motoring back home.

So it’s now over to you. Have you tried to spectate the race from the harbour? Let us know about your experience in the comments section below.