The Gippsland Lakes are popular because there is negligible tides and an abundance of tourist facilities such as free overnight jetties, free hot showers, picnic grounds, free barbeques, water at main jetties, and supermarkets near the waterfront. Such things are not always/ rarely available at the other popular places such as Frankston, Mordialloc, or Westernport.
A selection from Yachthub showing keel boats to 25 feet long, although you might be interested in trailer boats:
yachthub.com/catlist/used/yachts-for-sale/sail-monohulls/up-to-25ft/20 so you get an idea of prices. To this will be needed an autopilot, essential maintenance and somewhere to store the yacht - on a trailer or on a mooring or jetty, all with different prices.
The simple answer is that you need to make friends with someone who sails, because they will give you practice and advice, and from there you can begin to do courses as needed, or to start searching for a boat, but with some idea of how big and what it will be capable of. Buying a boat and then making your own mistakes can be avoided by making some friendships first.
As an idea of courses available here is the calendar from Yachtmaster in Brighton, which I did some of his courses:
yachtmaster.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/dates-2020.03-.pdf I began with an intro course and a navigation course, then got lots of experience on my own and along the coast with friends, thus I could skip most of the other courses because I learned "on the job". As I said, find or make friendships because it will be more economical, fun and they will give you advice from their experience, saving you time and money. Send me a PM if you want a sailing weekend in Gippsland.
A navigation book:
www.whitworths.com.au/bk-ya-coastal-nav and a beginner's book:
www.whitworths.com.au/bk-start-sail-right which would be on the shelves in northern Melbourne (Vic Market area). Otherwise your local library will have a few books to give you an idea of the sport.
