Australia Day Regatta - Thousands to celebrate afloat

12:23 AM Mon 25 Jan 2010 GMT

'Australia Day Regatta' John Jeremy Click Here to view large photo

Thousands of Australians will celebrate Australia Day afloat tomorrow, 26 January, including more than fifteen hundred skippers and crew competing in the 174th Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour and in the traditional short ocean race from the Harbour to Botany Bay and return.

At least another thousand or so sailors will compete in yacht and dinghy regattas marking Australia Day organised by clubs on Pittwater, Brisbane Waters, Lake Macquarie, Botany Bay and Lake Illawarra and inland on Chipping Norton Lakes.

The 174th Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour is the oldest continuously- held sailing regatta in the world and is again sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank through Commonwealth Private. First conducted as the Anniversary Regatta in 1837, only 49 years after the First Fleet sailed into Port Jackson and raised the Union Jack on the shores of Farm Cove, the regatta today is still the focal point of Australia Day celebrations in Sydney.

'What better place to celebrate European arrival than the beautiful Harbour, ever mindful and grateful to those already there who kept it in such pristine order for us to enjoy,' says Regatta President, the eminent Australian yachtsman Sir James Hardy Kt OBE in a reference to the aboriginal inhabitants of what is now the Commonwealth of Australia.

Regatta organisers expect up to 150 yachts and skiffs to compete in the historic Sydney Harbour event and in the short ocean race to Botany Bay and return.

In addition to yacht and skiff races, Sydney Harbour will be alive with thousands of pleasure craft to watch the other Australia Day activities, including the colourful Ferrython, a Tall Ships Race while overhead jet fighters of the Royal Australian Air Force will give spectacular displays and the Royal Australian Army's Red Beret parachutists will drop into the Harbour.

Couta boats will be racing in the 174th Australia Day Regatta - John Jeremy

Flagship of the 174th Australia Regatta will be the Royal Australian Navy ship HMAS Darwin, with guests aboard including the Governor of New South Wales and Chiefs of the Defence Forces. The Navy participation goes back to the very beginnings of the regatta when crews of Royal Navy ships in port took part in sailing and rowing events. Some famous passenger liners have also been flagships for the Regatta.

The Australia Day Regatta will be sailed on the harbour from 1.30pm tomorrow while the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's ocean race will start at 11am with the fleet heading out into the Tasman Sea and down the coast to Botany Bay.

The return leg is over the same coastal waters sailed by the First Fleet when, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip RN, the ships sailed a few nautical miles north on 26 January 1778 from Botany Bay to Port Jackson, hoisted the Union Jack and founded what is now the great City of Sydney

The early days of sailing on Sydney Harbour will be a feature of the harbour regatta with up to 30 original or replica 'old-timers' taking part in the Gaff-Riggers, Classic Yachts and Historical Skiffs divisions.

Among entries for the Classic Yacht division are 1966 Sydney Hobart Race line honours winner Fidelis, now owned by Nigel Stoke, and the 8-metre class yacht Erica J, owned by Les Goodridge. Erica J last year celebrated her 60th anniversary and a career that included winning the coveted Sayonara Cup for Tasmania in 1953.

The gaff-riggers division is headed by the famous Ranger, with octogenarian skipper Bill Gale again at the helm and proudly carrying the sail number A1 of the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club.

The nine Historical Skiffs are all replicas of the spectacular gaff-rigged 18-footers that raced on Sydney Harbour a century ago, many helmed by modern-day skiff champions including John Winning (Australia IV) and Michael Chapman (Yendys). Built to the original plans, these icons of Sydney Harbour carry colour emblems rather than sail numbers on their massive mainsails.

The Historical Skiffs, all built of wood, will be joined in the 174th Australia Day Regatta by modern day 18-footers, built of carbon fibre, in celebrating the National Day afloat.

The Botany Bay race is part of the Ocean Point Score, the Grant Thornton Short Ocean Point Score, with the Grant Thornton Short Haul (non-spinnaker) fleet also joining the race this year. The race always attracts casual entries, competing for the City of Sydney Sesquicentennial Cup for the first boat overall on Performance handicaps.

Biggest boat in the fleet will be Ludde Ingvall's YuuZoo, a 90-footer which finished seventh in fleet in the recent Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race while the 'retired' 87-year-old Middle Harbour yachtsman John Walker has entered his 34-footer Impeccable. Both yachtsmen emigrated to Australia from Europe post World War II and have become naturalised Australians and highly successful yachtsmen and businessmen.