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News from the Australia Day Regatta
Sydney Hobart Legends Excel in 176th Australia Day Regatta
Two past line honours winners and an overall winner of the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, Brindabella, Fidelis and Quest, excelled in their respective fleets of the 176th Australia Day Regatta as yachties celebrated the national day afloat on Sydney Harbour and sailing an historic stretch of ocean between Sydney and Botany Bay.
Back in 1788, the First Fleet sailed north from Botany Bay to Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish the Colony of New South Wales, and on 26 January 2012 a fleet of modern ocean racing yachts retraced that fleet’s coastal course in the Australia Day Regatta race for the City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup.
On Sydney Harbour, yachts old and new, small and large contested the traditional Australia Day Regatta, held continuously now for 176 years and as such, the oldest continuously-conducted sailing regatta in the world.
Bob Steel’s TP52 Quest, overall winner of the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, led the ocean race fleet home, fast reaching up the Harbour under her powerful Code 0 sail. Close astern of her came Brindabella, line honours winner of the ocean classic back in 1997,
On the Harbour, in the historic 176th Australia Day Regatta itself, the 1966 Sydney Hobart line honours winner Fidelis led home the fleet after a sail around fixed marks on what is traditionally a race enjoyed by family and friends as well as regular racing crews. Fidelis did sail a shorter course in the non-spinnaker divisions with fastest time in the spinnaker divisions going to Sydney, owned by 176th Australia Day Regatta President Charles Curran.
Helming Sydney on behalf of Curran, whose duties as President kept him busy as host aboard the Flagship, HMAS Sydney, was David Kellett, the treasurer of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF).
However, neither of the big boats figured in corrected time results on a day of light easterly winds on the harbour and even lighter offshore. On the Harbour 84 keelboats and historical skiffs raced and all but a couple completed the course.
Early rain reduced the number of spectator craft, but the Sydney Harbour ferries again put on a spectacular Ferrython and four Tall Ships added nostalgia to what is the world’s oldest, continuously-conducted annual regatta. “A light easterly came in just as the first boats were ready to start and the sun shone brightly throughout a warm summer’s afternoon,” reported Australia Day Regatta management committee chairman John Jeremy.
“Three RAAF F-18s gave a wonderful display over the harbour, the Army’s Red Berets did a spectacular parachute jump into Farm Cove, while a Navy Seahawk provided a search-and-rescue display,” Jeremy said. “All in all, it was a wonderful day to celebrate Australia Day 2012.”
The Australia Day Regatta is always attracts a magnificent line-up of Classic Yachts, some a century old, and this year saw 27 old-timers compete in two divisions.
Fidelis, Nigel Stoke’s 60-footer which took line honours in the 1966 Sydney Hobart, sailed a splendid race to take line honours and third place on corrected time in Classic Yachts division 1. The winner was David Mandelberg’s Tanami, second place going to Ian Kortlang’s metre-style boat, Antara.
Division 2 went to Cherub, owned by Mark Pearse and Peter Scot, second to Antares (R Keesen & D Wood), third to Tamaris (Greg and Brian Sproule).
Spinnaker Division 1 saw a win for Philip Grove’s Huntress from Larki Missiris’ Wild One, with Charles Curran’s Sydney third. In Division 2, first place went to Hickup (Bill Ure) after a close duel around the course with Balmain Tiger (Brian Wood). Third place went to Allen Mather’s Akela.
Well-known Sydney Amateur Sailing Club member Herschel Smith won Division 3 with Shambles, second place going to Joka (Cec Williams) and third to the Yngling class yacht, Karma (Gary Wogas).
The non-spinnaker divisions are always strongly supported on Australia Day, with Division 1 going to One More – No More, skippered by Ian Guanaria, from Lahara II (Glenn Crane) and Nocturne (Gerard Kesby). In Division 2, Kaleula (Chris Warren) won corrected time from Slips (David Kinsey) and Mid Wicket (Stephen Churn).
It was a long, long day for some competitors, and certainly for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s race team as they ran the Australia Day Regatta race to Botany Bay and return for the City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup. The race started from Sydney Harbour at 11am and the last of the 44 starters in all divisions crossed the finish line back in Rushcutters Bay at 7.49pm.
The City of Sydney Cup is decided on PHS results with the Cup going to AFR Midnight Rambler, Ed Psaltis’ Ker 40. Runner-up was Paul Clitheroe’s Balance, third Stephen Thomas’ Blackadder. Of the 24 starters in the City of Sydney Cup, seven boat did not finish.
The City of Sydney Cup was run in conjunction with the CYCA’s Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointcore and while most boats in the Australia Day event also are contesting the SOPS, results in this series also include IRC scoring in two divisions.
Under IRC scoring for the SOPS, AFR Midnight Rambler won Division 1 from Quest and Balance, while Out of Sight (Mike Wilkinson) was the only finisher in Division 2 IRC. Top three PHS results for the Grant Thornton series were identical to the City of Sydney Cup results in Division 1. In PHS Division 2, Limelight (Alan Husband) won from Outlandish (Sean Barrett) and Alpha Carinae (Damian Barker).
Peter Campbell,
176th Australia Day Regatta management committee
M: 0419 385 028
E: peter_campbell@bigpond.com
Century of Yacht Design on show in 176th Australia Day Regatta
24 January 2012
This Thursday’s 176th Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour will be a showcase of more than a century of Australian yacht design and construction, as well as a near century of development by Sydney’s iconic 18-foot skiffs.
More than 140 sailing craft including state-of-the-art ocean racing yachts, harbour racing keelboats, classic yachts, many gaff-rigged, along with state-of-the-art modern 18-footers and replicas of the skiffs that raced on the harbour early last century, have entered the regatta with racing on the harbour and offshore.
The Australia Day Regatta is the oldest continuously-conducted sailing regatta in the world. First held in 1837 to celebrate the founding of the Colony of New South Wales, it has been held every year since, including through times of war, with Sydney Harbour today the centre of celebrations of Australia Day throughout the Commonwealth of Australia.
The Australia Day Regatta Inc management committee, headed by John Jeremy, organises the regatta, with three Sydney Harbour clubs whose own history dates back to the 19th century, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Sydney Flying Squadron and Sydney Amateur Sailing Club, still involved in the on-water conduct of the regatta. Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron this year is celebrating 150 years of conducting yacht racing on Sydney Harbour, the Sydney Flying Squadron began running skiff races in 1891, while ‘The Amateurs”, as it is fondly known, has officially existed since 1872.
The 2012 Regatta will comprise the traditional Sydney Harbour races, a short ocean race to Botany Bay and return, as well as keelboat and off-the-beach regattas on the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers, on Pittwater, Botany Bay, Lake Macquarie, and Lake Illawarra and at Port Hacking and Gosford, more than 600 boats are expected to take part in New South Wales.
There is also a link with another traditional regatta, the Australia Day Sandy Bay Regatta on the Hobart’s River Derwent, first held in 1849. Australia Day Regatta medallions will be presented to dinghy class winners at the Sandy Bay Regatta.
In a further connection to early sailing on the Derwent, among the entries in the Classic Yachts division of the 176th Australia Day Regatta is Weene, a Tasmanian One Design yacht launched in Hobart 101 years ago and still racing competitively.
Weene is the oldest boat among the fleet of more than 30 yachts in the Classics division, among the line-up being the 1966 Sydney Hobart winner Fidelis and other former ocean racers Anitra IV and Mister Christian.
The Classics also includes the gaff-rigged sloop Ranger whose octogenarian skipper Bill Gale has sailed in every Australia Day Regatta since he was a young lad.
At the modern end of yacht design are the recently launched, state-of-the-art ocean racers, Ed Psaltis’ Ker 40 AFR Midnight Rambler and Warwick Sherman’s Occasional Coarse Language, heading a fleet of nearly 30 boats entered for the City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup as part of the Grant Thornton Short Ocean Point Score. Among these and other yachts that contested the bluewater classic, the recent Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, is the Corby 49 Vamp, skippered by Cruising Yacht Club of Australia commodore Garry Linacre.
The SOPS fleet, together with another 26 boats entered for the Grant Thornton Short Haul Series, will set sail from Sydney Harbour at 11am, with the return leg retracing the short voyage of the First Fleet on from Botany Bay to Port Jackson on Australia Day 1788 to found the colony that was to become the Commonwealth of Australia.
Heading the 176th Australia Day Regatta fleet racing on the Harbour will be the 60-footer Sydney, owned by Regatta President Charles Curran, with the yacht being skippered by David Kellett, treasurer and executive member of the International Sailing Federation.
As President, Curran will be entertaining special guests aboard HMAS Sydney which, as Flagship, is maintaining the strong link between the Australia Day Regatta and the Australian Defence Forces, with the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australia Army also participating in events in the air and ashore.
Racing on the Harbour for more than 80 keelboats, a dozen or so modern 18-footers and seven historic skiffs will start from a line near the flagship, with the warning signal at 1.15pm. Division 1 of the Classic Yachts will head off first on a course around fixed harbour marks. The finish line will be in a similar position near the Flagship.
Further information:
Peter Campbell, 176th Australia Day Regatta Management Committee
M: 0419 385 028
E: peter_campbell@bigpond.com
Charles Curran new President of Australia Day Regatta
Incoming President Charles Curran (left) with John Jeremy (Chairman Regatta Committee) and Sir James Hardy
Prominent Sydney businessman, community leader and yachtsman Charles Curran AC, LL.B, FCPA has taken over the helm from Sir James Hardy Kt OBE as President of the Australia Day Regatta. Sir James has retired after a long contribution to the Regatta and its development as the nation’s most significant event commemorating the foundation of our nation.
Charles Curran, who succeeds Sir James as President, is also a yachtsman who has been involved in the sport at a national and international level as a competitor. He has been a long-standing member of the Australia Day Regatta’s Advisory Council, making many important contributions to the Regatta’s format.
As a yachtsman, he has owned a number of yachts over the years, the most successful being the One Tonner Stormy Petrel. Charles chartered Stormy Petrel to another prominent Sydney yachtsman, Syd Fischer, for the One Ton Cup in New Zealand in 1971.
Stormy Petrel won the Cup and Charles subsequently sailed the boat in the 1975 One Ton Cup in Sydney.
For the past 13 seasons he has raced the Iain Murray-designed 60-footer Sydney, initially in offshore races which included a fourth over the line in the Sydney Hobart, but in recent years as the ‘gun boat’ in the RSYS’s Division 1.
Charles Curran, who has qualifications in law and accountancy, has had an extensive career in Australian business and public life.
He was Chairman of the Medical Benefits Fund of Australia, the Australian Wool Exchange, the Greater Union Organisation, Perpetual Trustees Australia Limited and Capital Television Group, which operated television stations in Canberra, Perth and Adelaide.
He is Chairman of the Capital Investment Group, an international advisor to Goldman Sachs and is a member of the Financial Sector Advisory Council reporting to the Treasurer.
He has been a stockbroker for 12 years and Vice Chairman of the Sydney Stock Exchange. In the community fields, he has been involved in many organisations, including the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, the Sydney Health Service, the National Gallery of Australia Foundation, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children and the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme.
Charles was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1987 and elevated to Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2006.