Regatta to draw strong fleet
TASMANIA’S largest keelboat event, the 2018 Banjo’s Shoreline Crown Series Bellerive Regatta, to be held next month, marks the 14th in its present format.
However, Bellerive Yacht Club, which now conducts the popular regatta on the River Derwent, can trace the event’s origins back to 1853.
One hundred years later the Bellerive Regatta Association held “The Regatta Picturesque’’ to mark that inaugural event. Now, almost to the day, on February 16-18, what is now known as the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta will once again be sailed on the river, based at Bellerive.
First known as the Kangaroo Bay Regatta, the Bellerive Regatta was first held during the colony’s emotional times of the antitransportation debate.
Lieutenant-Governor Sir William Denison, a strong supporter of convict transportation, agreed to be patron of the Bellerive Regatta and sailed across from Government House to take the salute.
However, opponents of transportation organised another regatta in competition with the one at Bellerive. This was held off Battery Point on the same day.
Regattas on opposing sides of the river have endured, despite some breaks, with the Royal Hobart Regatta being held this year on 10-12 February and the Crown Series Bellerive Regatta the following weekend.
But the two regattas differ in concept. The Royal Hobart Regatta is a combination of public, fairground-style entertainment ashore and, on the water, rowing, powerboat, dinghy and yacht racing.
The Lipton Cup is the major sailing race on the Royal Hobart Regatta program, sailed as part of the Combined Clubs’ summer pennant.
The 2018 Banjo’s Shoreline Crown Series Bellerive Regatta is an all-sailing event although it began in 1853, with a waterman’s race, a native youths race and a garrison and customs race in whalers and similar rowing craft.
The 1953 Centenary Regatta, The Regatta Picturesque, attracted a fleet of more than 210 yachts and sailing dinghies and like the inaugural event, was attended by the Governor, then Sir Ronald Cross and Lady Cross.
Racing dinghies competing included 12-foot Cadets, Bellerive, Snipe, Fergusson, Kiwi, Tamar classes, Rainbow, and 12sq/m sharpies.
The nominated 12sq/m sharpie helmsmen listed in the program included the surnames of some of Hobart’s well-known young sailors, Escott, Boyes, Batt, Muir, Purdon and Campbell while skippers in the 12ft Cadets included a Calvert, a Boyes, a Cummins and a Darcey.
Early Sydney Hobart participant, Duncan McRae’s Kintail, was a 2nd Division entrant, while in 1st Division the fleet included Guy Rex’s Mistral V, Jim Hickman’s Bronzewing, (which is still racing on the Derwent), C.H. Calvert’s famous Caprice , Ken Gourlay’s Terra Nova, the Tasmanian One Design yacht Canobie (J.H. Rae) and Frank Hickman’s Nell Gwynn.
In the R class were the 8m yachts Erica J, with Neill Batt as helmsman, C.E. Davies’ Norske steered by D. Burridge, and the McKean brothers’ Sandra, along with another famous Tasmanian One Designer, Weene, owned by K.E. Batt.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the results of the Centenary Regatta but we are still searching the archives.
There was also lots of evening entertainment, including an illuminated power boat parade off Victoria Esplanade, square dancing at Bellerive and a concert by the Hobart City Band.
Sixty-four years on, and nearly 200 sailing craft are expected to contest the 2018 Banjo’s Shoreline Crown Series Bellerive Regatta with keelboat entries closing with Bellerive Yacht Club on February 12 and off-the-beach entries accepted up until February 15. WITH just over 12 months away planning is well under way for the 2019 MyState Australian Wooden Boat Festival with an information evening in Hobart open to all early next month.
The evening includes a particular invitation to anyone interested in joining the large band of volunteer workers without whom, organisers freely admit, the festival would be difficult to stage.
Festival general manager Paul Cullen said the volunteer program had been officially recognised as one of the best in the state by both government and the Hobart City Council and 96 per cent of visitors surveyed after past festivals had commented on and praised the friendliness and professionalism of the volunteers.
“The AWBF lives by the adage that our first customers are our volunteers _ and they are priceless,’’ he said.
Mr Cullen said negotiations were also well advanced with wooden boat enthusiasts in the US which will be the featured guest nation at the next festival.
The festival information evening will be held on Friday, February, 2 at the Mawson Pavilion, Constitution Dock starting at 5.30pm. No bookings are necessary. The 13th AWBF will be held on the Hobart waterfront from February 8 – 11, 2019. NEARLY 200 sailors from around the world who competed in last week’s SB20 world championship on the Derwent attended the prizegiving dinner at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, with the exuberant French team collecting a swag of trophies.
After the prizegiving, wellknown Hobart sailor Jill Abel called for all those present who began their sailing in International Cadet Dinghies to join her for a group photo.
More than 50 past and present Cadet sailors posed for this photo, ranging in age from 12 to 50-year-olds.
They included sailors from several of the 18 international crews that contested the world titles as well as many Tasmanians who began racing in International Cadets out of Sandy Bay Sailing Club.