Regatta attracts huge field
YACHTING has returned to the 180th Royal Hobart Regatta in a big way, with up to 50 yachts expected to compete for the historic Lipton Cup on Regatta Day, February 12.
This will also be race seven of the Combined Clubs summer pennant series of river races, with an early afternoon start.
In all, 56 yachts have entered the Combined Clubs, with up to 50 boats racing regularly. If most start on Regatta Day it will be the largest fleet of yachts in the Royal Hobart Regatta in decades.
The course will include rounding marks set off the Regatta Grounds, adding to the continuous activity on the River Derwent, Queen’s Domain and the skies above.
The Lipton Cup was donated by the famous America’s Cup challenger Sir Thomas Lipton in 1915 for competition on the Derwent. Many of Tasmania’s most famous yachts have won the trophy over the years.
One of the competitors this year is the classic eight-metre yacht Juana, which will be a strong contender for the Lipton Cup.
Yachting events associated with the Royal Hobart Regatta will start on the Saturday morning (February 10) when the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s iconic Bruny Island Race starts at 9.30am from a line between the Regatta Grounds and Rosny Point.
The Geilston Bay Boating Club will also be running a twilight race on the evening of February 12, starting directly in front of the Regatta Ground.
The Sunday (February 11) will be People’s Day at the Royal Hobart Regatta and will include the trans-Derwent swim, powerboat racing, a concert, and the 7HO FM Riverfire fireworks display.
The flagship for the 180th Royal Hobart Regatta will be HMAS Hobart, with entertainment by army and navy bands.. ONE of Hobart’s favourite local vessels, the May Queen, featured in an excellent television program last week.
Now there are two more chances to see and hear more about the history of this famous Tasmanian trading ketch.
Jack Chesterman’s new exhibition, May Queen and the Sixareen — Archaeology of Journeying, will open this afternoon at the Carnegie Gallery at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania and run until April 22.
Jack, who is related to the Tasmanian Chesterman family but lives in the United Kingdom, will also be guest speaker at the museum’s monthly lunchtime talks program in the Royal Society Room at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery on Tuesday.
His exhibition at the Maritime Museum explores the May Queen in honour of its 150th birthday last year.
Jack has an amazing eye for colour, structure and texture of boats, and his artworks will impress, inspire and delight Tasmanians.
The works show the May Queen from all angles, from up the mast to down in the bilges, and include numerous close-ups, which have a strong abstract quality.
A few are directly historical, drawn from old photographs of the May Queen and its owner Henry Chesterman, who is a direct ancestor of the artist.
In this exhibition, Jack Chesterman links the May Queen with Industry, an equally significant Shetland sixareen that fished in the North Atlantic and is now displayed at the Shetland Museum.
Both vessels are representative of working boats that played a vital role in the development of the coastal communities they served on different side of the world. THE Derwent Sailing Squadron at Sandy Bay has become noted not just for its sailing expertise but also as a supporter of the arts, with its regular displays of paintings and photographs that hang on a special wall in the clubhouse.
The current exhibition is Town, Coast and Country, by Hobart artist Roz Kirkaldie, featuring strikingly colourful and evocative Tasmanian land and seascapes. THE next chapter in the life of one of Tasmania’s most famous racing yachts, Tassie Too, will be launched — literally — on the foreshore of Sandy Bay this morning, and members of the public are invited to be part of it all.
This is fitting because the general public was also heavily involved in the building of the Tassie Too through public subscription in 1927.
It was built at Battery Point, the second Tasmanian Restricted 21-foot class yacht to represent the state and triumph over several years in the hotly contested interstate competition for the Forster Cup.
Over the years since its racing days, Tassie Too has had several owners. It was completely restored by Tony Siddons, of Melbourne, before a ceremonial re-launching at the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart in 2005.
Last year a Hobart-based not-for-profit group called Friends of Tassie Too took over ownership and management of the historic vessel, and it returned to its original home base of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, from where it will operate as a community yacht BOOKINGS are open for a hands-on workshop and seminar in Sydney this month that is of widespread interest to Tasmanian maritime history enthusiasts and to owners and supporters of the state’s growing fleet of historic vessels.
The Australian Maritime Museum Council’s first regional workshop for the year on February 22-23 will be jointly hosted by the Sydney Heritage Fleet and the Australian National Maritime Museum. Some sessions will be held on the famous Tall Ship James Craig.
Titled Navigating Restoration: Ways and means of restoring historic vessels from small boats to ships, the two days will include a harbour cruise and visit to the Sydney Heritage Fleet complex, and a reception hosted by the Australian Register of Historic Vessels.
For details and bookings phone (02) 9298 3743 or visit ammc@anmm.gov.au