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171st AUSTRALIA DAY REGATTA
News update – 27 January 2006
Spearhead wins City of Sydney Australia Day Cup The 171st Australia Day Regatta’s City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup for the CYCA’s Australia Day short ocean race to Botany Bay and return has been won by the Elliott 1050 Spearhead, skippered by Rick Fielding.
The Cup is awarded to the yacht with the lowest PHS corrected time among those specifically entered for the Australia Day Regatta among the fleet contesting the CYCA’s combined Ocean Pointscore and Short Ocean Pointscore race to Botany Bay.
Spearhead’s skipper and most of her crew are air traffic controllers who race the yacht as their relaxation when not undertaking their onerous tasks at Sydney Airport, but this was the boat’s first ocean race this summer.
Spearhead won PHS Division 1 of yesterday’s Short Ocean Pointscore, sailed in a freshening north-easterly seabreeze on a hot and sunny day in Sydney, recording a corrected time of 4 hours 56 minutes 52 seconds.
Her elapsed time was a mere 10 seconds better than that of Warwick Sherman’s Cookson 39 Occasional Coarse Language which placed second in PHS Division 1 of the Short Ocean Pointscore and won the PHS Division of the Ocean Pointscore.
The Geoff Lee Trophy, for line honours in the Australia Day Regatta race to Botany Bay, went to Dick Cawse’s Cawse/Lyons 60 Vanguard which sailed the course in the fast time of 3 hours 25 minutes 13 seconds, also taking out the IRC Division of the Ocean Pointscore.
Vanguard won the IRC division of the Ocean Pointscore on corrected time from Julian Farren-Price’s Cookson 39 About Time with the casual entry Splash Gordon (Stephen Ellis) third and Occasional Coarse Language fourth.
Occasional Coarse Language won the Ocean Pointscore PHS division by just 6 seconds on corrected time from Out of Sight (Matt Wilkinson) and Black Adder (Stephen Thomas).
Spearhead took out PHS Division 1 of the Short Ocean Pointscore from Occasional Coarse Language, third place going to Black Adder, with Big Blue (Bob Penty) winning PHS Division 3, from Out of Sight and Morag Bheag (John Maclurcan). Big Blue was not an Australia Day Regatta entrant
About Time and AFR Midnight Rambler, Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’ Farr 40, continued their duel for top honours in IRC Division 1 of the Short Ocean Pointscore, with About Time taking honours by just under two minutes.
In IRC Division 3, the classic Illingworth & Primrose-designed Morag Bheag strengthened her grip on the pointscore with a win from Out of Sight and Brilliant (Howard & Susan Piggott).
The Ocean Pointscore fleet raced again today, to Lion Island and return, with Vanguard again taking line honours and first place in the IRC division, winning from About Time and Occasional Coarse Language. PHS division winner was Occasional Coarse Language with About Time second ad Occasional Coarse Language third.
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171st AUSTRALIA DAY REGATTA
News update – 26 January 2006
Sydney sailors celebrate Australia Day afloat
Hundreds of Sydney sailors, their crews, friends and families today celebrated Australia Day as their forebears have done each year since 1837 – by competing in the 171st Australia Day Regatta on the Harbour.
They enjoyed a wonderful day of competitive sailing on a hot and sunny day, tempered on the harbour by Sydney’s summer seabreeze – a nor’easter of 10-15 knots, gusting to 20 knots as the fleet close-reached to the finish line.
Of the 86 yachts competing in 11 divisions of the 171st Australia Day Regatta, all but one boat completed the course as the regatta got under way following the spectacular RAAF F-18 flyover, a Surf Ski race, the Ferrython, the Tall Ships Race and the Army parachute drop into Farm Cove.
“It has been a brilliant day on Sydney Harbour – a vast array of on-the-water and in-the-air activities, and a great fleet of racing boats ranging from historical skiffs to state-of-the-art grand prix racing yachts,” commented John Jeremy, chairman of the 171st Australia Day Regatta management committee from aboard the Flagship, HMAS Manoora.
A feature of the Harbour fleet was the number of classic yachts competing – gaff-riggers such as Ranger and Redpa, historical skiffs such as Britannia, and International 5.5 metre class yachts including Pam and Baragoola which once sailed for Olympic selection.
The Historical Skiffs are replicas of the famous gaff-rigged 18-footers of the early 1900s, with first place going to the famous Irish yachtsman Harold Cudmore at the helm of The Mistake – by just 2 seconds on corrected time from The Scot, skippered by Chris Jackman.
The Classic Non-Spinnaker Division winner was a boat with a truly Australian name – Gumleaf, skippered by Orion Alderton, second place going to Phil Kinsella’s Sylvia, a replica of a Queenscliff ‘couta boat of the early 1900s.
The 5.5 metres, the class in which Australia won its first Olympic gold medal, at the Tokyo Games, turned out for the 171st Australia Day Regatta with a fleet of six classic boats, with Pam (Peter McDonald) taking first place by just 18 seconds from Paladin (Bob De Coster).
Close racing was another feature of the 171st Australia Day Regatta, with Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Commodore Geoff Lavis skippering SBS Wild Thing to an 8 seconds corrected time win in Division 1, from Braveheart (Bill Meiklejohn) with Sydney (Charles Curran) a further 16 seconds astern.
In Division 2, Greg Mason’s Sinewave became only the second winner since 1866 of a fine claret jug recently donated to the Australia Day Regatta by the Davidson Family. The cutter Ella first won the trophy 140 years ago in the Australia Day Regatta on this day 1966..
Other winners today included Carina (Greg Nelson) in Division 3, Come by Chance (John Nutt) in Non-Spinnaker Division 1, Intrepid (Sailability – John Price) in Non-Spinnaker Division 2), Mistral (Will Houston/David Chapman) in the Yngling class, Magnificat (John & Robyn Hancox) in the Catalina division, Gumleaf (Orion Alderton) in the Classic Division.
While the fleet of 86 boats was racing around fixed marks on Sydney Harbour, a fleet of 30 ocean racing yachts competed in the short ocean racing to Botany Bay and return for the City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup, making a spectacular sight as they swept back into the Harbour under spinnaker towards their finish line in Rushcutters Bay.
Line honours and the Geoff Lee Trophy went Dick Cawse’s 60-footer Vanguard in a fast elapsed time of 3 hours 25 minutes 13 seconds, also winning the IRC division of the CYCA Ocean Pointscore. The PHS Division of the Ocean Pointscore saw a win for Occasional Coarse Language, Warwick Sherman’s Cookson 12.
Provisional winner of the 171st Australia Day Regatta City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup, as the yacht with the lowest PHS corrected time in the Botany Bay Race, is Rick Fielding’s Spearhead which placed first in the PHS Division 1 of the Short Ocean Pointscore with a corrected time of 4 hours 56 minutes 52 seconds.
PHS Division 3 went to Big Blue (Bob Penty) while IRC Division 1 saw the continued rivalry between Julian Farren-Price’s Cookson 39 About Time and Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’ Farr 40 AFR Midnight Rambler, with About Time beating AFR Midnight Rambler on corrected time.
IRC Division 3 went to John Maclurcan’s Illingworth & Primrose-designed Morag Bheag, strengthening her pointscore position in the Short Ocean Pointscore.
Further information:
Peter Campbell – 0419 385 028 or email – peter_campbell@bigpond.com
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News update – 15 January 2006
Entries closing for 171st Australia Day Regatta
Entries close this coming Wednesday, 17 January for the 171st Australia Day Regatta, including the historic Sydney Harbour event and the traditional ocean race from Sydney to Botany Bay and return.
The 171st Australia Day Regatta is the world’s oldest continuously held sailing regatta, the first regatta being held on the Harbour in 1837.
Entries for the Australia Day Regatta on the harbour should be directed to the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron with entry forms available on the Squadron website – www.rsys.com.au, the Australia Day Regatta website – www.australiadayregatta.com.au, and the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club website – www.sasc.com.au
Entries for the ocean race should be lodged with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, with entry forms available on the CYCA website – www.cyca.com.au
The Botany Bay Race on 26 January also marks the resumption of the CYCA’s Short Ocean Pointscore, but yacht owners are reminded to lodge specific entries for the 171st Australia Day Regatta to be eligible for the City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup and the Australia Day medallions.
The ocean race to Botany Bay starts at 11am on Australia Day, 26 January, with racing for keelboats and skiffs in the 171s Australia Day Regatta getting under way at 1.30pm.
In addition to these events, Australia Day regattas for yachts, trailable boats, catamarans and dinghies will be held on Lake Macquarie, Pittwater, Botany Bay, Lake Illawarra and other NSW waterways.
Entries for these regattas should be made with the conducting clubs at these venues.
In total, the Australia Day Regatta management committee expects more than 800 sailing craft to be involved in races on Australia Day.
Flagship for the 171st Australia Day Regatta will be HMAS Manoora, maintaining the Australian Defence Forces long-standing support for the regatta, with the Australian Army and the RAAF also involved in spectacular aerial, land and water displays on 26 December.
Further information:
Peter Campbell – 0419 385 028 or email – peter_campbell@bigpond.com
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DAVIDSON FAMILY DONATES HISTORIC 140-YEAR-OLD TROPHY
A fine claret jug won by the yacht Ella in the 1866 Anniversary Day Regatta , as the Australia Day Regatta was then known, has been donated for competition once more, starting with the 171st Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour in January 2007.
The historic trophy will now be known as The Davidson Family Trophy, and as Ella was the winner of the race for Second Class Yachts at the 1866 Anniversary Day Regatta, it will be awarded to the winner of Division 2 for future Australia Day Regattas.
Ella was a prominent competitor in the regattas between 1866 and 1873 and at her first start won the race for Second Class Yachts, for yachts under 12 tons displacement. Her owner, Colonel J.Richardson, received the claret jug as his trophy.
With some good fortune, Geoff Lee, the Australian Day Regatta Management Committee Chairman from 2002-2004, and his wife, Judy, discovered the 140-year-old trophy in a Sydney antique shop
Suzanne Davidson, wife of Colin Davidson (Chairman of the Regatta 1989-1995) purchased the antique claret jug and has very generously donated it to the Australia Day Regatta as a perpetual trophy to be known as “The Davidson Family Trophy” for future regattas.
Ella was a cutter of 11 tons built for Colonel Richardson in 1866 by Dan Sheehy at Wooloomooloo, under the supervision of her designer William Bourke Rusesell Watson. It was he who in the 1880s devised a system of tonnage and measurements that was used for yacht racing as late as 1919.
Ella’s official number was 64372, her dimensions being: Length 35.9 feet; Beam 9.0 feet; Draft 7.0 feet.
Ella sailed in numerous races conducted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron as well as the Anniversary Regatta from 1866-1873 and the Balmain Regatta. In 1966 she also won the St Patrick’s Day Regatta.
Her Anniversary Regatta record is as follows:
Friday, 26 January 1866: 1st Place (Colonel J Richardson)
Saturday, 2 February 1867: 2nd Place (Colonel J Richardson)
Tuesda, 28 January 1868: 2nd Place (Colonel J Richardson)
Wednesday, 27 January 1869: Did not compete
Thursday, 27 January 1870: 2nd Place (RSYS Commodore H C Dangar)
Friday, 27 January 1871: 1st Place (RSYS Commodore H C Dangar)
Saturday, 27 January 1872: 4th Place (Mr W Farmer)
Wednesday, 29 January 1873: 3rd Place (Mr W Farmer
In 1879 Ella transferred from Sydney to Hobart Town where she sailed with the Derwent Yacht Club. In 1886 she was still on the register of that Club.
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Another Life Member, Brian Northam, passes on
Brian Northam, a Life Member of the Australia Day Regatta and past Chairman of the ADR Management Committee, died in Sydney in April 2008 after a short illness, at the age of 75.
Brian took over as Chairman of the Management Committee in 1996 after serving as Vice-Chairman to Judge Colin P Davidson OAM for several years. The late Geoff Lee AM OAM, another Life Member who passed away late in 2007, succeeded him as Chairman.
The three of them, all later elected Life Members, made a major contribution to the expansion of the Australia Day Regatta, establishing its status as the major event on Sydney Harbour on that day and obtaining significant sponsorship. Judge Davidson is still an active member of the ADR Management Committee.
Brian Northam, a sailor since a teenager, was a member of the crew of Gretel, Australia’s first challenger for the America’s Cup in 1962. He remained
actively involved in Sydney’s yachting and maritime activities for most of his adult life, also serving as President of the Sydney Maritime Museum (now the Sydney Heritage Fleet) from 1988 to 1991.
Brian was a son of the late Sir William (‘Bill’) Northam who won Australia’s first sailing Gold Medal when he skippered the 5.5 metre class yacht Barranjoey to victory at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Brian was closely involved in the restoration of his father’s yacht to compete in the Classic Division of the 5.5 Metre World Championship held in Sydney.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s Brian was active in ocean racing, sailing his East Coast 31 Humdinger and Humbdinger II in two Sydney Hobart Races. He also competed in races to Lord Howe Island with another yacht, Humbug.
Brian had been a member of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron since 1948 and was one of the driving forces in starting the Squadron’s annual May Cruise, a family-oriented event that continues to grow in popularity.
While he had retired from active participation, Brian maintained a close interest in the Australia Day Regatta. The Northam Family Trophy is competed for each year by young sailors in the Sabot two-up class.
