Century old yacht Aotea competing in Cygnet Regatta

by Peter Campbell on 4 Mar 2010 The century old yacht Aotea is among a fleet of old and new yachts entered for Tasmania's historic Cygnet Regatta, which this weekend is celebrating the 146th anniversary of the first regatta on Port Cygnet, south of Hobart.

The regatta starts tomorrow evening with a passage race from Hobart down the River Derwent to Kettering in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, followed by a 20 nautical mile race from Kettering to Cygnet on Saturday and the main
Cygnet Regatta Race around the picturesque bay on Sunday afternoon.

Aotea, now owned by Port Cygnet Yacht Club member Noel Doepel, was built at Williamstown, Victoria, around 1907 by the Nelson Place boat builder Clement Blunt to a design by the famous Scottish naval architect William Fife Jr.

The classic yacht raced regularly with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania for more than half a century, her first recorded major events being The Ocean Race (now called the Bruny Island Race) in 1908. She led the fleet around
Cape Bruny but broke her gaff.

This year's Cygnet Regatta fleet ranges from local sports boats and four International Etchells one-design yachts to Sally Rattle's Sydney Hobart ocean racer Archie, along with several other boats of historic interest, including two couta boats (one-time fishing boats) and two Derwent class yachts.

Among the local yachts will be Sabre, a 41ft Len Randall design which will be skippered by 17-year-old Nick Banfield and crewed by other graduates of the Club's Junior Sailing School. Two Derwent classers competing are Titania, skippered by Dan Parry, and Goblin, steered by Ian Claire.

Sunday's Cygnet Regatta Race will start at 2pm off the Port Cygnet Yacht Club, taking the fleet on a course around the bay, with rounding marks between Langdons Point and Green Point, south of Green Point and in Copper Alley Bay.

The Cygnet Regatta 2010 follows a revival of annual regattas as a significant part of Tasmanian sailing history, other regattas now popular with sailors being last weekend's Crown Series Bellerive Regatta and down the D'Entrecasteaux Channel the Port Esperance Regatta at Dover and the Huon Regatta at Shipwrights Point.

Instead of holding a small local regatta, the Port Cygnet Yacht Club several years back enlisted the support of the Kettering Yacht club and introduced the two feeder races to encourage more yachts to sail down the Cygnet for the long weekend and the regatta.

The inaugural Cygnet Regatta was held in 1863 at Beaupre' Point. In those days of working ketches, fast schooners, whale boats and steamers, when the Channel was the 'road' to the towns south of Hobart, a regatta was a major
event and the first in Port Cygnet was huge.

The Governor came down on board HMS Orpheous and the steamers Culloden and Monarch brought a thousand visitors from Hobart, while another steamer, the Cobra, brought early settlers across the Huon River from Franklin.

There were whaleboat rowing races, swimming races, axe-chopping competions, merry-go-rounds, gaming tables and the odd brawl or two between over imbibing visitors and locals.

Modern regattas seem almost tame by comparison, but the competitive spirit of sailors is certain to be as fierce as ever this weekend.

Further information from the Port Cygnet Yacht Club's website: www.cygnetsailing.org.au