America's Cup legends get together for Australia Day on River Derwent

by Peter Campbell on 25 Jan 2011 Two America’s Cup legends of the 1970s, the famous yacht Gretel II and her 1977 skipper Gordon Ingate, will compete in the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania’s Australia Day Green Island Race tomorrow.

Gretel II, designed by Alan Payne and the last wooden 12-metre ever built, the classic yacht was sailed from Sydney to Hobart last week to take part in next month’s Australian Wooden Boat Festival.

Ingate, now in his mid-80’s, is flying down from Sydney to once again helm Gretel II which he skippered at the America’s Cup in 1977. He is still an active racing yachtsman, last week finished fifth Australian in the 70 boat fleet that contested the International Dragon class world championship on Melbourne’s Port Phillip.

In addition to Ingate, joining the yacht’s owner Mike Maxwell for the Green Island Race will be the doyen of River Derwent racing, Don Calvert, and five members of the crew of his yacht Intrigue. Calvert’s local knowledge of the Derwent and the d’Entrecasteaux Channel will be invaluable for the race.

'With her deep keel we will have to give Green Island a wide berth,' Calvert said today.

Although conducted by the RYCT, the 40 nautical mile Australia Day Green Island Race will start at 9.30am from a line off Long Point, Lower Sandy Bay, to link it with the 164th Sandy Bay Regatta.

Yachts in the Green Island Race and dinghy classes in the Sandy Bay Regatta will compete for a special trophy and medallions given by the organising committee of the 175th Australia Day Regatta being held on Sydney Harbour tomorrow.

Coincidently, Gretel II’s original helmsman in the 1970 challenge for the America’s Cup, Sir James Hardy, is President of the 175th Australia Day Regatta, the world’s oldest, continuously-conducted annual sailing regatta.

Gretel II was built for Australia’s third challenge for the America’s Cup in 1970 and was skippered at Newport, Rhode Island, by Jim (now Sir James) Hardy. In a luckless series against the US defender Intrepid, Gretel II won one race and lost another victory in a controversial protest.

Ingate later bought Gretel II and with a crew dubbed ‘dad’s army’ he took the yacht back to Newport for another tilt at the ‘Auld Mug’, but she was beaten in the elimination series. It was not until 1983 that Australia II with its revolutionary winged keel scored its historic victory in the America’s Cup. The 12-metre class yachts were by then built of fibreglass.

Ingate donated Gretel II to the Sydney Heritage Fleet which in 2005 sold her to current owner Mike Maxwell. He shipped her to New Zealand for a major refit, with the yacht sailing back across the Tasman and then, this month, down to Hobart in a fast three and a half days in mostly headwinds.

Although Maxwell has competed in twilight races with the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, the Australia Day Green Island Race will be her first distance race since her restoration.