Festival of Sails 2026 underway with the Holiday Inn & Suites Geelong Passage Race
by Nic Douglass 24 Jan 11:02 UTC
24-26 January 2026
The Festival of Sails is under way with spectacular scale and tradition, drawing more than 260 boats to Victoria's waters for one of Australia's premier sailing events.
At the heart of the action is the Holiday Inn & Suites Geelong Passage Race, which today marked its 183rd edition, with more than 200 yachts starting their journey from Melbourne at the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria and racing toward the Royal Geelong Yacht Club. Conditions were glorious for the fleet, with a rare spinnaker start setting the scene for close racing throughout the day, as finishes came down to the wire. While some competitors remain on course, Ray Roberts' Botin 40, Team Hollywood, claimed line honours earlier this afternoon with Robbie McHutcheon on the helm.
"The weather was fabulous! Beautiful sunny day, with good breeze, couldn't ask for anything more, so we were really happy," said Roberts.
Of the racing, and the close line honours finish with the two other 40 foot racers, PP1 and Veloce 4, he said, "we had a good battle. I like close racing, and it keeps the crew on their toes and it's more exciting".
"We are going for the overall win," he commented. "We have won line honours a few times, that is also what we were aiming for, so now we just have to put it all together with no mistakes," he finished frankly on the remaining races to come tomorrow and Monday.
Adding to the ceremony of the Holiday Inn & Suites Geelong Passage Race, STS Young Endeavour served as the start boat, with her cadets lining the yard arms, a powerful and fitting tribute to maritime tradition that set the tone for a race rich in history and competitive spirit.
Winner of the Lou Abrahams Trophy for the overall IRC win in the Melbourne to Geelong Passage Race was Passage Series Division 2 Nigel Jones and Cameron McKenzie boat Ginan, finishing just 30 seconds ahead on corrected time over Bruce McCracken's IKON in Division 1.
"A great day out there," said Nigel Jones. "We had a cracker of a start and got clear and just sailed in nice clear air all day. Luckily the wind held in all day as well, so it was just a glorious day out on the water, and pretty well we got it right. A credit to the whole team, we sailed a brilliant race. We had Jack up on the bow working hard, with the amount of sails going up and down. Definitely not an easy day for a bowman.
On the win itself, he simply said, "we just made the right calls."
Co-owner Cameron Mackenzie agreed. "It was a great team effort from all our team, we have been sailing for years as mates, and it was just fabulous, really nice to get the result. Really happy."
"It was a pretty full on start to be honest," he continued. "We got a brilliant start down at the pin, but it was full on. There was a lot going on, but we got away cleanly, credit to Nigel and the team. We really had a ripping race," he finished.
IKON won Passage Series Racing 1 in all three divisions, AMS, ORC and IRC, but were pipped for the overall.
"Look it was a lovely day, I was expecting to be out there like everyone else for hours, but the wind was really very good," said Bruce McCraken.
"We made our sail changes when we needed to make changes, and did our thing. Rodney and all the boys made all the right decisions, and we just finished up where we did," he commented proudly.
"It was quite a surprise when we saw the results so we are all extremely pleased". McCraken finished.
In Passage Rating Division 2 Ginan, and Scott Robinson's How Bizarre traded first and second place across the handicap divisions.
In Passage Spinnaker Division 4, Trevor Golding's Bite Me, from the Canberra Yacht Club took first place, beating its higher rated competitors.
In the Multihull Divisions Charles Meredith's Peccadillo and Craig Unthank's SKnot took Divisions 1 and 2 respectively. The variable conditions across the racecourse saw the multihulls mixing throughout the fleet.
Race officials also confirmed that a small number of boats retired after breaching designated exclusion zones, a decision that was met with strong support from across the fleet. Among them was Crosshair, who originally crossed the finish line first, whose crew elected to retire in the spirit of fair competition.
Racing will continue on 25 and 26 January on Corio Bay, with Festival of Sails activities running across the weekend. For more information, visit festivalofsails.com.au.
Full results at www.topyacht.net.au/results/2026/fos/index.htm