Skandia Geelong week

The people's week

The promoters of Skandia Geelong Week, the biggest sailing regatta in the southern hemisphere held from January 19 to 28 this year, had it all at the official launch early last month at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, such as super maxi Skandia Wild Thing and a Geelong Football Club cap.

Yes, there it was all alone atop a starched linen tablecloth on one of the display tables in the members' bar obviously just waiting for a bite. For any Melburnian it seems that every person in Geelong barracks for the Cats. "There should be more of them (caps). It took us 44 years to get the flag back, mate!" That's parochial Geelong for you but the city of the reigning 2007 Australian Football League premiers have more to gloat about to big sister Melbourne just some 60km up the Princes Highway.

The latter has always prided itself on being Australia's sporting capital but Geelong, now waving its AFL Premiers flag, which it won by the biggest margin in grand final history, ending a generation-upon-generation drought for the locals, has a unique regatta that has managed to bring together well-heeled yachties with the rest of the community in a week-long sailfest that has grown (and is still growing) exponentially over recent years.

Whatever the psychology of Geelong and its populace is, outsiders will probably never know, but this part of the world does have some happening things going on. Take Avalon Airport just 15km from Geelong's CBD for example, every two years it stages the Australian International Airshow, considered one of the best air show sites in the world and firmly cemented in Victoria's sporting calendar. Avalon Airport is also rapidly growing on the domestic aviation front with Australian budget airline Jetstar announcing a 40 per cent increase in flights out of Avalon from April.

All good. And Skandia Geelong Week can claim similar kudos as being one of the only regattas in this country to embrace the entire community and not be just a 'yachties only' fling.

Skandia Geelong Week chairman, John Kint, said the January event is undergoing "phenomenal growth" with a "Grand Prix atmosphere" and is expected to pump more than $15 million into the local economy.

Apart from the sailing which plays host to six national championships and draws competitors from all over the world, Skandia Geelong Week under the theme of 'above and beyond' will host a wide variety of free entertainment, including Skandia Come Try Sailing (a free introduction to sailing), two waterfront stages with more than 60 live performances featuring music from the likes of Mental As Anything, Ross Wilson et al, an expanded foreshow program featuring beach volleyball, outrigger canoe racing, an art exhibition, Edge Aerobatics, the RAAF Roulettes, and topped off by the local radio station K-Rock's Starshow fireworks display.

Whoever it was at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club (RGYC) to promote the regatta beyond sailing has either had good luck or the foresight to see the geographical position of the club as one that could foster such a festival and spread it over five days.

The RGYC sits in a prime position at the top of Corio Bay. It abuts the Geelong CBD on a sloping foreshore - quite elevated in parts - that forms a wide-sweeping arc, making it an ideal marine amphitheatre providing kilometres of unobstructed vision of the on-water antics, plus the land to accommodate the onshore activities.

To segue back to the original theme of Skandia Geelong Week, the growth in the regatta itself is just as phenomenal. As Kint said: "We already have entries from the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong and expressions of interest from crews in Japan, Singapore and Germany.

"The lift in profile, the quality of the competition and growth is absolutely amazing. Not that long ago we were excited about our first interstate entry. Now you rub shoulders with the world's best sailors and the coverage is global," Kint said.
Who would have thought it? Indeed.

This year the regatta will feature Leg 1 of the Audi IRC Australian Championships, the Morris Finance Sydney 38 Australian Championship, the Elliot 7 National Championship, and inaugural Australian Championships for the SB3, Melges 24 and the recently formed Australian Sports Boats Association (promoted as Bundaberg Rum ASBA National Sports Boats Championships).

Also on the program are multiple race series for; cruising – spinnaker and non spinnaker, Multihulls, Classic Yachts, Super 30, S80, International Cadets and the Yachting Victoria Open Dinghy Championships.

The RGYC said it is expecting record fleets in the popular cruising divisions and possibly a record number competing in the Williamstown to Geelong Passage Race.

The regatta the Skandia Geelong Week is based on was first held way back in 1844 and officially established in 1859 when the Geelong Yacht Club was formed (decreed Royal in 1925), making it one of Australia's oldest sporting events.

Footy is still king in Geelong and despite someone throwing a GFC cap into the affair, Skandia Geelong Week can walk tall on its own. After all, it has stood the test of time and availed itself to the community in the manner it does now, as a promoter's dream, a yachties nirvana, and just a great place to head to for a unique mixture of entertainment for family and friends for a day or a week.