Skandia Geelong Week

Way back in 1844 - 17 years before the first running of the Melbourne Cup - a Geelong regatta was organised by a committee comprising professional sailors, local publicans and waterfront traders. Written accounts of the day describe the regatta as "a modest affair of only four races", but it nonetheless became a regular event.

Standing on the waterfront at Corio Bay during the recent Australia Day weekend, it was difficult to envisage such humble beginnings for the gargantuan festival - encompassing 55 yacht races over five days - now known as Skandia Geelong Week.

The regatta was officially established as an annual event following its successful running in 1858, after which the Royal Geelong Yacht Club - Victoria's first - was formed the next year, and the inaugural 30-silver-guinea trophy was awarded for first-class yachts. The five-day regatta is said to have attracted crowds in excess of 3000 people during that time, and over the ensuing decades it continued to grow in size and stature.

The newly-sponsored Skandia Geelong Week - which, according to event co-ordinator Doug Jarvis, attracted 80,000 people on the Sunday alone - is now recognised as Australia's largest sailing regatta. It is also Victoria's oldest sporting event, and is a combination of the former Festival of Sail and the Geelong Waterfront Festival.

HOLY COWES
Skandia, an international long-term savings company established almost 150 years ago in Sweden, this year took over as the title sponsor of the Geelong regatta as a part of its Set Sail program.

According to the company - which also sponsors the world-renowned Cowes Week - the Set Sail program is a global sponsorship initiative designed to make sailing more accessible, to grow the sport's appeal, and to enrich people's lives.

But perhaps more tangibly, Skandia's acquisition of Geelong's Festival of Sail and Waterfront Festival represents a long-term collaboration with the City of Geelong to make the Australian event the biggest regatta of its kind in the world.

"We are currently the second-largest event compared to Skandia Cowes Week," says Geelong mayor Barbara Abley. "And we hope to become the biggest - mark my word for it."

For Skandia's part, the company says it realised a great opportunity in exploiting the similarities between Cowes and Geelong Week. Skandia's expectation is that over the coming years, yachts will cross the oceans to participate in both the Cowes and Geelong series, creating a world circuit of Skandia events.

THE FULL PACKAGE
But the Skandia Geelong Week is more than a just sailing event. Having grown from a small yacht race to a major regatta that now encompasses many classes and over 400 boats, this year's event attracted well in excess of the 70,000 visitors initially anticipated.

Shore-based entertainment formed a major part of the event's festivities. A total of 48 live bands performed over the long weekend, and all along the foreshore there were buskers and street performers vying for your shrapnel.

Further along were sand sculptures, aerosol-art displays, wooden boatbuilding competitions, rides, craft stalls and various amusements - while up in the sky, the RAAF Roulettes and dazzling fireworks displays lit up the heavens alternately.

And that's to say nothing of the food and drinks on hand. Everything from provincial Spanish cuisine and woodfired pizza to bog-standard bain-marie fare tempted punters, while local wines and beers provided relief from the summer heat and one too many trips to the Hell's Breath chilli stand.

Sweet-toothed revellers were well accommodated too, with everything from fairy floss to poffertjes (Dutch pancakes) on offer. There was even a Yogi's low-fat ice-cream stand set up for patrons who - like this writer - were stricken with guilt after devouring several delicious Maldon yabby and scallop pies, which contained a buerre blanc rich enough to floor a French saucier.

Make no mistake about it - amid all the action and entertainment on the waterfront, visitors could have been excused for forgetting that there was some serious boating going on.

TURN IT UP
Well, almost. Only the least observant - or perhaps the most, ahem, 'merry' - of punters could have failed to notice the awe-inspiring sight of Corio Bay awash with yachts and boats of all descriptions.

At any time during the weekend, visitors could admire the old-world charm of the Young Endeavour, marvel at the mighty 98ft Skandia Wild Thing, or simply gawk at the opulent motorcruisers, sportsboats and hundreds of yachts plying the water.

But it was during the regatta's many races that the bay truly came to life.

For the second year in a row, a Farr 52 from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney won the prestigious Scotchmans Hill Series under IRC. Last year Ray Roberts' Hollywood Boulevard was the victor, while this time it was Matt Allen's Ichi Ban that took the honours.

Allen and his crew sailed for the Royal Geelong Yacht Club in the teams event. They also took third place overall under IMS, winning the series on countback from Lou Abrahams' Sydney 38 Another Challenge (SYC) - the winner overall of the IMS class this year.

Bruce Taylor's Sydney 38 Chutzpah (RYCV) took third place overall under IRC, finishing second in IMS.

Legendary Australian yachtsman Lou Abrahams had to make do with second place again. Unfortunately for the 76-year-old veteran, this seems to have happened a number of times in the past 12 months, with a couple of countback situations complicating matters.

But having said that, Abrahams has also had his share of wins - both in Australia and overseas - and his first under IMS at the Skandia Geelong Week was yet another feather in his teeming headdress. 

A RACING PULSE
Australia Day's "Around fixed marks in Corio Bay" racing kicked off the final day of the regatta, and according to the competitors it was a bit of a soldier's course.

During the race - which was sailed in 15-18kt of consistent winds - the Sydney 38s had a tussle between themselves. Jock MacAddie's Clockwork Orange (RBYC) - with Simon Reffold and Martin 'Tacka' Thompson onboard - got the better of Another Challenge, Chutzpah, Andrew Plympton's 38 Degrees South (RBYC), Terry Hall's Live Wire (SYC) and David Urry's Into the Mystic.

Another Challenge and Clockwork got away at the pin end, with Chutzpah slightly to windward of them but never able to overtake, and that's the way the order stayed throughout - Grant Wharington's Skandia (MYC) took off like it was fleeing a crime scene, and Ichi Ban gave chase.

They finished just that way - Skandia first from Ichi Ban, and Skandia's designer Don Jones in third place with Cadibarra (MYC). This result also gave Wharington line honours for every race (he has not lost one since the yacht's launch in October), and the Australia Day Cup trophy.

EYES ON THE PRIZE
At Monday's prize-giving, Darren Pickering was awarded a trip to Cowes Week later this year, where he and his crew will swap their Thunderbird Larrikan II for a sponsored sportsboat for the duration of the regatta.

A Sunsail-donated charter trip to Hamilton Island was also drawn, with the winner being Alli Murphy - partner of Royal Geelong Yacht Club Commodore Peter Stephens.

Murphy benevolently donated what could have been her honeymoon trip back to Stephens to be auctioned, and the winning bidder was RGYC member John Kint.

Kint lightened his pockets to the tune of $6000, but the money went to a most worthy cause - Skandia's nominated charity Sail 4 Cancer, which is also a beneficiary of Skandia Cowes Week.

The overall success of Skandia Geelong Week, from both the competitors' and the visitors' perspective, will ensure the event's success and growth in the future. But most importantly, the broad appeal of the regatta's festival-like atmosphere promises to bring new blood into the world of boating and competitive sailing - true to Skandia's stated sponsorship goals and integral to the future of the sport in Australia.

The 2004 Skandia Geelong Week was a scream - you'd be mad to miss it next year.