The Barnes Bay Regatta, traditionally the popular sailing event that wound up the summer yacht racing season, has been ‘re-invented’ and will be held on the last day of daylight saving, Saturday, 2 April.
The Regatta will have new race courses and a new onshore destination on Bruny Island, making the regatta not just for sailors but in the long term, a community event for the historic island south of Hobart.
Due to a clash with another event, the Regatta was cancelled last year, making it opportune for the Kingborough Boating Club to introduce a new racing/cruising format and a move to a more family friendly environment ashore, the old Quarantine Station. .
At the same time, the 2016 Regatta will maintain the historical continuity of the ‘Bruni (sic) Island Regatta’, first reported by the ‘Mercury’ of 5 February 1868, and over the following near 150 years by some graphic newspaper descriptions of events afloat and ashore at various times.
The Barnes Bay Regatta, as it became known, was held annually from the 1920s through to the 1960s and thanks to the efforts of dedicated members of the Kingborough Boating Club it was reinstated as the Barnes Bay Regatta in 2006.
The Regatta this year will comprise three elements: a Saturday morning ‘two points race’ from Wrest Point and Dennes Point; the afternoon Barnes Bay Race; and on Saturday evening the traditional post-race presentation and barbeque ashore at the historic Quarantine Station.
The Wrest Point to Dennes Point Pursuit Race, sponsored by Wrest Point, will see the slower boats start at 9.00am with the faster yachts starting progressively over the following 30 minutes. The finish will be off the jetty at Dennes Point.
The Tassal Barnes Bay Regatta race, starting at 2pm, will take the fleet around a ‘touring’ course within Barnes Bay and across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, with rounding marks off Rosebanks Beach, Woodcutters Point and the Kettering Yacht Club permanent mark in Shelter Cove.
The post-race celebrations ashore will start with a Tassal smoked salmon tasting from 5pm followed by barbeque with BYO drinks and live entertainment and the prizegiving.
The weekend of 2-3 April, the last weekend of daylight saving not only means for many the last day of the summer boating season, but is also popular with holiday home owners on the island.
“With access to the Quarantine Station Reserve, the KBC has taken the opportunity to re-invent the Barnes Bay Regatta as more than an event for sailors, but one to involve the local community of Bruny Island and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel,” Kingborough Boating Club Commodore Peter Williams said this week.
Peter Campbell
