Newman named 100th entrant to famous race

ENTERIES are open for the 2023 Festival of Sails with Geoff Newman becoming the 100th entrant for next year’s anniversary event.

It will be the 180th event of the festival’s Passage Race, between Melbourne and Geelong, an event older than the Melbourne Cup and The Ashes, and will also mark Mr Newman’s 40th time participating.

“There seem to be a few numbers lining up here. Hopefully it will be a positive omen that we’ll go well,” Mr Newman said.

Crewing with Geoff on his Beneteau 381 – Dalliance II – will be wife Andrea, 25-year-old son Will and regular crewmate Dane Gerischer.

Andrea’s father, Bernard “Red” Brayton, was a well-known member of Royal Geelong Yacht Club and introduced Andrea to the event when she was young.

“As you can imagine, with Dad’s birthday and racing in the Passage Race happily intertwined, it has always been a great day of fun and celebration for our family, ever since I was a small child,” Ms Newman said.

“We’re excited to be lining up again.”

Festival of Sails chair Paul Buchholz said the Geelong-based event was a hot ticket with sailors from all over Australia.

He expects the opportunity to be part of the 180th anniversary celebrations will make next year’s event more of a reason for many of them to head to Corio Bay.

“You can’t deny the importance of any event hitting such a momentous milestone and we are incredibly proud of how the Festival of Sails showcases not only the best of competitive sailing, but also the very best of Geelong and our region,” Mr Buchholz said.

“After more than two years of waves of Covid-related restrictions and interruptions to businesses and events, we think the 180th anniversary is a pretty good reason to celebrate, and we’ll be inviting everyone to join us.”

The Festival of Sails is on from January 26 to January 29.