Thousands sail at Geelong festival

NEARLY 3,000 competitors took to the water during last weekend’s Festival of Sails, including Geelong teenager Nick Lee.

He was the youngest crewmember on the boat Bundaberg, competing in the Division One Cruising with Spinnaker category, during the event – the largest keel boat regatta in the southern hemisphere.

“My parents bought a boat when I was six months old and I reckon I’ve been on a boat ever since,” Nick said.

“It’s really great fun and it doesn’t matter what age you are you can enjoy it. I enjoy everything about it.”

Festival of Sails chair Peter Alexander said despite sizzling temperatures, the weather didn’t deter tens of thousands of people from flocking to the waterfront for the 2018 Festival of Sails, including a bumper crowd on Australia Day.

“The 175th anniversary of the Festival of Sails was a fantastic celebration of both our history and our future,” he said.

About 100,000 people were believed to have enjoyed the atmosphere over the weekend.

The 2017 festival attracted an economic benefit of $12 million and while the 2018 figures are yet to be finalised, Mr Alexander said the weekend had been another great success.

This year, the Festival of Sails coincided with the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.

“The combination of these two major sporting events generated an unprecedented amount of sporting activity and entertainment around our waterfront. It was definitely an exciting weekend for Geelong,” Mr Alexander said.

He said it was great to see so many boats of all sizes out on the water and so many people getting into the spirit of the event both on the water along the waterfront.

“The racing at the Festival of Sails is always spectacular and this year’s regatta didn’t disappoint. Despite the weather making for some challenging conditions for competitors, there was plenty of exciting racing over the weekend.”

This year’s event attracted 300 boats of all sizes to Geelong with entries representing all Australian states and participants from New Zealand and Norway.

At the close of competition, Sydney to Hobart winner Ichi Ban – skippered by Matt Allan – was the winner of the prestigious IRC Division 1 trophy.