The 182nd Nautica House Festival Of Sails Passage Race from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria to the Royal Geelong Yacht Club started today, 25 January, under the cannon of the STS Young Endeavour. More than 240 boats and 1100 sailors set off in the oldest continual annual sporting event in the Southern Hemisphere, but it was the 46-time veteran of the race, Bruce Taylor and his team on Chutzpah who won on line honours.
Both start lines with the STS Young Endeavour acting as the start boat – Credit – Brandan Trudinger @sailorgirlhq @sailorgirlhq
At sunrise, hot air balloons drifted through Port Melbourne, however, the breeze filled in just in time for the competitors to cleanly get away, framed by the city skyline.
The fleet made its way down Port Phillip towards Corio Bay, with the high-performance 40 foot-range boats leading the way. It was Bruce Taylor’s Caprice 40, Chutzpah who stole line honours from the newer boats including Rob Date’s Scarlet Runner, and Ray Roberts’ Team Hollywood.
The team cheered as they crossed the line, and crew were heard saying, “we need a 70ft Chutzpah”. Obviously not the case when they have managed to take line honours on a forty footer. “Good wasn’t it,” Bruce Taylor, spoke through his smile. “Experience pays”!
And he isn’t joking, with 46 races now under his belt.
“We’ve been coming down here every year since 1979. We haven’t missed a year,” he exclaimed.
“It’s a lovely place to come, fantastic club and a lovely place to sail”.
“We’ve never got line honours before, and given the boats that were around us, we were not unhappy”. Said Taylor.
The team got the perfect boat end start and played the right hand side all day to stay out of the tide, which started running out about an hour after the start.
On the calibre of boats, some that are half the weight of his, as well as the professional teams sharing Division 1 with Chutzpah, he was humble as always, not admitting that they were by any means good, but that the team was “lucky”.
Festival of Sails continues Sunday 26 and Monday 27 January from the Royal Geelong Yacht Club. Live racing is shown on stage from 10:30am, with family entertainment and activities on stages throughout the Geelong Waterfront Precinct.
