Historic times for The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania

8:40 AM Thu 4 Feb 2010 GMT

'Mr Kite taking line honours in the Launceston to Hobart Race' RYCT &copy

Yachting has been part of the maritime life of Hobart for more than 170 years and the State's senior club, The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, is currently in an historic mode - two weeks ago celebrating 100 years since being granted a 'Royal Warrant and an 'Admiralty Warrant' and this weekend conducting the 84th Bruny Island Race, the nation's oldest long offshore/inshore race.

Nearly 200 members, their Commodore-in-Chief, His Excellency the Honourable Peter Underwood, Governor of Tasmania, and their Commodore Clive Simpson and their guests toasted the centenary at a black tie dinner at the Sandy Bay clubhouse on 21 January, supposedly the day on which the club received its 'Royal Warrant.'

However, His Excellency, the former Chief Justice of Tasmania, was meticulous in his research and put forward a learned argument that cast some doubt on the actual date of the club being granted the 'Royal Warrant.'

Commodore Clive Simpson recalled that although the first Hobart Town Regatta was held on 1 December 1838, yacht racing on the River Derwent did not achieve a permanent status until group of Hobart sailing enthusiasts met on
20 May 1880 and formed the Derwent Yacht Club.

That was the beginning 130 years ago of what is now The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, with King Edward VII granting a Royal Warrant enabling the club to change its name and the Lords of the Admiralty giving permission to members to hoist the Blue Ensign, a protocol that extended between 1908 and 1910.

Which meant, said the learned Commodore-in-Chief, that the club was given permission to change its name to The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania sometime in 1908, but on the 21 January 2010, the club and its members were granted
an 'Admiralty Warrant' to fly the Blue Ensign.

The following evening, however, it was back to sailing, with a fleet competing in the 23 nautical mile twilight/night race down the River Derwent and across Storm Bay to Nubeena on the western shores of the Tasman Peninsula. The Nubeena Race is the fourth race in the Combined Clubs Offshore Series.

The fifth and final race will be the 89 nautical mile Bruny Island Race starting this coming Saturday 6 March. First sailed on 17 March 1898 and circumnavigating the elongated island south of Hobart, the race is the oldest long offshore/inshore race in Australia. While the race was not always held every year until after World War II, it has been sailed annually, with one exception, since 1946.

Over the past 111 years many famous yachts and yachtsman have taken line honours or won the Bruny Island Race on handicap, including Mistral, Culwalla III, Weenie, Ninie (six times) Mistral V, Acrospire IV, Terra Nova, Caprice, Southerly Buster, Huon Lass, Margaret Rintoul II, Intrigue (six times), Sovereign, Doctor Who (six times), Invincible and current race record holder Konica Minolta.

Culwalla III - Bruny Island race winners 100 years ago - RYCT &copy

In the past two years women skippers Diane Barkas (Asylum) and Sally Rattle (Archie) have made history by winning the Bruny Island Race.

This year's 84th Maria Island race has attracted 31 nominations, many of them, such as Andrew Hunn's Mr Kite with its canting keel, representing the latest concept in state-of-the-art yacht racing, a vastly different concept in yacht design when compared with W M Marks' Culwalla III which won the Bruny Island Race in 1910 whilst on a voyage from Sydney to Melbourne via Hobart. Even more different was C R Rex's Mistral that won in 1901 and 1902.