Page 5 - CYAA2024 Winter Series entry notice

THE FIRST REGATTA on PORT PHILLIP
which was appointed to come off on the 12 January, 1841; and so it did in
th
Hobsons Bay accordingly. The attendance was by no means a popular gathering
in any sense, for it was confined to such of the well to do townsfolk as felt disposed
for a brief change of air. There was no steamer accommodation; boating down the
river was not much cared about and as for an overland excursion to Williamstown,
the swampy, rocky, circuitous bush track by which it could only be made was not

attractive to people journeying by vehicle, horse or foot. Several boat loads put off
from the North Beach (Sandridge) Superintendent Latrobe was there and an
indifferent town band, playing in the poop of the Eagle (flagship) contributed to a
noisy quota of discordant music to infuse some very doubtful harmony to the
occasion.
There were six matches in all, with a general entrance payment of six

sovereigns.
1. Sailing boats or craft trading in the port.
2. Six oared whale boats
3. Ships cutters (sailing)
4. Four oared gigs

There were card prizes for jolly boats and dingies but they eventuated in
wastepaper.
A lunch was given on board the Eagle by Captain Buckley and there was a
regatta ball the following evening at the Caledonian Hotel in Lonsdale Street.