SANDY BAY REGATTA HISTORY

In 2023, we celebrated the 175th anniversary of the Wrest Point Sandy Bay Regatta. A truly amazing feat considering how few there are left in the world.

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To celebrate there was a tree planting and tent displaying the history of the regatta and throughout the day historic watercraft were moored off Long Beach.

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The first Sandy Bay Regatta was held in 1849 at Dunkley’s Point which is now the home of Wrest Point in Sandy Bay. The attached cutting from the Courier newspaper printed in Hobart on 3 January 1849 vividly describes Sandy Bay’s first annual regatta from the weather which was “most auspicious”, the sailing and four oared whale-boat races where the personalities of the day sought “relief from pedestrian exercise”, and even the road “conveying parties to the scene of enjoyment”!

The 1849 Courier article illustrates that the success of today’s Regatta is largely due to the fact that it has gone back to its roots with competitive water events that can be easily viewed by the public, blended with wholesome and fun family activities. Read on to see how the 1849 Sandy Bay Regatta was full of “merry making” and how the seventh race was the “most amusing sport of the day”.

To read the news report of the very first Sandy Bay Regatta in the Hobart Courier, Wednesday, January 3, 1849 click here.