It’s all aboard for the 2014 Seafarers’ Festival on Sunday, 26 October. This great family event is free to enter and offers plenty to see and do for all ages. Four boat clubs will vying for supremacy in the Two Hills Challenge, with crews sailing along the Derwent and running up Natone and Rosny Hills before racing to the finish line in Kangaroo Bay at approximately 3.00pm.
Over the day many other yachts will ply the waters of the Kangaroo Bay lagoon, including the tiny and agile paper tiger and firebug fleets. More improvised vessels will be in action at 1.00pm when the handmade Betta Milk Rafts race across the lagoon.
October 26 is also National Discover Sailing Day, which means the Seafarers’ Festival crowd will be able to get out on the water. To register go along to the Bellerive Yacht Club on the day or to find out more visit www.discoversailing.org.au. The festival also presents the launch of Water Safety Week and will feature a daring aerial rescue demonstration in the Kangaroo Bay lagoon.
If eating fine food and raising a tankard is more your thing, then sit back and witness the terrific line up of performers on stage. Sea Shanty duo from New South Wales the Southern Cross Trawlers will kick off the day with classic seafaring tunes, and seven piece Boil Up! will take a reggae voyage from Dunedin to Jamaica. Tasmania’s own Highland Dancers will kick up their heels and the Hobart Ukulele Group will play tunes from the warm islands of the South Pacific.
Big Monkey Theatre will perform excerpts from Sinbad the Sailor in an exclusive preview of their show to be held in the Royal Botanical Gardens this summer. The Royal Australian Navy Band will bring the day to a close with a suitably rousing set that is sure to inspire dancing.
There will be market stalls along the Bellerive Yacht Club promenade and if you like hands-on activities, then dress up and enter the Eastlands Costume Competition, puzzle out the Great Seafarin’ Treasure Hunt, pilot a paper boat or craft a limerick to win great prizes.
With plenty to do for the youngsters, the browsers and the nautical-by-nature, the Seafarers’ Festival 2014 is free to enter and it all happens around the Bellerive Boardwalk from 10.30am to 4.00pm.
More information is available by visiting www.ccc.tas.gov.au/seafarers.
WHAT The 2015 Seafarers Festival
WHERE The Bellerive Boardwalk and Kangaroo Bay Lagoon
WHEN Sunday, 26 October 10.30am to 4.00pm
Alderman Doug Chipman, Mayor of Clarence
