LANE COVE RIVER SPARKLES FOR 2026AUSTRALIAN BOAT RACE

The decision to change the Australian Boat Race Course to the Lane Cove River for 2026 was made with a couple of considerations in mind and with some trepidation.

The main harbour course and the volume of ferry traffic on Sundays had meant we needed to finish racing by around 10 am. Additionally the costs of using Darling Harbour for landing and the maritime vessels for race protection were beyond our budget at over $23K. As well in recent years Maritime NSW had put increasingly restrictive rules on following vessels and were insisting on speed restrictions to 4 knots for flotilla vessel past East Balmain and making support teams go around Goat Island.

The decision was made to use the Lane Cove River Course from Greenwich Wharf to Figtree Bridge (3500 meters) with the lower part of the course following the Gold Cup course from Longueville onwards. The University College Crews raced from the Gold Cup start to Figtree Bridge – 2700 meters.

Because of the change of course we were able to race in reasonably protected waters till much later in the day and so the decision was made to include two additional races – between some of the top schoolboy and schoolgirl rowing schools of Sydney in the Sydney Schoolgirls and Sydney Schoolboys Australian Boat Races with Pymble Ladies College racing St Catherine’s College Waverley and The Kings School meeting St Joseph’s College.

Racing started at 9.30 am with The Women’s University College Race where Trinity College Melbourne defeated St Andrews College Sydney followed by The Men’s University College Race and a unique result with the first win by a Sydney University College when St John’s College of Sydney won well over Trinity Men’s team from Melbourne.

Conditions were proving more challenging for crews as the morning progressed with the tide turning and running out into a moderate to robust north, north westerly wind – creating slightly choppy but challenging conditions.

The school races were won more easily with St Catherine’s defeating Pymble (and turning tables from the regatta at Penrith on the previous day) and St Joseph’s College defeating Kings School by a strong margin,

The Australian Boat Races were hotly contested – non more so than the women’s race in which the two crews pushed hard against each other all the way down the course and with Melbourne fighting back in the final stages to put Sydney under pressure. In a way this race was a clash of another generation in Australian Rowing as Emily Antonie (daughter of Olympic gold medalist Peter Antonie) stroking the Melbourne Boat facing Remy McKay (daughter of Mike McKay also gold medalist in Barcelona and Atlanta). This race brought out all the passion and intensity that is wonderful to see in these races with Antonie pushing her crew all the way to catch Sydney and showing disappointment through their crew when they did not manage to do so.

The men’s race saw the Sydney crew explode after about 4 strokes and push their rate up to try and grab a lead before their first unfavourable turn. Helped by current national team members Jackson Kench and Hamish Danks and backed by members of the SUBC crew that recently won the Oxford and Cambridge Cup and Intervarsity the Sydney crew’s early tempo gave them a handy lead – but once again the Melbourne crew did fight back to narrow the margin in the final stages of the run to the finish line at the bridge.

Presentations were held on the staging and pontoon at the Sydney Uni Boathouse with Olympian Nick Purnell presiding as the MC and the female race medals and trophies being presented by Jaime Ford (winner of 6 Boat Races) and the men’s events by Olympic gold medalist Alex Purnell (winner of 3 Boat Races).

Feedback this year from both spectators and participants was incredibly positive with everyone appreciating the Lane Cove Course and the function and use of the Thyne Reid Boathouse.

The organizers will begin a thorough review of the event soon and seek feedback to compile a strategy for the next time the event returns to Sydney in 2028.

During the morning quite large numbers attended the Thyne Reid Boathouse to watch the races on screens or positioned themselves on or under the Figtree Bridge to watch the finfishes.

Through the morning and after completion of the regatta SUBC parents, led by Amy and Wes Rogers and Gonzo Preller and Keryn Divall, Vanessa Morris, Di Garnett, Steph and Chris Danks

Also massive thanks to Phobe Teale and Steffi Preller for organizing the athlete group to give the boathouse a massive tidy up.

The organizers would like to also thank the following parties who helped massively in staging this event.

Lizzi Chapman and Chris McCarthy – a great day on commentary,

Greg Smith and Barbara Ramjam who umpired the races and Liam James who did the judging.

Greg and Barbara thanks for your many years supporting this event.

Thanks to Richard Scotts and his filming and production team who produced a terrific broadcast of high quality on an incredibly helpful budget.

Thanks to Will Raven of St Joseph’s who lent umpiring and safety boats for the regatta. Thanks to Stan Wall and his team of Lifeguarding Australia who manned out safety boats.

Thanks to Sam Boland and Elliott Bertinetti- Sackcloth who assisted us broadcasting the event on the Rowing NSW YouTube Channel.

Thanks to Ryan Smith of Sydney Uni Sport Marketing and Victoria Caterson for their work on publicity and the ABR website and management of social media leading up to during and after.

Thank you to the schools who participated in the first ever school races in this format and to their headmasters and rowing masters and coaches who embraced and supported the concept of this regatta. To John Keogh (St Catherines), Harry Randell (Pymble Ladies College), Will Raven (St Joseph’s College) and Julian Huxley (The Kings School) our thanks.

Thanks to our MC Nick Purnell, assisted by our President John Boultbee and thanks to our trophy and medal presenters Alex Purnell and Jaime Ford.

Thanks to our volunteer stills photographer, Andrew Frazer – your assistance over the years is much appreciated.

Thanks to SU Sport and CEO Ed Smith for support.

Thanks to Melbourne Uni Sport for their visit – we trust your trip and the regatta was an enjoyable experience.

Huge thanks to all the members of SUBC who were there to race on the day and to assist with driving speedboats, cleaning the shed and the carpark (Will Rogers) and helping throughout the day.

Finally, to the ABR Committee that assisted me in preparing this event I have special thanks – Alyssa Fikkers, Max Grant, Amy Rogers, Ryan Smith, Victoria Catterson, Lizzi Chapman, John Boultbee.

Results for the 2026 Australian Boat Race Regatta

University College Women’s Boat Race

1 Trinity College Melbourne Uni 09:26.83

2 St Andrews’s College Sydney University 09:52.46 +00:25.63

University College Men’s Boat Race

1 St John’s College Sydney University 08:27.37

2 Trinity College Melbourne Uni 08:43.83 +00:16.46

Sydney Schoolgirls Australian Boat Race

1 St Catharine’s 14:34.90

2 Pymble Ladies College 14:58.88 +00:23.98

Sydney Schoolboys Australian Boat Race

1 St Joseph’s College 13:04.64

2 The King’s School 13:17.02 +00:12.38

The Australian Women’s Boat Race

1 The University of Sydney 13:31.93

2 The University of Melbourne 13:36.41 +00:04.48

The Australian Men’s Boat Race

1 The University of Sydney 12:04.92

2 The University of Melbourne 12:11.09 +00:06.17