The Swiftsure Regatta, originally organised by the LBT and Geeveston District High School, is now an annual event. It includes all the schools of the Huon Valley; Dover District High, Geeveston District High, Franklin Primary, Glen Huon Primary, Huonville Primary and High Schools and Cygnet Primary and is the culmination of the On the Water Program, funded by the State Government for this year.

The Regatta transformed the waterfront of Franklin into a busy, crowded place, with teams from all of the schools of the Huon competing against each other in rowing races in Grebe dinghies and teams from various community organisations challenging each other for the Swiftsure Trophy in time trials in the Swiftsure, our replica 30 foot Tasmania whaleboat.

On yet another beautiful sunny day on Saturday, November 5, 2011 the Living Boat Trust held its annual Swiftsure Regatta, in conjunction with the schools of the Huon Valley; Dover District High, Geeveston District High, Franklin Primary, Glen Huon Primary, Huonville Primary, Huonville High and Cygnet Primary.

These schools have all been participating in the second full year of the On the Water program, delivered by the Living Boat Trust in Franklin, initially funded by the Federal Government in 2009 through the Medicare Active Australia program and now through State Government funding since September 2010.

This second phase of the OWP has seen a much more efficient use of the funding, far exceeding the original aims of the grant, having run two regattas and the training required, an after hours program aimed at qualifying students for the Yachting Australia Basic Skills 1 course in addition to achieving 56 days of full OWP training for the seven schools involved instead of the granted 48. This has been made possible by the use of volunteer time in addition to employing a coordinator, instructors and a rescue boat operator. The fleet of boats operated by the LBT, which were originally built by students of the schools of the Huon Valley under the guidance of the LBT, have also been maintained by volunteers of the LBT in its workshop in Franklin.

In addition to the OWP this year the Living Boat Trust was granted funds by the Huon Valley Health Services Advisory Committee to provide a healthy eating program during the OWP. This means participating students have a healthy, energy packed breakfast and lunch during the four hours of on the water activities and receive both information and the experience on the benefits of eating healthy, cheap, locally available and easily prepared foods.

The regatta was a hotly contested event using the facilities of the Huon Rowing Club in Franklin and a series of elimination heats with many entries from all of the schools saw the Primary School final contested between Cygnet 4, Geeveston 1, Cygnet 3, Huonville Primary, Cygnet 2 and Franklin 2. The winning team from Cygnet consisted of Rowan Shelton, Liam Matzolik, Tristan Burnett and Isaac Beecroft.  Geeveston District High took second place with three rowers; Tom, Jason and Jarrod while Cygnet also claimed third place with the team of Finley Gorringe, Jake Buckland, Xavier Banister and Hugh McGarry.

The High School event was contested between three Huonville High teams and a team from Dover High School with Huonville High 3 winning.

The schools organised an art exhibition as well as a music and dance program to complement the water based activities. The art exhibition was held at the Palais Theatre and was judged by Greg Guy, Sarah Swanson and Jane Castle. Senator Catryna Bilyk presented the art prizes and the regatta finals trophies amid songs from various choral groups from the Huon Valley; the Cygnet Singers, Licorice Allsorts, school choirs from Huonville Primary, Glen Huon Primary and Franklin Primary.

In addition to the dinghy rowing races there was intense competition for the Swiftsure Trophy with several teams engaging in time trials in the Swiftsure II, our 31 foot replica Tasmanian whaleboat. The race was, as usual, around Rat Island - a distance of about 1.7 kilometres. The Living Boat Trust team just managed to defend its title with a time of 15 minute 11 seconds, just one second inside the Franklin Marine team’s time (also crewed largely by LBT members).  The Franklin Women Whalers also did well. They started off as a weekly rowing group in our Grebe dinghies a couple of years ago and some have graduated to team rowing in the much larger Swiftsure. They have plans to build a dedicated rowing boat and have won a grant to start work on this project at the LBT in the near future.

The future of the On the Water Program funding is not assured at present and the LBT will carry on some sail and row training to schools on the smaller scale it has always done in the past for individual local schools. The LBT has been delivering three day expeditions in the Huon and Channel for the Friends School over the past few years and is looking to expand this program to other interested schools. For more information see www.lbt.org.au or contact Chris Wilson, OWP coordinator, coord@lbt.org.au