MEDIA RELEASE:
Date
Navy George Bass Surfboat Marathon – starts Sunday, 03 Jan 10
Footage and interview opportunities available at the end of each race day
The biannual Navy George Bass Surfboat Marathon – the longest, toughest surf boat race in open sea in
the world – starts this Sunday January 3rd, 2010.
Elite teams from across Australia will be competing in the 190-kilometre event that starts off from Batemans
Bay, with the marathon taking seven days to travel to Eden and the race’s conclusion.
Twenty-two male and female surf boat crews from NSW, the ACT, Victoria, and for the first time an
international crew from Holland will compete over the seven consecutive days on the New South Wales Far
South Coast.
After each days racing, Greg Malavey, Operations Manager for the George Bass Surfboat Marathon or Navy
Spokesperson Commander Rod Harrod will be available for interview and footage / interviews and high
Darren Saffin on 0411 089 209.
Joining the George Bass Marathon, The STS Young Endeavour will meet the fleet off Pambula (weather
permitting) on Friday, 08 January 2010. Media opportunities will also be available aboard the Young
Endeavour at the finish line.
The Young Endeavour Youth Scheme provides young Australians with a unique, challenging and
inspirational adventure at sea aboard the national sail training ship Young Endeavour. An 11 day voyage
aboard Young Endeavour is an awesome experience, and one which develops skills for life.
The first Navy George Bass Surfboat Marathon was held in 1975 and was the brainchild of then Bega
Newspaper editor Curly Annabel. Curly was inspired by the open boat journey of Surgeon Commander
George Bass who rowed with crew of six from Port Phillip to Wilsons Promontory and back, mapping the
coast of NSW and Victoria in 1797.
George Bass and Surfboat Marathon background
The basis for the George Bass Surfboat Marathon and its relationship with the Royal Australian Navy is
the voyage of exploration by a young mariner – 24-year old George Bass in the early days of the new
colony in Australia.
In December 1797 Surgeon Commander Bass, with a crew of six naval oarsmen rowed a longboat –
not unlike surf rowing’s original double-ended clinker – from Port Phillip (Sydney Cove) to Cape Howe,
the farthest point of south-eastern Australia.
From here he went westwards along what is now the coast of the Gippsland region of Victoria to
Westernport Bay, almost as far as the site of present-day Melbourne mapping the coastline as they
went.
Bass and his crew returned to Sydney in late February 1798 after identifying that a body of water
separated the mainland from Tasmania. This was later to be known as Bass Strait.
This exploration, in an open boat with few resources and no back up nearby reflects our modern Navy’s
values of honour, honesty, courage, integrity and loyalty.
It is an embodiment of the Navy's modern maritime explorers – the Australian Hydrographic Service,
which has its National Headquarters in Wollongong.
The George Bass Marathon is 35 years old this year, after the first competition in 1975 ran with 12
crews.
The race was the brainchild of then Bega Newspaper editor Curly Annabel. He came up with the
concept of tracing part of the journey in December 1797 of early explorer Surgeon Commander George
Bass.
Navy is now for the second time a proud partner in the George Bass Surfboat Marathon.
Navy is proud to be naming rights sponsor of this iconic Australian sport.
Surf Rowers patrol the beach – the Navy patrols the oceans.
2010 Navy George Bass Marathon Entrants
OPEN MEN
Bulli Illawarra Branch
Anglesea Sydney Northern Beaches
Branch
Surfboat Holland Holland
Fairy Meadow Illawarra Branch
Long Reef Sydney Branch
Canberra Vikings ACT
Wollongong City Illawarra Branch
VETERANS
Bulli Illawarra Branch
North Steyne Sydney Northern Beaches Branch
Pambula Far South Coast Branch
Tathra Far South Coast Branch
Narooma Far South Coast Branch
Bermagui composite Men/Women Far South
Coast Branch
WOMEN
Anglesea Victoria
Pambula Far South Coast Branch
Moruya Far South Coast Branch
Canberra Vikings ACT
Woolamai Victoria
Avalon Beach Sydney Northern Beaches Branch
Woolamai 2nds Victoria
Narooma Far South Coast Branch
Broulee/Canberra ACT / Far South Coast Branch
Media Contacts:
Darren Saffin or Jodie Artis
PR Consultants to Defence Reserves Support
Darren.saffin@gpyr.com.au or 0411 089 209 Jodie.artis@gpyr.com.au or 0414 699 186
Malcolm Grieve,
Defence Public Affairs
0409 603 684
Andrew Edmunds
George Bass Surf Boat Marathon Media Coordinator 0427871207
NEWS 
