Australian and world sailing has been proudly celebrating a remarkable milestone, as the legendary Gordon Ingate OAM marked his 100th birthday on March 29. It was a major milestone in an active life defined by resilience, innovation, and an enduring contribution to the sport of sailing.
At 22, Ingate qualified for the 1948 London Olympic Games, but was unable to secure the extended leave required to travel by ship. He qualified again for the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, yet despite the introduction of air travel, the journey still required significant time away and once again, and leave was denied.
Gordon Ingate at his 100th birthday. Photo: Australian Sailing
It wasn't until 1972, at the age of 46, that Ingate finally realised his Olympic dream. Competing alongside his crew Robert Thornton in the Tempest class at the 1972 Summer Olympics, he made his long-awaited debut after decades of persistence.
SUCCESS AT COWES
But meanwhile, although he has won major championships in several classes, his talent has been best expressed in displacement keelboats, and in 1965 he had brought his 45ft keelboat Caprice of Huon to Cowes Week. Despite being a classic Robert Clark design of 1948 built so meticulously with Huon pine that she was not completed until 1951, Ingate by 1965 knew the perfectly-tuned Caprice so well that he won the two top trophies, the Britannia Cup and the New York Yacht Club Cup, even though he was up against boats reflecting the fact that 1965 was the year in which Dick Carter’s ground-breaking Fastnet-winning Rabbit made her debut.
Gordon Ingate in the 1960s
AMERICA’S CUP
Stimulated by the European offshore scene, Ingate returned in 1967 with the Australian Admiral’s Cup team that placed second, and still with Caprice he was to take second overall in the 1972 Sydney-Hobart Race. He also was the helm for the 1977 Gretel II challenge for the America’s Cup, with 1947 Dragon Gold Cup winner Eric Strain – originally of Belfast Lough – as his reserve helm.
DRAGON CLASS
And appropriately, it is in the International Dragon Class that Gordon “Wingnut” Ingate has found the most suitable boat to race in his senior years. Having won several major championships, he reckoned that when he reached 88 it was time to retire from active sailing. But he found this so boring that he returned to Dragon campaigning, and won his most recent Australian National title at the age of 94.
He was awarded Australia’s supreme civic medal, the Order of Australia, in 2016 for Services to Sailing.
Happy place for a senior sailing superstar – Gordon Ingate at the helm of his Australian Champion Dragon.
