To date, twenty-six yachts will contest the 2026 Rudder Cup, Australia's oldest ocean race, when the fleet starts from Queenscliff on 30 October for the 195-nautical-mile run to Devonport.
The entry list spans from Ryan Walker's Sydney 32 The Kraken to Grant Dunoon's Moody 54 DS Blue Water Tracks, mixing dedicated race boats with larger cruising designs.
Victoria dominates with 22 entries, Tasmania contributes three, and South Australia one. Among them is a boat already etched in Rudder Cup history: Tim Olding's Summit 35 Vertigo carries sail number R935, matching its 2021 victory when it claimed both line honours and the Cup.
Bruce Taylor's Reichel/Pugh 40 Chutzpah, Greg Clinnick's Beneteau First 44.7 Another Chapter and Andrew Middleton's X-41 Quixotic lead the racing contingent. Two Sydney 38s, Matt Fahey's Faster Forward and Tom and Leanne Doherty's Mille Sabords, add depth to the mid-sized fleet.
Spirit of Downunder is also entered, with Marty Bennett and Rick Whitehouse listed as skippers of the Cameron De Lange 12m design. The yacht also appears on the Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster entry list, linking its Rudder Cup campaign with another Bass Strait passage later in the year.
Tasmania's hopes rest with Andrew Jones's Inglis 47 AdvantEdge, Nick McElwee's Hick 35 Honey Pot and Scott Lovell's Farr 51 Just Farr Love. Neil Young's Buizen 48 Penelope flies the flag for South Australia.
The race traces its origins to 1907, when Rudder magazine editor Thomas Fleming Day proposed a crossing from Port Phillip Heads to Low Head at the Tamar River entrance, backing it with a trophy worth 60 guineas. The Ocean Racing Club of Victoria records the inaugural winner as Thistle, a 14.6m yawl sailed by Edgar Newlands with his wife and daughter aboard. Conditions were sufficiently severe that family legend holds Mrs Newlands kept the trophy to discourage further attempts.
The trophy sat dormant for 22 years until Oimara's 1929 crossing. The Newlands family formally presented it to the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria in 1968. A three-race series format ran from 1986 to 2005 before reverting to a single-race format in 2006–2007.
The modern format awards the Cup to the largest handicap division winner. Between 2008 and 2025, fifteen different boats claimed the trophy across seventeen completed races. Only Summer Wind managed consecutive Cup victories, in 2016 and 2017. Four boats have combined line honours with the Cup: Turbo (2008), Tevake II (2019), Vertigo (2021) and Scarlet Runner (2025).
Early bird entries remain open for the 2026 Melbourne to Devonport Rudder Cup up until the end of Monday, 12 October 2026. Following that, the absolute final deadline for all entries and required safety documentation is 23:59 on Monday, 19 October 2026.
The fleet will set off a little before 5pm on Friday, 30 October 2026, from the historic maritime village of Queenscliff, Victoria, navigate the notoriously challenging Port Phillip Heads, and then make a direct dash south across the volatile waters of the Bass Strait. The journey concludes at the finish line located right at the entrance to the Mersey River in Devonport, Tasmania.
Notably, the 2026 route marks a special milestone, as it acts as the thrilling opening stage for the newly launched Bass Strait Cup. After crossing the finish line and being hosted by the Mersey Yacht Club, many competitors will continue their journey east toward the Tamar River to complete the series.
https://www.orcv.org.au/devonport
