By Luke Voogt
For three generations Geelong’s Garner family has sailed around Australia and the world, from the pristine lakes of Italy to the perilous Atlantic Ocean.
Brendan Garner followed in his father John’s wake, sailing in his first Geelong Festival of Sails 30 years ago at age 12.
“It’s a full lifestyle,” he said while servicing a boat on Tuesday ahead of this year’s regatta.
The Leopold shipwright and marine surveyor has competed in the Sydney to Hobart six times for one class win with an all-Geelong crew.
In 2011 he sailed across the Atlantic from Rhode Island, USA, to Cornwell, England, travelling 200 nautical miles north of where the Titanic sunk.
“The tricky part was the fog was so thick you couldn’t see the front of the boat and we were moving at speeds of 20 knots plus,” he said.
“If an obstacle had have appeared that would have been a problem.”
In 2001 Brendan sailed Lake Garda, Italy, while 14 years later eldest son Ben competed there aged 10 for the Australian junior team.
Ben, now 12, is learning to be a skipper while younger brothers Josh, 9, and Will, 5, both learn to sail.
“I’ve made a lot of friends sailing,” Ben said.
The young sailor fondly remembers passing Kangaroo Island while delivering a yacht to Adelaide last April with his dad and grandpa.
“It was amazing,” he said.
“At one point I reckon there were about 20 dolphins out the front of the boat.”
Grandad John has held every job at Royal Geelong Yacht Club during 40 years of service.
He took up the sport at Geelong Victoria Sailing Regatta in 1979 on a friend’s suggestion.
“It sort of kept me sane,” the 69-year-old said.
“You get out there on the water and forget about everything that’s happening at work and at home on land.”
John has sailed to Devonport and New Caledonia and competed in a World Fireball World Championships in France in 1990.
He and Brendan still hold the record for the Melbourne to Port Fairy race, which they set in the 1980s, he said.
The family’s seafaring heritage stretched back even further, John revealed.
“My great grandfather, William Garner, was captain of a ship.
“It skipped my grandfather and father but my dad loved the sea.”
The family buried his dad on a hill overlooking Point Richards Channel, near Portarlington.
“Every time we sail past the start of the channel we wave and say hello pa,” John said.
