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Gordon Ingate is 100 years old, Australia’s oldest living Olympian and still desperate to win, whatever it takes.
On Saturday morning on Sydney Harbour, Ingate lines up his sailboat in the Classic Yacht Regatta from Point Piper. He is the skipper aboard Jasnar, a 29-foot wooden yacht built in 1946 which he first raced in the 1950 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race with his late wife Sally. Over 76 years later, Ingate still loves the sound of the starting pistol – but enjoys hearing it at the finish line even more.
“Once they blow the starting gun, I then immediately want to hear the next gun, which is the finishing gun, because once I’ve heard that, it means I’ve won – and this is what I am here to do,” Ingate says. “I’ve got to be the boss here as I’m responsible for everyone on this boat. That’s the way it is.”
Ingate manages a social calendar that would be the envy of one half his age. Every Wednesday he plays croquet, while he is actively involved in running a farm on the Mid-North Coast.
Away from the boat, Ingate laughs often and shares anecdotes readily, qualities that have attracted the wide social circle that helped him celebrate his 100th birthday at the end of March. On deck, though, Ingate’s easy geniality disappears for the duration of the race as his focus shifts squarely to crossing the line first.
Former professional sailor Peter Warner and Olympic bronze medallist David Giles are part of Ingate’s crew at Point Piper. Both men have competed against the best in the world, but on Saturday morning, they work seamlessly under Ingate’s command.
“It’s his focus and his dedication to the sport that make him special,” Warner said. “Gordon has a set of values and operating criteria that he knows works, and he sticks to it. He’s very clear with his communication and everyone’s on the same page. Because of his experience, he sees things that others just can’t.
“You do what you’re told. I remember at 12 years old going out to sail with him in the harbour here. I told him I was looking forward to a fun day. He asked me how to spell fun, I spelt it out: F-U-N, and he said, ‘No, no, it’s W-I-N’. He hasn’t changed one bit.”
Ingate competed for Australia at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, having been unable to compete at the 1948 and 1952 Games in London and Helsinki despite qualifying for both. Ingate was working as an engineer and his request for six months off to make the return trip to Europe by boat was unceremoniously rejected.
“I’d gained selection and the Olympic Committee of 1948 said, ‘OK, you can get there by ship, not by aeroplane’,” Ingate said. “There was no such thing as that. I said, ‘Right, well, I’ll go and ask the boss’.
“I went in, knocked on the door, and he said, ‘Come in’ – very roughly, because I was only 18 at the time – and he said, ‘What do you want?’
“I said, ‘I’ve been selected to represent Australia in the 1948 Olympic Games in England’. And he replied, ‘Yeah, so what?’ I said, ‘Can I have the time off? I need six months’. He says, ‘You’ve got to be joking, sonny, get back to work’. The same thing happened four years later.”
Despite missing out on the two Olympics, Ingate retains one of the most impressive CVs in Australian sailing. He won the Australian Championships Dragon Class title four times, including his last title at 94 years old, and came second in the 1972 Sydney to Hobart race. Ingate also skippered Gretel II in the 1977 America’s Cup.
Ingate never gets nervous before racing. He has experienced most things the sport can throw up.
In 1965, after racing at Cowes in England, he told this masthead that ocean racing was like standing under a cold shower and ripping up money – it leaves you wet and cold. Sixty-one year later, in the autumn sunshine on Sydney Harbour, Ingate thinks very differently about the sport that has given him so much, and which he still loves.
“I enjoy my sailing and now that I’ve turned 100, I can’t see any reason why I can’t keep doing it,” he says. “But climbing on board today, I had to struggle because my balance. Of all the things that are happening to me, it’s my balance.
“One day I’m going to have a fall and that’ll be the last of it. If I have a major fall and I can’t walk any more, can’t come down here to get on board the boat, then that’ll probably be the end of my sailing – or actively anyway, unless they can find some way of getting me on board.”
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