Sailing regatta to be held in the Australian desert

[depakid]

A “bone dry” salt lake surrounded by deserts in the middle of the Australian Outback is the last place you would expect to find a sailing regatta. However a group of Outback sailing aficionados are planning to do just that when they hold the first regatta in the area around Lake Eyre, Australia’s largest – and driest – salt lake, since 1976.

Record rainfall and flooding in Queensland earlier this year has sent water streaming through many of Australia’s inland river systems, including Coopers Creek, which flows through two states into the Lake Eyre basin.

While Lake Eyre – which rarely fills and is regularly used as the site for land speed attempts because of its vast salt flats – is not expected to be full enough to sail on this year, the Lake Eyre Sailing Club (LESC) is planning to host a regatta on nearby Lake Killamperunna in early July.

Boats last sailed on Lake Killamperunna in 1990, however the LESC – which operates from a property in a country town in South Australia – expects the current Cooper Creek water flow to fill the lake to approximately 2-3m deep within the next six weeks.

LESC commodore Bob Backway, who has been visiting the area regularly since the late 1990s, said the flooding has changed the landscape of the Outback. “The pastoralists have just come out of eight years of drought and they’ve been hit with the best water in the area since 2000,” Mr Backway told The Times. “I haven’t seen so many grins on people’s faces in a long time. Driving up to the area … it’s incredibly green, it’s amazing.”

He said by next month the water is expected to have made its way through the 1,000km (621 miles) of channels and through three deserts from the catchment in eastern Queensland to reach the Lake Eyre, which is situated in the far north of South Australia.

According to Mr Backway Lake Hope, approximately 50km (31 miles) from the planned site of the regatta, and another small salt lake nearby are currently about 50 per cent full, however Lake Killamperunna is still “bone dry”. “But it will have water within the month,” he said. “I’m very confident of that.”

The last regatta to be held on Lake Eyre was in 1976 when a group of Hartley 16s took to the water.

More: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article7119232.ece