Sinking a few at the famous Darwin Lions Beer Can Regatta for 2022

A huge crowd of competitors and spectators descended on Mindil Beach to watch the Lions Club annual Beer Can Regatta in true Territory fashion on Sunday. SEE THE PICTURES.

A BIG crowd of competitors and spectators descended on Mindil Beach to watch the Lions Club annual Beer Can Regatta in true Territory fashion on Sunday.

The CrossFit Darwin team gets that sinking feeling during the famous Darwin Lions Beer Can Regatta at Mindil Beach. Picture: Glenn Campbell

The action-packed event was a series of hard-fought competitions, with many battling it out for glory in the tug of war, thong throwing and, of course, the beer can boat racing events.

Aaron Beaumont, 39, was successful in defending his championship title in the men’s thong throwing.

“I feel wonderful, I’ve been training all year for this,” he said.

“Push-ups, throwing the baseball around, holding the baby.

“I won the men’s thong throwing last year too.

“I come down specifically for the thong throwing event.”

US Marine team captain, Max Floyd — also known as Mad Max — said the building the boat was a team effort.

“It’s a basic pontoon design,” he said.

“We’ve got some empty containers underneath to kind of make that pontoon, give it a little more buoyancy.

“We’ve been working on it for give or take three weeks.

“The team put it all together and we’re just excited to come out and try to win it this year.”

The US Marine team was strong, beating all other competition in a comprehensive victory.

“These guys put in a lot of hard work and it’s great to see that they’re getting rewarded and getting the win out of here,” Mr Floyd said.

“Two years in a row the Marines are winning and we’re gonna get it again next year too.

“They start off a little bit out of sequence with the paddling but they really gotten in sync towards the end there and did a great job.”

It was the first year Techno Vikings competed in the famous race, team captain Ben Greenwood said.

“We tried a couple of designs, our first design sunk so we had to go back to the drinking board,” he said.

“Over a few drinks we worked out we need more cans and we’ve got cans underneath.

“It’s about 3000 cans all up, underneath there’s another four levels of cans.

“It took a lot of time and effort.”

Team No Mads won the men’s tug of war final against team CrossFit Darwin with team No Mads winning the women's tug of war as well. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Anne Bennett, 65, experienced her first Beer Can Regatta after relocating to the Territory three years ago.

“The boats are fantastic — but all that drinking,” she said.

“We’ve just back from a caravan and camping event and that was such a let down.

“But this has just been fantastic.”

Sapta Sebastian, 32, was a part of team CrossFit Darwin and competed in the men’s tug of war event that saw them make it into the final.

“Its been so much fun.” he said.

“I was thinking ‘would we be able to beat them, they are so muscular and we are so small?’.”

Team No Mads won the men’s tug of war final against team CrossFit Darwin with team No Mads winning the women's tug of war as well.

Originally published as Sinking a few at the famous Darwin Lions Beer Can Regatta for 2022