Secret to success of sailor Gordon ‘Wingnut’ Ingate, Australia’s oldest elite athlete and just shy of 99

He is one of Australia’s most remarkable athletes - a soon to be 99-year-old still competing in the elite arena and making waves, Now he’s revealed the secret of his success and future plans.

Gordon Ingate at his Sydney home last year with one of a multitude of trophies he has won over the years.

He’s a former Olympian whose longevity in his sport - and pretty much every other - is unrivalled by any in Australian

Not only is America’s Cup, Admiral’s Cup and Sydney to Hobart sailor Gordon Ingate still competing at 98 against elite fleets and sailors, he’s also still competitive.

This remarkable Sydney skipper sailor, who has won the famous Prince Philip Cup Dragon regatta on multiple occasions, including back-to-back in 2017 and 2018, is now preparing for a major event on Sydney Harbour - just weeks before he turns 99 on March 29.

Australia’s oldest living Olympian, who already has a venue chosen and an invite list of around 200 written for his 100th birthday next year, has his eye on a victory in the annual regatta where he will race his yacht Jasnar, built in 1947, in the classic yacht division with Star Olympic medallist David Giles and his daughter Amy.

“I’m still sailing and still winning races. I got two firsts and a second sailing Jasnar at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia last month and now I’m looking forward to going in the Sydney Harbour regatta,” Ingate said.

The elder statesman of Australian sailing raced the pretty Jasnar to Hobart when just 24 and it was on her deck that he proposed to his late wife Sally, a notable sailor and the then 19-year-old daughter of the original owner, at the end of a torrid race back in 1950 were he was seasick for much of the journey,

Ingate has been an avid sailor sine he was a child. Picture: Supplied

Ingate on the famous Admiral’s Cup yacht Caprice of Huon. Picture: Supplied

“It was a very rough race, the only time a Hobart started in Sydney Harbour in a southerly buster and we were punching into large waves and it was blowing like hell. I go very seasick,’’ Ingate said.

“When we arrived Boy Messenger was on the stern of Mistral II and yelled out at the top of his voice at 6am, ‘why don’t you marry the girl’.

“I said ‘what do you think of that for an idea’ and she said “I thinks that’s a very good idea’, and that was the proposal.’’

Ingate said he has a standard answer when asked the secret to his success in sailing, life and his longevity.

“Women. My grandmother, mother, my mother-in-law, the best any man could have had, Sally. I just love any woman, I enjoy all of them, they keep me going,’’ he said.

“Physically I am amazed how well I am handling it.

“But I still like to hear the starting gun go off, so I can hear the finish gun. I do like to win and I do like to compete.

“That’s how I get my satisfaction.’’

Gordon Ingate and David Giles competing in a previous Prince Philip Cup regatta.

Despite is lifelong competitiveness, Ingate still had to knock back two opportunities to race at the Olympics before making his debut.

Getting to the 1948 Olympics in London from Australia required a six month investment of time for the travel overseas and back by ship and while he could have caught a series of aeroplanes to the 1952 games in Finland which would have reduced the commitment to a month, it was far two long for is boss at the time to let him off work.

“No way sonny, get back to work,’’ is what Ingate said his boss told him both times.

His third opportunity came at the tragic Munich Olympics in 1972 when he was his own boss and the Tempest sailing with his crewmate Rob Thornton was held in the north of the country in the famous maritime town of Kiel.

“I’m the oldest living Olympian in Australia,’’ Ingate said.

“Maybe one day I will be in the world.

“And I still plan to be sailing.’’

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Originally published as Secret to success of sailor Gordon ‘Wingnut’ Ingate, Australia’s oldest elite athlete and just shy of 99