Port Stephens launches Cat Stephens regatta for mixed multihull racing
Catamarans got their own passage-racing division at Sail Port Stephens, with four Seawinds, three cruising multis and five Corsair trimarans on the line.
Catamarans were no longer tucked into the margins at Sail Port Stephens. The first Cat Stephens regatta gave multihulls their own passage-racing stage, a clear sign that one of Australia’s biggest regattas was treating cruising cats and trimarans as a headline class rather than a useful add-on.
The third and final Sail Port Stephens Super Series for 2026 ran May 1-3 at Nelson Bay, with daily passage races starting and finishing off the breakwall. That layout promised tight, tactical racing in local water, where boats had to manage traffic, tide and the changing pressure around Port Stephens as well as raw speed. The Cat Stephens entry showed the concept had traction straight away, with Seawinds Chillout, Reflection, Sea Glass and Sea Twist joined by a Lightwave 38, a Lagoon 450F and an Atlantic 48.
Five Corsair trimarans deepened the multihull field and gave the division a mix of cruising and performance hardware. In a regatta that also drew bigger monohulls such as Wild Oats X, Triton and Caol Ila, the new catamaran group stood out as part of a broader effort to make the event more inclusive across boat types without diluting the racing.
That expansion did not come out of nowhere. Sail Port Stephens had already built momentum through its Performance Series over the Anzac weekend, when easterly breezes of 5 to 15 knots produced close racing across the fleet. Matador won Division 1, Beau Ideal took Division 2 and Celestial C31 dominated Division 3, a reminder that consistency across mixed conditions remained the currency of the series.
The 2026 program also reflected a bigger commercial and class strategy. Alongside Cat Stephens, organisers added an international Elliott 6 series and a Super Racer Cruiser division for yachts over 50 feet, while d’Albora Nelson Bay hosted a dedicated race village and regatta headquarters. With NSW Government support behind the event, Sail Port Stephens continued to lean on its reputation as Australia’s second-largest sailing regatta and on a growth story that had already taken it from 215 boats over 11 days in 2025 to a record Commodores Cup Passage Series of around 124 starters for its 19th year.
For multihull sailors, the message was hard to miss: Port Stephens was not just welcoming cats, it was building a calendar around them.
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