Why does the B14 fleet always have a Buggar the Bone event at their Nationals and Worlds? And what does Buggar the Bone even mean?
It all started in the summer of 2004-5, at Port Dalrymple Yacht Club in the north of Tassie.
During the Nationals, Taswegian legends, Fish and Stewie (aka Richard Fisher and Stuart McDonnell) decided to have a barbie up The Arm, a reach of the Tamar River.
So that they knew how many sausages and rissoles to buy, and because we were at a regatta and that’s what you do, they decided to have a sign on for people interested.
But what to use? They decided to use the deck of their boat, Buggar the Bone. And that tradition has continued.
The original Buggar the Bone event was a cracker. They used the club rescue boats to ferry people up and back the inlet. From a safety perspective, there were designated non-drinkers to drive the boats. There was the BBQ, the huge bonfire on the foreshore, music, silliness. We started at hightide and kicked on until the tide was really low.
The Buggar the Bone tradition was cemented at the Sydney Worlds in 2006. Fish and Stew bought a whole lot of cleanskin wine bottles, and created labels for the whole fleet. This unexpected addition of alcohol, on top of Friends of the Fridge (another tradition started in the Woollahra Function Room at the Worlds), had the fleet ready for unconventional competition. An indoor obstacle course was created, with the competitors having to race a bicycle around the room whilst being impeded by the Manly Ferry (aka a couch being pushed about by Leaky), jump over and under barricades of chairs, spin around with your head on the handle of a broom, and various other mildly dangerous, or indeed outright stupid activities.
Although the Buggar the Bone is a fixture, it is never identical. It has involved BBQs, beach cricket, Opti racing, Opti relays including a swim and eating a cold meat pie, SUP races, egg catching…
And Fish claims some post-BTB activities have included Hot Wax in the Drive Through Car Wash, The Fibreglass Horse Incident, the Battered Sav Episode (which apparently was concurrent with or just after the Naked Dip at McCrae) and The Lunchbox Incident, but he declines to give details.
The boat name was not Fish and Stew’s idea. They bought “Bugger the Bone” from Bangers (Guy Bancroft – who has a thing about bones), who bought “Buggar” from Shane Guanaria. The boat, otherwise known as AUS357, is now Yellowbone, being skippered by Anthony House.
In Australia and NZ, the term “bugger” is considered a gentle curse that can be used in reasonably polite conversation. Check out this 1999 ute ad that was broadcast at all hours on Aussie TV. The Macquarie Dictionary lists one of the meanings for “bugger” as “a nuisance, a difficulty, something unpleasant or nasty. But why is Buggar spelled with an “a” and not an “e”? The theory is that either the spelling was changed so the boat name was palatable for publishing results in the newspaper, or that it suits the sound of the word better.
Times have changed, but 20 years on the Buggar the Bone custom is alive and kicking. The 2025 Worlds in Sydney will host a BBQ and silliness after racing on Wednesday 8th January at Woollahra Sailing Club. It’s hoped some former B14ers, Buggar the Bone survivors / veterans can join the festivities.
