Ankles Aweigh

It was a splendid day for the seventh annual Henley-on-Todd Regatta, high point of the year for the outback town of Alice Springs, Australia. In broiling sunshine, yachts representing Australia and the U.S. fought it out for the Australia's Cup, while sun-bronzed Aussie and Yank oarsmen strained for the rowing championship. Children fished happily while lifeguards on surfboards kept an eye out for bikinied girls in distress. But as any Aussie will tell you, this was no run-of-the-millstream regatta. Consider:

> The youngsters "fished" by digging in the sandy riverbed for wooden fish that were redeemable for prizes.

> The surfboards rolled along on rails. Lifeguards, reeled out by teammates, "saved" attractive girls, then were reeled back.

> The yachts and the racing shells, all with their bottoms cut out, were powered by eight pairs of hairy legs protruding from the hulls.

The oddest thing about the event was that Alice Springs is 1,000 miles from the sea, and the Todd, which has flowed only five times in the past ten years, was dry as a bone. Henley-on-Todd is the Aussies' put-down of England's very proper Henley-on-Thames Regatta. Fun it may be, but it also involves work: slogging through the sand of the riverbed is exhausting.

There is some ground for believing that the event is dedicated primarily to working up an even larger thirst than is usual Down Under. Last week's turnout of 4,500--half of them children --downed 3,360 pint bottles of beer, most of it sold from a bar sited in the center of the otherwise dry river.

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