Phil Turner’s Tasmanian Reichel Pugh 66, Alive, has completed 7,000 bluewater miles in the past year. After last year’s Race Week the boat headed to Asia where it contested all the best-known races and regattas before being shipped to Brisbane last month. The full circle will be complete when Alive is back on the start line at Audi Hamilton Island Race in division 1 of the Rating class.
Skipper/manager Duncan Hine says, “We had a ball in Asia for close to a year where we’ve been practicing against the TPs with good results. I hope Alive will be competitive against them at Hamilton Island but it will be very much up to the tidal influences and where they race us. The TPs are definitely are slower than us speed-wise, but on handicap we have to sail a perfect race.”
The Rating class spectrum is wide - 100 foot supermaxis to the 60-footers back to the TP52s and finally the Sydney and Mumm 36s – and will be broken up into divisions to even out the huge waterline length disparity. In division 1 of previous national series the TP52s have proven tricky to overpower.
Racer/Cruiser class entry Onyx, a Sydney 32 from Southport Yacht Club, is a first-timer at Audi Race Week though skipper and CEO of Canberra Yacht Club, Matt Owen, is heading for his lucky 13th consecutive regatta. Owen and his regular Local Hero crew are major trophy winners many times over at Hamilton Island. The loaned Local Hero was sold this year so instead Owen’s crew are teaming up with Onyx’s owners, sisters Danielle and Emma Hutcheson.
“It snowed here yesterday and as I always say, you need you don’t need too many excuses to get out of Canberra in August,” Owen said a few days ago, adding, “It’s good to put my name on my list again.”
As well as the overseas contingent, entries from Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia trek huge distances to be part of the annual tradewind action. Brett Young’s Beneteau First 35, Haywire, is sitting at Bundaberg after being trucked from Perth and about to be delivered to Hamilton Island for the world famous series.
The Fremantle Doctor and inshore racing Perth offers is reasonable enough for a keen crew, but for Young, taking on Queensland’s major east coast challenge is a change as good as a holiday. “We only decided a short while ago ‘why the hell not?’” Young said. “I have always dreamt about sailing in Queensland and a couple of months ago my partner Tanya suggested we put the boat on a truck, spend a couple of months sailing and then who knows where we might end up!”
Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson flew to Hamilton Island on the weekend to check race buoys and other gear are in good working order. He’s mulling over charts, planning potential courses based on start times and when the tide turns and it’s his intention is to open the scoresheet with the Lindeman Island Race and finish with the Molles race on Saturday August 27. On the long race he says, “It’s looking like an interesting course for the long race, 52 nm and lots of corners and shortening spots if the wind goes light.” The Australian Yachting Championship spans four classes: Rating, Passage Rating, Racer/Cruiser and Multihull Racing and entries for the championship and the encompassing Audi Hamilton Island Race Week close on August 7. Download the Notice of Race and enter here. Entries close Saturday August 7 however the race committee may accept paperwork after this date.
All information relating to AHIRW is on the regatta website -http://www.hamiltonislandraceweek.com.au/
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