Day four of racing started in style this morning with the annual Hamilton Island Race Week Prix d’Elegance. Sailors smartened up their uniforms or used their creativity to parade and compete for two different prizes, ‘Best Presented’, or ‘Best Themed’, with winners set to be announced this Saturday at the prizegiving.
As Hamilton Island Race Week moves into the final few days, the breadth of the fleet has to be celebrated. From 100ft Maxis down to 20ft-something Sonatas. Friends Hugh Alexander and Greg Goodall are part of a group of Trailable Division sailors who have travelled by road and sea to take part in the 39th Edition.
“We drove our boats up from Victoria, we’ve got three trailer yachts that came up from Bendigo, another two from South Australia and one from Melbourne” explained Alexander.
“We drove up to Mackay, launched from there and did a hop through the southern Whitsunday Islands before coming up here for Hamilton Island Race Week”.
The journey was a dream that started in COVID but got postponed until 2022, when they were finally able to make the trip, this is actually the second time around for the group of Sonata sailors.
“This year we decided we would try and do it again after we had such a great time last time and from here we will probably go and cruise the islands around Hamilton,” said Goodall.
“I’ve done six Hamilton Island’s, but on a Trailable, it’s like flying a small plane compared to getting on a jumbo jet,” he explained. “You get to see lots of big boats but you don’t need one to join in”, said Goodall.
“I would definitely encourage people to come and do Hamilton Island Race Week, it’s a great event and the highlight of our month of cruising”.
Alexander and Goodall are keen to show that any size yacht can get involved in Hamilton Island Race Week, their own group’s boats ranging from a Sonata 7, a Southern Cross 23, three Sonata 6’s and a Ross 780.
“We’ve got plenty of boats out there in the Trailable division from 22 ft up to 30 ft. They are small, especially compared to boats like Wild Oats X and Wild Thing 100,” explained Goodall.
“It’s pretty scary but also awesome to watch them come past, it really is, and you think maybe one day we might get to also be on one of those, just for a go,” finished Alexander.
In addition to building tradewinds, strong tides have tested both sailors and race organisers. Despite these challenges, the organisers have excelled in ensuring that every division has the best possible day on the water.
Rating Divisions 1, 2 and 3 completed two short courses today on the Eastern Passage course area. In IRC Rating Division 1, Alive, skippered by Duncan Hine, continued their winning streak taking both races to move into the top spot overall.
In IRC Rating Division 2 Hooligan, skippered by Marcus Blackmore held onto victory in race four, with Matador, skippered by David Doherty, falling just one second behind them on IRC. Matador struck back in race five, taking the win from Hooligan to hold on to their overall lead. Zen, skippered by Gordon Ketelbey, continued their consistent regatta with two third places for the day.
Ikon, skippered by Bruce McCraken, also built on their pre-lay-day win with two bullets for the day, putting them four points clear at the top of the Rating Division 3 table. Behind them Garth Riley’s Wazza Red Boat, Ian Box’s ToyBox2 and Joel Skelton’s Nocleks continued to trade places and remain in contention for the minor placings on IRC.
In the Super 40 division, Team Hollywood, skippered by Ray Roberts, continued their perfect scorecard for the regatta, taking the line and IRC win and a clear lead at the top of the IRC table for the Super 40 division. Billy Leonard’s Secret Weapon took second place, moving them to third place on IRC.
The Cape 31’s sub-division within the Super 40’s continues to be led by Kukukerchu skippered by David Ross, who today lost out on a hatrick by 24 seconds to winner Game On 31, skippered by Julian Newton. The Cape 31 class are also contesting their Australian Championships at Hamilton Island Race Week, bringing an added intensity to the one-design racing.
Storm Bay, skippered by Marc Gerard, shook up the leaderboard and took first place overall in the Hamilton Island Multihull Black Division after placing third in today’s race behind Wendy Bleckman’s Alba Dash and Craig Molloy’s Avalanche.
Mick Hodgins’ Tao had another great day out on the water, winning in the Hamilton Island Multihull White Division to hold the top spot overall.
Gin and Tonic skippered by Mitch White continues to hold the lead in the Hamilton Island Blue Division. However, in a spectacular rise up the leaderboard Brian Pozzey’s Green Beacon White Swan have managed to win their first race of the regatta. Having had a tough first half of the week not quite being able to beat out the strong competition they won the race today by an impressive 13 minutes on corrected time.
Hamilton Island Fluro Yellow Division saw a new yacht take first place on the overall leaderboard, Carla M, skippered by Mark Michalowsky, who came third in their race today.
Gary Davison’s Solaire had a great win today which saw them jump into first place on the overall Hamilton Island Orange Division leaderboard.
Hamilton Island Pink had another change on their leaderboard with Charm Offensive, skippered by Tim Lewis, sliding into first place after coming second in today’s race behind Wayne Arnold Seaward’s Cyan Moon.
Despite not having their best day out on the course Tom Vujasinovic’s Masquerade continues to stay in first place in the Trailable Yachts Division. It was a similar story for the Non-Spinnaker Division winner Bigger Day Out, skippered by Remco Pen, who while not finishing inside the top ten today have still done enough over the course of the week to hold onto first place overall.
All details relating to Hamilton Island Race Week 2024 are on the website.
@hamiltonislandraceweek @hamiltonisland
Nic Douglass – Sailing Content Manager HIRW | 0402 454 885 | nic@sunsetmedia.co
