SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week 2024 ended abruptly this morning as conditions dictated there would be no further racing and therefore winners were declared based on overnight’s pointscores at another wonderful week of sailing in the Townsville Yacht Club hosted event.
This morning Principal Race Officer, Denis Thompson, had to make a difficult call as to whether racing would be held.
Monitoring the situation, wind whistling in the background, Thompson told his team, “After consideration of everything we know and even though the breeze has dropped a little, the forecast by midday shows the wind will be back up to 30 knots. All the weather models align, so the decision is, no racing today.”
Therefore, results stand. Those divisions that contested five races, SeaLink Spinnaker Division 1 and Sports Boats, have a drop factored into their final scores, while the remaining divisions were scored on all four races sailed.
Having recently won the Sports Boat Nationals and the Sports Boats division at the Ocean Dynamics and Mount Gay Airlie Beach Race Week, Julian Bethwaite has backed up to win here as well. Don’t Panic (NSW), his self-designed 89er, pipped local boat, Bambalam (Justin Van Stom’s Thompson 7), by a lone point. The two were outstanding all week.
“Three wins from three events – perfect,” Bethwaite said. “This is a great event. It always has been. We don’t come here to win, we come here to have a great time. We just have to come up with a different scoring system for the sports boats here, but it’s great to win anyway.”
On the final race being called off, Bethwaite said, “I think Denis made the right decision in calling the race off. It’s not an easy decision, but he made a good call.”
Gordon Ketelebey’s TP52, Zen (NSW), won Division 1 from Bobby’s Girl, the Farr 40 chartered by Rob Reynolds (NSW). Zen did not look promising on the first day after finishing seventh, but her crew rallied, adding two wins and dropping the seventh.
Jason Lea enjoyed a solid regatta with Pali Pali from Brisbane, outsailing his nearest, Rhomberg Sersa Australia (Rod Sweeney, Qld) by four points to win the trophy. Dennis Coleman finished third with Mistress (Qld), a little unlucky, as they dropped down when the rudder broke in the Round the Island Race, forcing their retirement.
“I was looking forward to going out today, but we’ve won anyway. The Race Committee made the right decision. Our Club does the same. You have to look after members and the smaller boats.
“Thanks to my crew, Frank, who sails with me in Brisbane and Adrian and Allie. I also roped in a couple of guys from the Island, Brendan and Luke from Nomads backpackers, I want to thank them all,” a thrilled Lea said.
“Absolutely wonderful to win. Three years ago I went to Hamilton Island for the first time having no idea how the hold system worked. We won by one point from Rhomberg and the same thing has happened here at my first Maggie Island. It’s downhill from here,” he said laughing.
“The whole atmosphere here is great. You can’t compare it to anywhere else, Peppers has been so good to us, the social side has been marvellous and the other thing that impressed me was the bus service around the Island. We’ve loved it here,” Lea said.
Matt Doyle sailed to the top of Spinnaker Division 2 with La Troisieme Mitemps, a Beneteau Sense 50 from NSW. However, it was as close as, with Graeme Amey’s Yknot (NSW) placing second on countback in their hard fought series.
Chris Morgan’s La Quinta (Qld) won Division 3 in their tight series. Second and third were decided on countback, so it was Matt and Ben Kingsberry’s Amaya II (Qld) that finished ahead of Andrew Clark’s Single Malt (Vic).
“We’ve had a great week. I’ve done lots of regattas and this one tops it. It my first time here and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. The really nice thing about here is that everyone is close together so you see everyone. Nice to see so many white sails instead of the carbon ones too! I think we’ll be back, we have to defend our title,” Morgan ended.
It seems a week for Zens, as Zen and the Art of Sailing, a local Cavalier 34 owned by Jack Maguire, outsailed his contemporaries to take out Division 4. The margin was two points to Wayne McNee’s Celebrity (Vic). Vicki Hamilton’s local Akarana completed the trio.
“It was a fantastic week of sailing, the conditions were just perfect for us,” Maguire said of the breeze that was mainly at the lighter end of the scale, though yesterday it reached 18 knots.
“We’ve only missed one Race Week and this is our first win. I have a wonderful crew who’ve sailed together a long time. I want to thank Denis Thompson and the volunteers who did a great job. Denis does a magic job setting courses and running races.”
On the overall event, Maguire said, “It’s always pleasant afterwards with the socials – after a bit of argy bargy on the course sometimes.”
The Non-Spinnaker division was claimed by Janette Syme’s Espera from the host club. Four and five points respectively distanced her from Joe Niven’s Daylight, also from the host club and Dan White and Nikki Abbott’s Riff Raff from the Whitsundays.
Mike Steel, Event Chairman, commented, “I think feedback from everyone is that they had a great time. We gave prizes to fourth and fifth places as well, because we had to abandon racing and there were some close scores. Those people were appreciative.”
On the event as a whole, Steel said, “We have a really good model that has evolved over 14 years, so I don’t think we need to make any changes.
“I want to sing some praise to Peppers (Blue on Blue). This year has been just terrific and it’s been a really enjoyable experience.
“So many people travel a lot of miles to be here so we are forever thankful for our competitors,” Steel ended.
It’s been a wonderful week of racing and social activities, thanks to TYC, the sponsors, event manager Jodie Kennedy and the entourage of people, especially the volunteers, the Club brings in to make the week the success it is. However, SMIRW would not be without the competitors. We hope to see you back in 2025.
Tonight, the official presentation dinner at Peppers Race Headquarters closes SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week.
And remember for next year folks, this year sold out in 12 minutes…
For all information including full results please visit: www.magneticislandraceweek.com.au
By Di Pearson/SMIRW media
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