Two balmy days of sailing away at SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week 2024 and the fleet at Townsville Yacht Club’s (TYC) much loved annual event is as eclectic as ever, as Olympians and other champions mix it with regulars, internationals, newcomers and club sailors.
Two-time Olympian, Nicky Bethwaite is experiencing her first Race Week, sailing on 51st Project, the Beneteau First 50 belonging to Julian Bell from Newcastle.
“I’m enjoying it. It’s beautiful sailing and we saw fish jumping today,” the NSW sailor said last evening. It’s very social here – it’s good having a regatta in a smaller area,” she mused, while enjoying post-race drinks with the crew aboard 51st Project.
“The sea breeze came in nicely. The course was around two and a half times longer than yesterday’s but we finished earlier because of the consistent breeze.”
Bethwaite and Karyn Gojnich (who has been a regular here) were the first women to represent Australia in sailing when they were selected for the 1988 Games in the 470 Women’s. They represented again in 2004 in the Yngling. Bethwaite, the skipper, was selected in the latter class for a third Olympics, but an untimely biking accident put paid to that.
These days Bethwaite splits her leisure time sailing and playing golf. Her older brother Mark is also an Olympian, while younger brother, Julian, is a successful sailor and boat designer, having designed the Olympic class 49er and its junior version, the 29er, just two in his vast collection of designs.
Julian, from Sydney, is also competing at Magnetic Island with his self-designed 89er sports boat, Don’t Panic. He arrived here having cleaned up at Airlie Beach Race Week two weeks ago. Sailing with him, is dual Olympian, Christine Bridge.
Bridge represented Australian in the Europe single-handed dinghy class at the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. These days she is dab ILCA 6 (formerly Laser Radial) sailor who is still winning trophies at Masters events.
And while his famous son Tom Slingsby is in Barcelona skippering the USA boat in the Louis Vuitton Cup ahead of the 37th America’s Cup, his dad David, or ‘Slingshot’ as old mates call him, is here aboard Mac 2, John and Andrew McDougall’s Melges 32 from Gosford. Like Bethwaite, this entire crew is competitive, proving their point with victory in the first two races.
Until Tom came to prominence as a Laser Olympic gold medallist and multiple world champion in the class, the Central Coast sailor was the better known of the two, having ocean raced aboard the likes of Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin.
Wendy Tuck, who sailed into the record books as the first woman to win a round the world race, is competing at Maggie Island Race Week, skippering the Lyons 54, Making Waves Kayle.
When she touched down in Liverpool, England in July 2018, having skippered the Clipper yacht ‘Sanya Serenity Coast’ to overall victory in the tough Clipper Round the World Race, the NSW yachtswoman became the first female to do so.
While continuing to compete in events around the globe, Tuck also works hard to raise the profile of the Making Waves Foundation (supports young Australians living with disabilities or experiencing disadvantage) by sailing at major events on the Australian calendar. Aboard with Tuck are two other well-known NSW sailors and MWF supporters, Kathy Veel and Bridget Canham.
Mature aged women, Veel and Canham remain the only all-female crew to take part in the Two-Handed division of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. They did this on Veel’s tiny Currawong 30, Currawong, in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, they finished the race in Hobart and to a hero’s welcome at midnight, as New Year’s Eve fireworks rained down on them – unforgettable.
Veel also crewed on Belles Long Ranger in the 1989 Hobart, just the second all-female crew to do the race. The three women say those at Townsville Yacht Club have been nothing but supportive and helpful to them.
“This is my first Maggie,” Veel said with a big smile. “I love it. I’ve never danced so much in my life! It (Race Week) has a wonderful sense of community among the sailors. The location is beautiful and the waterway is lovely. The entertainment and social calendar are very good. I also like the inclusive mixed class racing.
“And we’re here for a good cause – with our Making Waves Foundation banner,” Veel said.
Among those who keep returning are Colin and Denise Wilson. They can’t make it every year, but the South Coast yachties make it as often as they can. This year they have a mix of crew, inclusive of some internationals.
“What makes Maggie Island special for us is everyone stays together after racing each day at the marina and ashore. Everyone has fun and enjoys the festivities and each other’s company,” Colin said.
“Father’s Day celebrations are brilliant. Townsville Yacht Club has something different to keep us entertained every year. We always join in and spend the day at Picnic Bay,” he said of today’s celebrations.
The event enjoys great support from local Townsville Yacht Club sailors too, such as club racers Akarana (Vicki Hamilton), Brava (Tony and Selena Muller), Salacia (Owen Day), Soul Sister (Donna Heath) and Warragal (James Finch).
Mike Steel, Commodore of TYC and enduring Event Chairman of SMIRW, is also a competitor at Race Week. A division winner last year, this year he is skippering an Elan E5, Boudica, that he recently acquired.
Steel says of the wide assortment of people and boats attracted to this unique event, centred around Peppers Race Headquarters every year, “It proves that people do need to wind down at some stage and Maggie is the perfect place to do it.
“Magnetic Island was virtually undiscovered until SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week came along and the people who come to our event would probably never even known it existed before. Some of our competitors are investing in the island and bring money to the Island,” he says.
One such story is that of Victorian James Permezel, who with a mate bought a house and a commercial premises in picturesque Picnic Bay and built a microbrewery, ‘Maggie Island Brewery’, which opened last year and featuring a lovely beer garden and tapas. Permezel and his yacht Charm Offensive live on the Island now and he is a member of Townsville Yacht Club.
Steel continued, “We had our first regatta here with 25 boats and Peppers wasn’t built then. It’s come a long way over those 17 years.”
On his latest yacht, Boadica, Steel said, “It’s actually quite funny how it all happened. I went to the Sydney Boat Show and the boats were too expensive and then this boat came up for sale in Brisbane, so we had a look and bought it. We love the boat. You can do a good regatta with it but it’s still very comfortable below.
“My new life starts next week,” shared Steel, who recently retired from work life. “We’ll do some family cruising. We’re training the dog to come along too.”
And this is what makes SMIRW special – people from all walks of life with various sailing skill sets, here to race and enjoy the bucket loads of fun the event provides. I’m off to the mud crab races shortly! There is no other regatta like it, no island as quaint. It speaks volumes that Race Week was sold out in 15 minutes in 2022 and all it took was 12 minutes this year.
For all information including full results please visit: www.magneticislandraceweek.com.au
By Di Pearson/SMIRW media
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