| Australia. Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week: Top names & yachts in 158 racing yacht fleet |
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| Thursday, 17 August 2006 | |
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Lisa Ratcliff: In two days time Australia’s sailing and business community will amass on Hamilton Island for some winter sailing and social therapy. The 23rd Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week has attracted a solid fleet of 158 for a week’s racing around the beautiful Queensland Whitsunday Islands starting Saturday 19 through to Saturday 26 August. Local entry Wild Oat’s X, Hamilton Island owner Bob Oatley’s Reichel/Pugh 66, will take on the best of Sydney and Victoria’s hot IRC big boat fleet featuring Grant Wharington’s 30m Melbourne maxi Skandia, fresh from its double Sydney Mooloolaba and Sydney Mackay line honours wins and the largest entry by almost 10 metres. Oatley’s upsized Wild Oats XI and Neville Crichton’s Alfa Romeo, which made its debut last year at Hamilton Island, are both currently overseas contesting the European maxi summer circuit. This year the largest IRC boats will sail in their own division, IRC Big Boats, while the Mumm 30s, DK46s and Cookson 50s amongst others will compete in a separate IRC Racing division. “Whoever wins this division will have had a good week,” says regatta director Warwick Hoban of the stand out 46-50 footers such as Ray Roberts’ Quantum Racing, Graeme Troon’s XLR8 the crew all the way from Ballarat in Victoria, and the three Cookson 50s. Lachlan Murdoch’s stunning Swan 82 Ipixuna will headline the Premier Cruising Division and money man Paul Clitheroe’s brand new Sydney 47, cleverly named Balance, will complement the ‘celebrity division’. Classic boats also have their place at Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week. Tallships Sailing School at Point Clare, Gosford, has entered the 17 metre Wutuku, a topsail gaff rigged ketch built in the 1980’s. Wutuku has no winches so all sail handling must be done by hand. Nigel Stoke’s Fidelis is another classic entry. Built in 1964 in New Zealand, her racing career started with a line honours win in the Auckland to Suva Race of 1966. She then made her way to Australia to enter that year's Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. Fidelis did more than just get the gun in her inaugural Hobart - she set a new race record that stood for the next nine years. Warwick Hoban says there have been a number of changes made to further enhance Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week including extending the realms of the event to recreational sailors with the addition of a non-spinnaker division within the Cruising Class, the largest division. While they will start from a single start line, a further change is the Cruising fleet will be separated into three results sheets giving many more skippers the opportunity to take home one of the new Waterford Crystal trophies which have been specially commissioned this year. “Each place getter in each race will now be presented with a beautiful crystal tumbler etched with the event logo,” says Hoban, who has just announced he will step down from his position as regatta director after 23 years, the event’s lifespan. Whitsunday trade wind sailing has been at its best this week with Hoban reporting “15 knot sou’easters and the odd puffy cloud”. He is of course hoping this weather pattern will last into next week but is not making any predictions this far out. Competitors and families visiting Hamilton Island for Race Week will also notice changes to the facilities with a progressive upgrade over the past 12 months. “Our commitment is simply to create the most desirable island destination in the South Pacific for both Australian and international guests,” said owner and keen sailor Bob Oatley who will compete in the week long race program along with son Sandy. To view the race schedule go to http://www.hiyc.org.au/race_schedule.htm For a full list of entries go to the Regatta website http://www.hiyc.org.au |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 August 2006 ) |
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