Charter Chatter

-- Queensland’s new Season of Sailing includes racing events, learning to sail on a bareboat adventure, and crewed charters. Sail and stay packages, including resort accommodation in Central Queensland, the Whitsundays and Townsville, are available until March, 2011. Every level of skill and experience is catered for on a range of boats. Individual race events for Queensland’s Season of Sailing include:

Brisbane to Keppel - August 6-10

Airlie Race Week - August 12-19

Hamilton Island Race Week - August 20-28

Magnetic Island Race Week - September 3-7

For more information on Queensland’s Season of Sailing and to book packages visit QueenslandHolidays.com.au/sailing.

-- Sydney charter boat company EastSail has taken delivery of four new Beneteau First 40 yachts from the design office of Bruce Farr. They are sister ships to the first and second place finishers in last year's Sydney to Hobart Yacht race.

-- Whitsunday Rent A Yacht welcomes a new 40 foot catamaran to its fleet. The French Beneteau Lagoon 400, among only a handful of its kind in Australia, will be available for charter from June 21. The vessel offers spacious and affordable accommodation for eight people, a saloon design, the latest entertainment equipment, and is ideal for couples as each cabin contains its own ensuite. Whitsunday Rent A Yacht has the largest fleet of sailing yachts, motor yachts and catamarans in the region and specialises in skipper yourself charter holidays.

-- Townsville in North Queensland averages 300 days of sunshine a year, making it an ideal destination to escape the winter chill. Eight kilometres or a 25 minute ferry ride from Townsville is World Heritage-listed Magnetic Island with spectacular granite boulders and secluded bays. One of the best ways to see the island is on a three hour Adrenalin Jet Ski Tour circumnavigating the island, or take in the top end on a 75 minute tour.

Self- skippered or skippered catamarans and yachts are available from Tropic Sail for cruising the crystal clear and calm waters around Magnetic Island. The whole family can learn the ropes on this sailing adventure as you spot turtles, dolphins and dugongs, snorkel straight off the boat in warm tropical waters and discover fringing coral reefs and the 13 unspoiled islands of the Palms Group.

-- Up to 6000 whales head up the ‘superhighway’ along Western Australia’s coast to calve in the warm waters off the Kimberley between August and November. Coral Princess extended its Kimberley cruise program last year – and discovered that late season whale watching is ‘simply incredible’.

-- Macquarie Island, 1500km south-east of Tasmania, is home to nearly four million seabirds and is one of the world’s most important seabird nesting habitats. The populations of rabbits and rats on the island have exploded in recent years, leading to extensive erosion and massive landslips that are destroying nesting sites for penguins and albatrosses. Three years after Antarctic cruise operator Peregrine and WWF-Australia won an historic campaign to protect Macquarie Island from environmental devastation, the operational phase of a $24.6 million pest eradication plan is set to begin. A team of about 20 staff, four helicopters, pilots and equipment set sail aboard Aurora Australis on 21 May for Macquarie Island where they will commence the first operational stage of the plan.

-- In the single category for cruising, Orion Expedition Cruises again scooped the Best Cruise Line (Global) accolade ahead of other finalists Cunard, Silversea and The Yachts of Seabourn in the annual Australian Gourmet Traveller awards.

-- Celebrating a quarter of a century of operation, Spirit of Tasmania announced that over the years it’s vessels have transported more than six million passengers and more than 2.4 million vehicles over the Bass Strait. As part of its anniversary celebrations the ferry company is now offering $25 fares for Ocean Recliners on night sailings, a saving of 80 per cent. 

Photograph: Cruising off Whitehaven Beach, Whitsundays, courtesy of Tourism Queensland