Hahn Premium Race Week 2001

Big fleets, light winds and challenging racing... those were the outstanding features of this year's 18th Race Week at Hamilton Island.

While the southern half of Australia suffered wet and windy weather driven by a series of cold fronts, the Whitsundays basked under cloudless blue skies. A slow-moving high pressure system camped over the northern Queensland coast, providing perfect poolside conditions but little wind for sailing.

It was the second year in a row that variable, mostly north-east to easterly breezes prevailed in place of the fresh south-easterly trades for which the region is better known.

Combined with the Whitsundays' trademark strong tidal flows, the tricky winds provided many challenges for the competitors and regatta organisers alike. Once again there were some problems, particularly with the races starting and finishing in Dent Passage immediately outside Hamilton Island harbour, where the current flows very strongly.

Only 28 yachts were able to complete the first race of the series, which took all divisions except the Farr 40 One-Designs on a course around Lindeman and Brush Islands with a six-hour time limit. When the tide turned against the fleet heading north into Dent Passage, only the lucky leading bunch were able to complete the course.

There were complaints, too, from those yachts which were forced to anchor at the northern entrance to Dent Passage while trying to complete the longest race of the regatta, the Coral Sea Race, which also finished off the Hamilton Island harbour breakwater.

Otherwise the event ran extremely smoothly, benefiting from a capable and experienced regatta management team and the impressive capacity of the island to handle the influx of thousands of sailors and their families.

BIGGER THAN EVER
This was the biggest race week yet, with a record 184 entries and 177 starters across the seven classes. More countries were represented than ever before, with entries from New Zealand, the USA, Hong Kong, Britain, Singapore and the Solomon Islands, as well as from all Australian states.

"Sailors are being drawn to the event because of the competitive racing, the great social life and the world-class facilities of the upgraded Hamilton Island," said Warwick Hoban, the regatta director and a co-founder of the event in 1984.

The regatta format once again included a mixture of short windward-leeward courses and longer passage races. The Whitehaven Beach day has been successfully reinstalled in the program.

Its evolution continues to reflect wider developments in the sport. One-design racing is clearly in vogue, with nine Farr 40 One-Designs enjoying their own fleet racing in near isolation from the other divisions, while 10 Sydney 38s staged their own pitched battles within the IRC fleet and talked of breaking away into their own division for next year.

A lack of entries caused the sportsboat division to fall by the wayside this year, although there were several interesting new boats which were able to race instead in the Performance Handicap fleet.

The cruising ranks continue to swell, meanwhile, with big increases in the number of charter yachts entered in the regatta (local charter company Sunsail said it had 20 yachts racing this year, compared with 10 last year) and a growing number of private entries challenging the traditional notion of what constitutes a cruising yacht.

Largely for this reason, the regatta organisers decided to divide the cruisers into two divisions for the first time, introducing an Open Cruising class starting five minutes earlier but sailing the same courses as the Cruising class and allowing yachts to carry exotic sails (mylar, kevlar and spectra). Other Cruising class requirements remained the same (ie, stove, sink and at least four berths). This decision appeared popular with competitors.

This year's Hahn Premium Race Week was also selected by the Australian Yachting Federation to serve as the Australian Offshore Championship for IMS and IRC yachts. The IMS results were straightforward, while the IRC National title was decided by marrying the results for the IRC division with those of the Big Boats class, which was also handicapped using IRC and shared starts with the IRC boats.

BEER AND PRAWNS
Some statistics provide a reflection of the regatta's social side. "More than 24,000 Hahn Premium stubbies were enjoyed throughout the week. That's an Australian record for the amount of Hahn consumed at any one event," said Castlemaine Perkins Regional Manager, Rod Hill. The company has sponsored the regatta throughout its 18 years, believed to be the longest sponsorship in Queensland sport.

Meanwhile, Hamilton Island food and beverage manager, Geoffrey Nocher said that during Race Week, visitors consumed more than two tonnes of prawns, three tonnes of steak and one tonne of fish.

"In one night more than 100kg of bugs and 75kg of spanner and blue swimmer crabs were eaten," said Mr Nocher.

NEXT YEAR
Next year's race week is scheduled for August 17-24. Organisers are predicting a possible entry list exceeding 200 boats. This may include more entries from Asian waters, according to Peter Churchouse, owner of Hong Kong entry Moonblue 2.

With fleets growing for the Hog's Breath Race Week, held at Airlie Beach during the week immediately prior to Hamilton Island's regatta, there is additional reason for boat owners to plan a winter escape to the Whitsundays.

Vanessa Dudley attended the Hahn Premium Race Week 2001 as a guest of Hamilton Island Enterprises.

OVERALL RESULTS

IMS YACHTS (AUSTRALIAN IMS TITLES):

IRC Yachts:

Big Boats:

Australian IRC TITLES:

Farr 40 One-Design Yachts:

Performance Handicap Yachts:

Open Cruising Yachts:

Cruising Yachts: