Hamilton Island Race Week

Article by Lisa Ratcliff/Kathy McKenzie

The week began with strong sou'easterly breezes before a high pressure system descended over the racetrack, raising temperatures and forcing crews to seek alternate forms of on-water entertainment including waterskiing, swimming, whale watching and spinnaker surfing while they waited for the nor'easters to roll in.

Starts were delayed and courses were altered for the last five days of racing but competitors took it in their stride and made the most of the lighter conditions.

IRC Big Boat results were finalised before the start of the last race, however the overall handicap winner Steven David's Reichel/Pugh 60 Wild Joe (12 points) and Stephen Ainsworth's second placed Loki (14 points) still sailed the final 19-mile race around the Molle Islands.

Bob Oatley's third placed Wild Oats (22 points) suffered a mishap on the start line of the final race when sailing in the opposite direction in between Wild Joe and Loki, which had already started. When Loki luffed up to clear the pin end mark they pierced Wild Oats' mainsail with their mast as the boat's passed each other. Wild Oats retired leaving Grant  Wharington's Skandia to its final line honours win.

Sydney yachtsman Ray Roberts and his crew finally put an end to the fight for the Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week IRC Racing trophy, beating his nemesis Geoff Boettcher and his Reichel/Pugh 46 Hardys Secret Mens Business from South Australia by just two points. Robert's DK46 Quantum Racing finished on 21 points, Secret Mens on 23 points and their sistership XLR8, owned by Ballarat based businessman Graeme Troon and helmed by John Savage, finished third on 31 points.

Steve Kulmar's Shining Sea finished the regatta on 13 points, the clear overall winner in the Sydney 38 division. Guido Belgiorno-Nettis' defending champion Transfusion, which sailed a short final race after finding themselves on the bricks off Dent Island, finished second on 24 points and Steve Proud's Swish finished third on 34 points.

The smaller boats dominated the Performance Handicap division, with Guy and Clarke Holbert's Rumbo leading the pointscore following Tuesday's two windward/leewards and never giving away the advantage to finish first on 19 points. John Moore's Swarbrick 10.2 which was trucked 5342 miles from Mandurah south of Perth finished second on 23 points ahead of CYCA Commodore Geoff Lavis' Inglis/Murray 50 UBS Wild Thing on 29 points.

In the Premier Cruising Class Graeme Wood's Sydney 47 Wotif.com overcame a bad start in the final race by hitching a ride on the stern wave of UBS Wild Thing and winning the downhill slide to the finish.

Wood sailed this regatta with a top crew including Ron Jacobs and a number of rock stars from Bob Steel's former Quest "who were boatless when mine popped out of the mould," said Graeme Woods.

Paul Clitheroe's Balance (nine points), a sistership to Wot's Next, finished second overall in the Premier Cruising class by three points and Laurence Freedman's Espresso Forte finished off the podium places in third on 19 points.

"We've been campaigning this boat for nine months and they've only had a month in the water, that's the difference. It was great having another Sydney 47 beside us, they really lifted us against the rest of the fleet," added Woods

In the IRC Cruising Class, Ray Harris, with veteran Rolex Sydney Hobart yachtsman Michael Spies calling tactics, picked up his first Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week win with his Beneteau 44.7 Honeysuckle. Results in this division also went down to the wire, Honeysuckle winning the final race to finish with a three point lead over Rod Wills' Greater Springfield (11 points).

"We won it in the last race," said Harris this afternoon. "We were the fastest boat out there today, the crew sailed the boat incredibly well."

Harris has been sailing with some of his crew for the best part of 11 years and today's win is a career highlight.

Greg MacMahon's Beneteau 44.6 Afternoon finished third in the IRC Cruising division on 18 points.

In the Cruising Red division, the husband and wife team of Brad and Maryke Barker from Gladstone who also had two of their three sons on board for this regatta, sailed superbly to claim the divisional win with their Beneteau 423 Spirit.

"The handicapping was spot on because six or seven boats in our division could have beaten us going into today. You always come to a regatta thinking you'll do your best but we are still a bit stunned," admitted Brad once results were posted.

Will Barker, 25, and Tom Barker, who is making a name for himself in the Sydney youth match racing scene, were joined this week by some of the crew of the 1998 Sydney Hobart overall winner AFR Midnight Rambler including skipper Ed Psaltis and brother Arthur.

In the Cruising White division, John Bankart's Jeanneau 37 Sunshine Coast Sailing finished ahead of the rest on 18 points, three points clear of John Barter's Dehler 41 L'attitude and Ross Muir's Beneteau 47.3 Muir from Brisbane.

While the last race wasn't one of their best, William McMillian's Sonata 8 Nessie, one of the smallest boats in the fleet, still managed to be the best placed in the Cruising Blue division when final points were tallied, finishing on 15 points, three ahead of Dean Corbett's Jeanneau 40 Silhouette on 18 points. Grant Chipperfield's Clubman 8 The Joker from Mornington in Victoria finished third on 21 points.

In the closest results across all divisions, Dave Short's Hunter 33 Pro Beat Passion (7 points) beat its closest Cruising Non-Spinnaker comrade, Bryan Hudson's Catalyst, by just one point with another one point back to the third-placed Inca, skippered by Noel Sneddon from Canberra.

Full results, stories and photographs from this year's Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week can be found at www.hamiltonisland.com.au or www.hiyc.org.au