ANTIPODEAN BEAUTY AND BARBECUES
A luxury island resort on the Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast is the setting for a week of top-flight keelboat racing for yachts ranging from sportsboats such as Melges 32s and SB3s to superyachts. For any yacht in the Antipodes in late August, this is an unmissable event.
The aim of Hamilton Island’s chairman, Sandy Oatley, is quite simply that ‘everyone who is there has a great time while sailing on some of the best waters imaginable’.
Off-water events in 2010 ranged from beachside barbecues and the Barefoot and Black Tie Dinner to golf clinics and Robert Oatley Vineyards wine tastings. An equally enticing social programme is promised for this year’s event.
THE RACING PROGRAMME
There are four classes for racing boats (IRC Grand Prix, One Design, Performance Racing and Sports Boats), and four classes for the not-so-flat-out racers and cruising boats (IRC Passage, Cruising, Non-spinnaker and Super Yachts).
The 40 metre Janice of Wyoming was the first confirmed entrant for 2011, subsequently joined by Ketchup, Steve England’s tiny Thompson 7 sports boat from Cairns.
Meanwhile, Jim Farmer and co-owner Chris Meads plan to return with their impressive IRC 52 racer Georgia, while six-time Australian offshore powerboat racing champion Stefan Ackerie is entering his new, lightweight 25 metre catamaran in the superyacht power division.
With a ‘photo finish’ between (the ultimately triumphant) Stephen Ainsworth’s Loki and Harvey Milne’s Aroona for the Audi IRC Australian Championship at Race Week in 2010, expectations are high for the 2011 event.
The next event takes place 17-25 August 2012.
For more information visit www.hamiltonislandraceweek.com.au
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