Ruby Charlotte, the pearl of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2017

by Lisa Ratcliff on 24 Aug 2017 The grand ex-pearling lugger Ruby Charlotte has contested every Audi Hamilton Island Race Week since 2011 and over seven years the boat has recorded just one finish from around 40 race starts at the popular Whitsunday regatta.

“We are the social boat; we don’t really race,” admits owner Jon Hickling. “The first year we really tried hard and we finished a race but those windward legs are so long; the old gaffers don’t like going to windward. We just make up our own courses now…the race committee just shake their heads.”

At 35 tonnes, the equivalent of 20 Audi Q5s, it’s futile for Hickling to try and compete against the modern-day fleet, particularly with the added challenge of light winds and the Whitsunday Islands’ notorious fast-moving tides.

The double-masted classic from Australia’s pearling heyday, with its many odd-shaped tan coloured Dacron sails designed to mirror the look of the old tanned cloth sails, is a magnet to the eye and the musicians among Hamilton Island’s staff who make up the crew.

“Most of the crew play music and when we come back in the guitars come out,” Hickling says. So does the Captain Morgan rum, a tot for all hands when the ship’s bell is rung is tradition.

Built by Watts & Wright in 1957 in the Brisbane River from spotted gum and Oregon, the 65-footer was originally called Nadine and worked as a Thursday Island pearling lugger for 14 years.

A Torres Strait owner bought Nadine and renamed her after his two daughters, Torresian princesses Ruby and Charlotte. After a decade working as a cargo boat and for pearl diving she was sold to the Cairns Maritime Museum where she deteriorated and eventually sank while tied to the pile moorings in Trinity Inlet, Cairns.

Jon and Liz Hickling bought Ruby Charlotte in 1991 and gave her a brief refit before sailing back to their home on Middle Percy Island, south of Mackay, where the boat was put to work hauling cargo to Mackay and back every three months to restock the family’s supplies, and to sell their home-grown produce at the markets.

In 2001 Ruby Charlotte had a complete makeover. The boat was hauled out for four months to be re-caulked and refastened, the masts and rig were fully refurbished plus the interior was gutted and refitted as an elegant cruising boat.

Each year a month out from Race Week the Hicklings get busy prettying her up. Like all classic timber boats, Jon says the ongoing maintenance is similar to working on the Golden Gate Bridge: “never-ending”.

Jon and Liz are now grandparents to five and are live-aboards at Hamilton Island with their dog Bosun and garden pots filled with salad vegetables and fresh herbs. Jon was on board when Cyclone Debbie hit the Whitsundays back in March, “ready to go down with the ship so to speak”, and wrote a song on weathering the worst of the cyclone.

Ruby Charlotte’s crew are very happy to let the rest of the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week fleet fight over the trophy spoils in the various divisions. They are part of the colour and action on the Non-spinnaker division 2 start line, but equally relaxed about starting the engine and pulling out a fishing rod, guitar, or a nip of rum.

Racing at the 34th edition of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week is due to finish on Saturday August 26, 2017 ahead of the awards presentation at the island’s convention centre.

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