2015 Airlie Beach Race Week - 70 days and counting!

by Airlie Beach Race Week on 29 May 2015 With 70 days to go and entries now at 42, it is looking very positive for another record breaking year of entries with 130 plus boats expected. The IRC and Sports Boat divisions are both seeing a higher level of entries compared with last year, with six entries in Sports Boats and 10 in the IRC divisions to date.

Boats are lining up from near and far. Airlie Beach Race Week 2015 entry number 30 belongs to local Whitsunday Sailing Club stalwart, Kevin Fogarty, and his family.

The boat ‘Twister’, a Beneteau 40.7, was bought by Kevin and partner Heather four years ago in Croatia. At the time named ‘Vihor’ – Croatian for whirlwind, Twister was sailed by friends Col Pruden and Kathryn Galloway down to Greece over a two month period, visiting many Croatian and Greek Islands on the way. Heather was unable to make the trip at the last moment due to illness which sadly took her to the big cruising grounds in the sky 12 months later.

The family’s previous boat ‘Idle Time’ was a competitor in Race Week for 16 years up to 2011 and with 2015 being the fourth year for ‘Twister’, this year will be the 20th consecutive year of participation in the event by the Sievers/Fogarty clan. Kev goes back even further, sailing for the first time in 1991 on ‘Summer Breeze’ owned to this day by locals Graeme and Marie Apps, then for the next few years, crewing on ‘Piglet’ owned by the late Ray and Val Meyer, thus giving Kev a history of 24 years as a competitor.

There is probably only one other competitor with more years under his belt – Don Algie, the original instigator of the event back in 1989. He has recently sold his latest boat, ‘Storm II’, so it will be interesting to see if he has a new boat in time for this year's race week.