Hamilton Island Race Week - Royal yacht enters Grand Prix Division

by Rob Mundle on 18 Jun 2012 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2012 is scheduled to be held from 17th to 25th August. A highly competitive TP 52 class yacht, originally owned and raced by King Juan Carlos of Spain, is being brought to Australia with the sole intention of taking top honours in the Grand Prix Division.

The yacht, Bribon, has been chartered by one of Australia’s most competitive and enthusiastic offshore racing yachtsmen, Geoff Ross, a sailor whose many credits over the past 15 years include victory in both the Rolex Sydney Hobart race and Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2007.

‘I’ve been working hard building my wealth management business in China during the past 12 months, so I decided it was time to enjoy myself for a while and get back into some competitive sailing,’ Ross said. ‘For me, there’s no better regatta racing in Australia than in the Grand Prix division at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, so I’ve set that as my target.

‘I searched the world for the best possible yacht and found that Bribon was available for charter in Spain, so I struck a deal, put her on a ship and she’s just arrived in Brisbane. The crew will now start preparing her for Race Week. We should be sailing within a couple of weeks.’

In keeping with the tradition of his five previous yachts, Ross will rename this one Yendys (Sydney spelled backwards). The core of his crew will come from many of the great sailors who have raced with him out of Sydney in recent years. The ‘brains trust’ in the cockpit will comprise two prominent Kiwi America’s Cup yachtsmen – Gavin Brady as sailing master, and John Cutler as tactician.

Bribon is a 2009 Judel Vrolijk designed TP 52. Ross chose this design because, ‘The JV2009 hull shape performs competitively over an unusually wide range of sailing conditions, and typically, that is what you encounter at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.’

Yendys is already entered for the Grand Prix division at Race Week. Her inclusion further confirms that Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2012 will deliver some of the best top-level racing ever seen in Australia. The boat to beat will be the Race Week defending champion, Marcus Blackmore’s TP 52, Hooligan.

This division will also be competing for the Audi IRC Australian Championship trophy.

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week regatta is open to a wide spectrum of sailboats – from sport boats to cruising yachts, cruiser-racers and Grand Prix level keelboats, plus high-performance multihulls. Near 200 yachts are expected to compete.

All information relating to Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2012 is on the regatta website. The Notice of Race and Entry Form are also on the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week website