SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week – added agenda for endangered entry

by Tracey Johnstone on 7 Aug 2015 On the surface SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week’s newest entry, Komodo, appears to be just another team lining up to compete at the perfect regatta venue, but underneath there is an added agenda.

Competing in the Performance Division of the ninth annual regatta, Komodo will be skippered by Antill Marine’s Jason Antill and crewed by a team of New Zealanders.

“I have for many years as an event sponsor, bought a boat up to the regatta. This year I am bringing a Farr 40 and an international crew. The crew have previously competed at Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island race weeks, but this year they wanted to sail at Magnetic Island and on something more sporty than the typical charter boat.

“The crew are on like a rugby tour, except it’s for sailing with Antill Marine organising a boat for them,” Antill explained.

Komodo raced in last month’s Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Race and will be competing in the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week before heading to the SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week. The team are also working towards campaigning Komodo in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

Antill is part of the Komodo team so knows a lot about this serious racing machine. He also has five Magnetic Island Race Weeks on his CV. However, racing with an unknown crew could see Antill kept fairly busy even though he jokes; “They’re Kiwis so they should know how to sail.”

Left back in Sydney for this year’s regatta, Komodo’s owners, Andrew and Amber Butler, will continue their work towards raising funds and awareness for the Indonesian lizard, listed as an endangered species by the World Wildlife Fund.

The WWF describes the Komodo as; “the largest living lizard. Komodo dragons are at the top of their food chain and one of the largest animals in their range...”. They often grown to three metres and can weigh up to 150 kilos.

When the Butlers purchased the boat in March 2015 they also inherited the boat name. It was a conscious decision to not only retain the name, but also as Butler said; “take it to the next level”.

He researched about the Komodo dragon. Butler then found he wanted to do something with the connection between the boat name and what he had found out about the dragons by embracing the name and establishing a goal for his crew and support team of; “raising awareness and volunteering for worthy causes along the way to making the world a better place.

“We set up a website dedicated to supporting the Komodo dragon. It’s www.farr40komodo.com which links to the WWF website and the Adopt a Komodo Dragon page with those donations doing straight to the WWF. ”

Butler, who is the CEO of the not-for-profit organisation Ausbuy which sole purpose is to support and promote Australian-owned businesses, has continued his research into the Komodos recently reading that the current belief is the dragon originated from Australia.

“There is some talk about they should be reintroduced to Australia, in the same way that some of the wolves were reintroduced into the national parks in America, to control the natural habitat and let the natural environment get back to what it was. There is quite a bit of debate about that at the moment,” Butler said.

“What is happening now is even though there are about 2000 left, a lot of the breeding females are dying so the population is really in danger,” Butler added.

While the Komodo is considered by some an ugly lizard due to their long flat head, rounded snout, scaly skin, bowed legs and powerful tails, Butler has turned that observation into a positive for the animal creating a striking graphic on the boat’s sails, hoping that the image will attract public interest and enquiry into the plight of the Komodo dragons.

SeaLink’s Queensland General Manager and Race Committee Chair, Paul Victory, is keen to see the Townsville and Magnetic Island communities be a part of Butler’s drive to raise awareness of the plight of the dragons. “We are looking forward to helping our community start talking about this project and hopefully create for it some active awareness.”

To make a donation to the WWF Adopt a Komodo Dragon project, go http://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/Species-Adoptions/Komodo-Dragon

Racing in the SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week starts on August 27.

Entries to the regatta in the seven divisions - IRC, Performance Racing, Cruising Spinnaker, Cruising Non Spinnaker, Classic Yachts, Multihull Racing and Multihull Cruising – closes on August 21.

Further details of the divisions, the entry list and online entry are at www.magneticislandraceweek.com.au