Golden oldies for Hamilton Island

by Ian Grant on 7 Jul 2005 Eun na mara, a majestic old yacht designed by the famed Scottish naval architect William Fife and built in the British Isles 98 years ago, will be the star attraction at the Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island next month.

The historical yacht, meticulously restored by her proud owner, Nicholas Chapman of Melbourne, is set to match the modern racing yachts for the IRC championship.

She last raced at Hamilton Island in 2001, where skipper, Chapman, and crew showed there was still plenty of highly competitive racing miles left in her log book by winning the Australian championship against an international standard fleet.

Her devoted owner/skipper is transporting the sloop by road to race in the Whitsunday Islands and to enjoy some warm water racing. He believes Eun na mara stands a strong chance with her low handicap rating to emulate her title win of fours years ago.

The traditional timber yacht will race against a star studded fleet, including the state of the art Alfa Romeo, Neville Crichton’s new super maxi and George Snow’s Sydney to Mooloolaba and Sydney to Southport race record holder, Brindabella.

Alfa Romeo is the favourite to win the line honours title ahead of the Bob Oatley skippered Wild Oats and Brindabella, but they will have their speed tested to beat Eun na mara on corrected time.

During her 2001 championship victory, Eun na mara finished with the combined race time advantage of 26 minutes 46 seconds, to claim a national title win over the Wayne Kirkpatrick skippered Hamilton Island sloop, Asylum.

Naturally, the hull size, shape and speed performance are radically different, but when it comes down to racing against the clock, the ‘old girl’ has previously proved she has what it takes to be a real nuisance to the modern yachts.

Skipper Chapman and his dedicated crew deserve to be ranked with the regatta championship favourites and the 1968 Sydney-Hobart champion, Koomooloo (Mike Freebairn).

The Eun na mara crew, who sailed alone at the back of the fleet in 2001, no doubt extract some advantage from racing with Koomooloo as her pace maker - both old yachts have similar speed.