Whitsundays winners at Airlie Beach Race Week

by Rob Kothe on 14 Aug 2007 Sailors all over Australia know there are 74 islands in the Whitsundays; today history was made when the 2007 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week fleet rounded Saddleback Island,just behind George Point at the top of the Gloucester Group.

Reputed to be death adder snake infested, or perhaps just a really great fishing location, ‘Saddleback is the most northerly Whitsunday Island rounded by a major regatta fleet’ says sailing scribe Ian ‘Stripey’ Grant, the recognised historian of Whitsunday sailing.

In the early years of the Hamilton Island Race Week, Eshelby Island was rounded in the 200 nautical mile plus Coral Sea Races and in the 18 years of Airlie beach regattas, the Double Cones Armit combination has been the limit.

‘Sailors come from Europe, Asia, the America’s, New Zealand and all round Australia,’ said Race Director Denis Thompson today ‘and they have been saying to us… we love the warm winter weather, we love the winds and we love the Whitsunday Islands, send us around more of them, we can sail round the cans at home.

‘So this year we’ve been sending the fleet on new adventures.’

And the sailors are loving it.

Karl Kwok, the Hong Kong based winner of the 1997 Rolex Sydney to Hobart race, was leading the Grand Prix IRC fleet on handicap, as his Reichel Pugh 46 racer Beau Geste rounded Saddleback Island. ‘Wonderful scenery, great racing’ were his first words as he stepped of his boat at Meridien Marinas Abel Point Marina this afternoon.

‘The best course we’ve sailed up here’ said Ray Roberts, the skipper of the 2006 Airlie Beach Race Week and Hamilton Island trophy winner Quantum Racing, after the finish of today’s race.

‘On Sunday we went around Gumbrell Island, about three nautical miles west of Armit Island, then to Olden Island and back down the coast to Pioneer Bay. That was the nicest Whitsunday race I have every done,' said Premier Cruising division leader John Bacon. ‘I’ve raced here a lot but my wife and I are planning more cruising again this year.’

Race Director Thompson summarised. ‘The Whitsunday regattas are key events on the Australian sailing calendar and the fleets just keeps growing and growing. This is the busiest sporting week of the year for Airlie Beach, and we know if we keep adding new courses, the fleets will continue to grow.’

Today’s new race was popular too with the crew of the Archambaut 35 Arajilla, the second smallest boat in the Grand Prix fleet, who continues to clean up the big boats on handicap. She started the series with a fifth, but has placed first or second since then.

‘We are working hard’ said owner Geoff Pearson from Sydney, ‘our little boat has clear air and we are working the tidal flows.’

In second place was Michael Hiatt’s modified Cookson 50 Living Doll and in third place was Invincible, Harold Clark's Farr 1104.

Back in 1999, the Beneteau 40.7 burst onto the IMS scene with a rating that was hard to beat for the out and out racers and there were some years of grief for those Grand Prix owners, now in 2007 the Archambault 35s appear poised to take the same role with Alegria and now Arijilla, causing shoulders to slump across the fleet.

Premier Cruising Race 4 was won on handicap by Garry Anderson and his crew on the Beneteau 47.7, Esprit. This Way Up, John Moore’s Sydney 36 was second, with the Series leader John Bacon’s Sydney 39CR Hussy third.

In the hotly contested Sports Boat fleet, Raptor, the Stealth 7 of Mark Buchbach nabbed handicap honours in Race 5 from Bob Cowan’s Stealthy (Stealth) and Franco Bortolin’s So What (Stealth 7.8).

In PHS Racing division, Race 5 went to Wallop on handicap. Wallop is Peter Hewson’s Sydney 41 and she generally sails around Lake Macquarie (NSW). The last time Wallop was in the Whitsundays in 2004, she placed sixth in division. Second place went to Cadi, John Netherton's Jones 42 and third was Idle Time, the local yacht of Kevin Fogarty.

In the Cruising Yachts with Spinnaker division, KAT took the handicap honours. KAT is a Beneteau 50, owned by Chris Stockdale and makes a first appearance on the podium in Race 4. Second was Turtle Time, Jason Randall’s Swarbrick Spacesailor from the Whitsundays Sailing Club. Zulu Chief, the Steinman Pilot House of David Simpson, originally built to compete in the ’88 round Australia race, was third.

Race 4 of Cruising Non Spinnaker was won by Planit Flashdance 11, Brian Evans Adams Radford. Delphian, John Sloan’s McIntosh 47 was second, with Time Lord, the Bavaria 50 chartered by Auckland builder Keith Munro and his friends, was third.

*Race results were revised on 15/08/07 for Tuesday the 14/08/07 (after the initial press release for the day's racing).

Revised results available at : www.airliebeachraceweek.com.au