Mixing business with pleasure at Hamilton Island

by Helen Hopcroft on 19 Aug 2007 Plumbers don’t work on their own drains, painter’s houses always need painting and builders get other people to do their renovations…It’s a common trend: if you work in a particular area you don’t want to do the same thing when you get home.

Fortunately Marion and Michael Paull of Lake Macquarie Yacht Charter have found a way to mix business with pleasure. They’ve taken a month off work and are racing their charter boat, a Beneteau 473 called ‘Yes Dear’, in the Cruising Division at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

The Paulls have been operating their charter business on Lake Macquarie for approximately three years and it’s a business that the family is ideally suited for.

Marion caters for their charter clients and the good news is that she is an excellent cook. I spent day two of Hamilton Island racing onboard ‘Yes Dear’ and the day was punctuated by a constant parade of delicious snacks. There were roast pork sandwiches with chutney, real coffee, chocolates, pink champagne with strawberries and toasted French bread with pesto, fresh tomatoes and grilled cheese.

At one point a crew member asked ‘where’s the next mark?’ ‘Bugger that’ someone else replied, ‘when’s the next meal?’

Despite these luxuries, or perhaps because of them, they raced hard and finished a creditable sixth out of a fleet of 32 finishers.

Spinnaker sets were neatly done and like many good races it was notable for an absence of errors rather than moments of divine inspiration. They sailed conservatively and always allowed other boats enough space when the course got crowded, particularly around White Rock and at the start.

This is the Paull family’s third time at Hamilton Island Race Week. Every couple of years they race with their two daughters Melissa and Belinda and a bunch of assorted friends. They say that as much as they love chartering on Lake Macquarie, they would rather keep Hamilton Island as a family holiday.

Although they like the competition in the Cruising Division it’s really the social side of things that they enjoy the most.

‘The racing’s good because of the atmosphere but it is not the whole thing’ commented Marion.

The family have owned their Beneteau 473 for two and half years and before that had a Northshore 46 for about four years.

The Northshore was brought by a bloke called Peter and is now known as ‘FPS’ or ‘For Pete’s Sake.’ Their earliest boats were the popular Endeavour 24s and both daughters have been sailing all their lives: Melissa was only five days old when she was first carried onboard.

Crew member, Ashley Smith, was feeling worse for wear during yesterday’s race. He managed to seriously injure a toe on his left foot when he was climbing up some steps in the boat, and injure a toe on his right foot when he was climbing down. Because the pain in both feet was pretty much equal he was unable to limp.

The regular crew have ended up with the nicknames that sailing seems to attract. I asked Bowman Darren Thomas why everyone was calling him Fergie. He explained that he grew up in a small country town and the first time he helmed a racing boat the skipper told him he was steering it like it was a Massey-Ferguson tractor.

Crew member Sharon Simington was tagged Babs and I assumed it was because her proper name was Barbara. Wrong. It stands for ‘blind as a bat’: the crew jokes that she learned to sail by Braille. Navigator Peter Ainsworth’s nickname was more predictable: he’s called Wrong-Way.

The rest of the crew: Joel Curry, Dave Ellis and Ros Paul, have all been fortunate enough to escape the dreaded nickname syndrome.

The Cruising Division started racing at the civilized time of 10.40am and the course started at Dent Island, then passed Denman Island and White Rock to port, before finishing back at Dent Passage.

Beneteau organises a race briefing every morning for their owners and today was no exception. The 8am briefing took place in a small outdoor enclosure and the topics covered included tactics, weather and tides.

Michael Spies, a past Sydney Hobart record holder and Handicap winner of the 2003 Race, was on hand to discuss navigation hazards and race tactics.

A former America’s Cup race official highlighted key areas of the sailing instructions, took questions about her Cup experience and the briefing was rounded off by a hot cup of fresh coffee.

Many of the assembled gathering had partied rather hard the previous evening and grasped their coffee mugs with gratitude and shaking hands.

Beneteau yachts comprise roughly 1/3 of the Cruising fleet and Michael and Marion have nothing but praise for their owners program. They said that one of the reasons they liked coming to Race Week was the care and attention Beneteau put into supporting their owners.

‘Nothing is ever a problem’ said Michael. ‘We’ve had friends who have brought other brands and they say to us ‘we wish we’d brought a Beneteau.’

Their Beneteau 473 has proved to be a successful charter choice and is regularly booked well in advance. Michael reports that Christmas will be an exceptionally busy period for them. They offer skippered charters and can provide full catering if this is required.

In conjunction with Lake Macquarie’s Rafferty’s Resort they organise team building and corporate events for up to 50 people. They also host weddings, buck and hens nights, special events and this year they took a boat to Sydney Harbour for New Year’s Eve for a corporate event.

Contact details:
http://www.lakemacquarieyachtcharters.com
Mobile: 0407 411 426