From the bush to the sea, Mt Isa boys storm Audi Hamilton Island RW

by Lisa Ratcliff on 27 Aug 2010 Larrikin Greg Fietz, a spray painter and panel beater from Mt Isa, his older brother and a couple of close mates who all grew up together in the Queensland mining town and had never sailed before have become minor celebrities at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

In the sailing world Fietz has risen from obscurity to the point where he’s high fiving Wild Oats XI skipper Mark Richards in the street. He’s offered himself to ‘Ricko’ as crew on the 100 footer for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart and last night had his photo taken with Dannii Minogue, partner Kris Smith and baby Ethan at the Henri Lloyd fashion parade, immediately sending the image to his disbelieving wife.

'It’s a week never to forget, where we come from you don’t see anything like this,' said Fietz, the self appointed Commodore of the newly founded Mt Isa Cruising Yacht Club, the landlocked club with no clubhouse, Constitution, water or boats, which currently boasts a membership of three.

Mt Isa is more than six hundred kilometres from the nearest ocean but yet Fietz had heard so much about Race Week that last November he decided it was time for a change from the bush so rang Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson who encouraged the group to make the trek to the coast, sure that rides could be found.

David Molloy, owner of the Queensland 83 foot charter boat Condor, a two-time Sydney Hobart line honours winner, spoke to his guests who kindly agreed to take the four extras.

Four turned to three when Rifet Turcinovic, who grew up in Mt Isa, dislocated his wrist in a shore side incident following Sunday’s second in Cruising division 1 result and was taken to Mackay Hospital for medical treatment.

With an important morning game of golf booked at the Dent Island Golf Course on Tuesday’s layday, Fietz acted quickly once he received the call from Turcinovic on his hospital release. A helicopter was chartered and landed on Dent Island where an Audi was dispatched to take the one-armed player in a cast to his starting tee.


'I had a couple of shots and drove the buggy, I was really there for support,' Turcinovic said.

The biggest issue for the boys in the lead up to Audi Hamilton Island Race Week was what to wear. There were many phone calls to Thompson and promotions manager Rob Mundle who talked them through a typical yachties list of what to pack.

'We didn’t know what to pack other than socks and jocks; we were like a bunch of kids ringing each other all the time, then I’d have to ring Rob to check what he thought,' said Fietz.

The Mt Isa boys - as they have become known - of Fietz, his older brother Graham, Turcinovic and Dave Rutherford, have been interviewed on Race Week Radio, spoken about in the media, had a jingle written about them, and of course Fietz has holiday snaps of himself and Dannii Minogue plus the rest of the Henri Lloyd models.

Not really a shy bloke, Fietz explains why, 'In Mt Isa the ratio of men to women is seven to one so to land a good one you have to stand out'.