Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010 - Clear Air wins again

by Rob Kothe & the Sail-World Team on 28 Aug 2010 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010.

The Grand Prix handicap fleet winners at Australian most prestigious regatta, Hamilton Island Race Week tends to be the very well raced boat that happens to have a size/speed gap that gives it the cleanest air.

A million years ago in 1998, Hamilton Island Grand Prix winner Sword of Orion, a Reichel Pugh 44, was the biggest of the small boats. With the 40-43 footers gassing each other and with the 49-50 footers up ahead, she did not have to fight for clear air.

Fast forward to 2010 and Loki, Stephen Ainsworth’s conventionally ballasted Reichel Pugh 63, has had the 66 foot canting keel yachts Wild Oats X and Black Jack and the 100 foot Lahana ahead of her. But she is, after considering boat length inflation, the biggest of the small boats and yet again Loki has had clean air, with the 55s and 52s gassing each other.

Skipper Gordon Maguire made this point. 'There were a few critical times in the series that having clear air and being able to sail our own race gave us the edge. When the two sixty six footers started to dump on each other they were out of the game and the smaller boats behind us fought each other too.'

Today’s race, started on the eastern course. Maguire explained that ‘conventional wisdom was, that with the tidal rip running only a little way from the western end of the line, you started there and just stepped on it and were away. But today there was a 15 degree right hand shift and so we made gains at the other end of the line, while Living Doll was certainly one of the boats caught on the wrong side of the course.

It got worse for Living Doll as skipper Michael Hiatt explained. 'We looked famous off the line but the fleets had started in reverse order, the Cruising Non Spinnaker first to allow the Cruisers to get through the tidal gate at the western end of Lindeman Island and we hit traffic and we dragged down onto the shadow of Pentecost and that was the boat race. The Loki guys sailed well, they had the clear air advantage that we had last year when we were able to stay ahead of the 50-52s and dump on them.'

Both Hiatt and Maquire were impressed with Georgia. Maquire commented 'We were very impressed across the regatta with Georgia. She is a pretty new boat and this was their first high level hit out, she has a lot of unrealised potential. Georgia is staying in Australia for the summer and we consider she will be a big threat to us all.’

Maguire pointed out that as far as they knew, no boat had ever won the Sydney Gold Coast Race and Hamilton Island in one season, until now that is, and that Stephen and all the Loki crew were really pleased to perhaps having established a new ‘benchmark.

You can see the headlines now ... ‘Ainsworth hits the jackpot’, a reference to the family business.

The final race was a great wrap to an excellent regatta. It started under light overcast in a steady 8-10 knots from the south south east and gradually burnt off to a glorious Whitsunday winter day.

Regatta Director Denis Thompson summed up. ‘From an on water viewpoint, the weather delivered nicely. We had a nice mixture of wind conditions, up to 25 knots and we only had one day that was a little dodgy, the long race day, but we managed to get in a shortened race.

‘All in all, the whales seemed to have enjoyed their boat watching season and we imagine they will be back again next year’ he smiled.

The third and final regatta in the Northern Winter series, the fourth annual Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week starts next Friday September 3rd, 90 nautical miles to the north of Hamilton Island, where some 70 boats will be racing.

This is the fastest growing keelboat regatta in Australia, providing new warm weather adventures for both racing and cruising fleets.

www.magneticislandraceweek.com.au

Numbers of the competitors will then sail yet further north to explore the Palm Island group, with some cruising to the Louisades in Papua New Guinea, while others will head north for the Kings Cup in Thailand.