Hamilton Island Race Week officially opened with a bang last night, marked with fireworks at the Nautilus Marine Insurance Yacht Owners and Skippers Welcome Cocktail Party. While the welcome went off with plenty of sparks, the breeze this morning for the first day of racing was lack-lustre.
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The 164 boats split into twelve divisions headed out for the scheduled 1130 start across the Dent Passage and Eastern Passage starting areas, and were met by a glass out.
After the lengthy postponement, a beautiful easterly filled across the Whitsundays, and when most had all but given up, racing got underway at 1335 for the Rating Series divisions, and Hamilton Island Blue, from Eastern Passage. The remainder of the Hamilton Island divisions, the Trailable Yachts, and the Multihulls, got underway in Dent Passage from 1355 as the breeze built in the channel.
It was incredible work by the twenty-four strong volunteer-driven Race Committee, who are on Hamilton Island to run the racing. The team cleverly changed the scheduled short passage races into afternoon sprints to ensure the races could be held, and all divisions came back together for a stunning southerly bound finish into Dent.
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Mark Richards at the helm of Wild Oats X was the IRC Rating Division 1 winner, followed very closely by sistership Alive, skippered by Duncan Hine, also an RP66. Completing the top three was David Gotze’s, No Limit.
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“Early days”, Mark Richards said of the win. “We’ve made a few changes, and they must be working, which is good”.
“It’s such a special week for us, for the whole Wild Oats family”, he continued. “My grandkids are here, and a lot of the crew have family here. To have a win, when this week means so much to us, is just fantastic. Now we will go out and see what we can do tomorrow”.
IRC Rating Division 2 saw Matador skippered by David Doherty take first place with Marcus Blackmore’s Hooligan second and Gordon Ketelbey’s Zen rounded out the podium. This division is made up of 52 foot yachts, all of which are TP52s except Virago, the one-off RP52 design. It promises to be fiercely contested again this year.
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Wazza Red Boat skippered by Garth Riley were winners of IRC Rating Division 3 with second achieved by Nocleks skippered by Joel Skelton and Bruce McCraken’s Ikon secured third, finishing exactly a minute after the winner on corrected time.
The IRC Super 40 division saw Ray Roberts’ Team Hollywood secure first place followed by Secret Weapon skippered by Billy Leonard in second, David Ross’ Cape 31 Kukukerchu took third.
The Cape 31 class are also contesting their 2024 National Championship during Hamilton Island Race Week, and Kukukerchu also took the opening race in their one-design fleet. Dirty Deeds DC, skippered by Alan Stein, and B4-Celestial, skippered by Sam Haynes, rounded out the minor placings.
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“It was a tough day even before the racing, we were bobbing around like corks”, said David Ross of the long wait for wind.
“We have a great fleet, and what made it really interesting was that we were racing with the Super 40’s, which adds another dimension to it”.
“We had a good start, it was chaotic at the first mark, Dirty Deeds were onto it and put on an A3, the right call, and the rest of us had A2’s or 1.5’s. Regardless, we worked well as a team, and everyone kept us on our toes, but we put it together” he finished on the win.
Hamilton Island Light Blue on EHC was won by Gin & Tonic skippered by Mitch White, followed by Triton with Michael Cranitch at the helm and eWalter Carpenter’s Caol Ila. The range in ratings in this division highlighted by the almost 24 minute turnaround for Gin & Tonic, after second place Triton led the division across the line by over three minutes.
Within one minute on corrected time, were Shannan Hart’s Wide Load followed by Malcolm Roe’s Amazing Nizam and Shane McKay’s Kerazy finishing in first, second and third in the Hamilton Island Fluro Yellow division.
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Peter Barry’s Shearwater came in first on EHC in the Hamilton Island Orange division with Geoff Adams’ Rampallion and Philip Cormie’s Solutions claiming second and third.
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In the Hamilton Island Pink division, co-skippers Rick Rogers and David Stoopman’s L’Esprit came out on top with Alan Hill’s Cooloola in second, with third place going to Charm Offensive skippered by Tim Lewis.
The Multihull Hamilton Island Black division saw Marc Gerard’s Storm Bay become triumphant with Jeff Dodd’s Zero take second place and Stuart Cox’s Cut Snake secure third.
Mick Hodgins’ Tao took the honours in Multihull Hamilton Island White, over David Molloy’s Trim and Kevin Lord’s Vivacious.
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The Trailable Yachts Division saw a close finish on corrected time between Hugh Alexander’s Serenata and Paul Hawkins’ 5 O’clock Somewhere with the former taking first place. Masquerade skippered by Tom Vujasinovic made it into third.
Sea Change skippered by Clive Saunders took first place in the Non-Spinnaker division with Remco Pen’s Bigger Day Out and Nev Watts’ Blizzard rounding out the top three.
Racing is set to continue tomorrow from 11.00am across all courses, and with the southeasterly trades set to build for the rest of the week, incredible onshore action, and over 2,000 sailors all in #HIRW mode, it is certain to be an incredible week.
