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There were 200 yachts competing
in this years Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week. Yachts came from as far
away as Great Britain, Hong Kong, Cayman Island, New Zealand and every state in
Australia including 7 from South Australia. The SA yachts were, “Epsilon” and
“Marissa”, both representing RSAYS, while CYCSA was represented by “Marnico’
(Graham Footer, Commodore), “Clubman”, “Leda”, “Secret Men’s Business” and from
Port Lincoln, “Full Bore” (Commodore, Steve Kempe).
The smallest yacht racing was a Sonata 760 sports trailer sailer and the
largest, at 128 ft was the Super Yacht “Kokomo” - reportedly worth over $30M.
The racing was conducted in 6 divisions with the first being “Big Boats” which
included famous names like “Wild Thing”, “Brindabella” and “Shock Wave”. Then
there were divisions for IMS, IRS, Farr 38’s, Premier Cruising and Cruising.
Annie and I were sailing with Michael Tromp on “Epsilon” and the rest of the
crew comprised of Jack Tromp, Jock Veenstra and John Blunden. We were one of 81
entrants in the largest division, cruising. This was designed for cruising type
yachts using spinnakers and included some trailer sailers.
The starts were always exciting with 81 yachts on a 250m start line, (only 3m
per boat) ,and two of the starts were under spinnaker.
There were six races of 20 to 24 nm in length held over 8 days with a lay day
after each two races. The venue for the racing was spectacular with starts from
three different locations around Hamilton Island and rounding islands such as
South Mole, Day Dream, North Mole, Pine, Sydney, Lindeman, Long, Dent and
Pentecost.
Can you imagine the picture, clear skies, mild weather and some 200 yachts all
flying spinnakers and stretched out over 8 to 10 nm through the passage between
Long Island and the mainland. It was truly spectacular and that sort of scene
was repeated every day.
Our first lay day was spent on our golf buggy exploring Hamilton island and the
second one at a huge “beach party”. Food, drinks, tents, music and portable
toilets were all loaded onto a landing barge and taken across to the beautiful
white sands of White Haven Beach on Whitsunday Island. A taxi service was kept
busy all day ferrying about a thousand people between their yachts and the beach
where all sorts of organised activities were on offer.
The Hotel and Yacht Club at Hamilton Island were one and the same and the
central focus for much of the nightly activity. Each evening a street party was
held in front with live music and dancing into the early hours. On the Friday
night a street procession was held with the golf buggies decorated to the theme
of “shipwrecked”, this culminated in a street party featuring Jimmy Barnes.
The Whitsunday Islands are a yachting paradise and one week is just not long
enough. One day we hope to find enough time to take The Other Annie 3 and spend
at least six weeks cruising the Islands.
John Phillips
“The Other Annie III”
