The fifth day at the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week was wetter and colder than the previous days in the Whitsundays Islands, with t-shirts and sunscreen were exchanged for full wet weather gear in readiness for a hosing down.
Racing Audi Hamilton Island Race Week - 26 August 2010- Image Andrea Francolini
With the air temperature 10 degrees lower than the previous balmy days, gusts up to 26 knots out of the southeast and a choppy sea state, there was plenty of crashing and bashing when the fleet poked its nose out into Whitsunday Passage and felt the full force of the prevailing winds.
The IRC Grand Prix and IRC Passage divisions set off from the eastern start area against wind and tide following a short postponement while the line was re-set.
Audi Hamilton Island Race Week - Image Andrea Francolini
The 50 footers tacked off early while the RP66’s Wild Oats X sailing yacht and Black Jack yacht hung on the left side before flicking over for the reach across the northern tip of Pentecost Island, the two sisterships locked in combat as their five day grudge match continued.
Sails were flapping and rigs rattling through the tacks, and that extra serving of bacon and eggs came in handy as crews hunkered down on the rail to get the weight out and the boat flat in the water.
The for’ard hands copped a drenching, photographer Andrea Francolini snapping a shot from the air of Loki’s bowman, young round-the-world yachtsman Morgan White, with just his hand on the lifeline visible through the whitewash as Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 buried its nose.
For the IRC Grand Prix division, race six of the week-long series was a 27 nautical mile course around Ann Island, Spitfire Rock then a reach to Pine Island and a spectacularly quick spinnaker run and finish in Dent Passage off Hamilton Island Yacht Club.
Line honours went to the Iain Murray skippered Wild Oats X from Peter Millard and John Honan’s 98 footer Lahana by just 12 seconds, one of the closest finishes in the event’s 27 year history.
Michael Hiatt pushed his Farr 55 Living Doll from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria mercilessly in the decent blow, hitting a top speed of 24 knots and claiming the outright win from Rob Hanna’s TP52 Shogun sailing yacht and yacht Loki in third.
“The old twin rudders did their job today,” said a very pleased Hiatt this afternoon. “We had a fantastic reach across to Pine Island, and we were fast upwind today.”
In the IRC Passage Division 1 results, Graham Mobuckson’s Middle Harbour Yacht Club boat, the lovely Custom 18.5m German-Frers designed Margaret Rintoul V, took out the 22 nautical mile race win.
Following a third today on corrected time, Ray Roberts’ chartered Farr 42 Evolution Racing is still the one to beat in the IRC Passage Division 1 pointscore, currently six points out in front of Stewart Lewis’ head turning racing yacht Ocean Affinity, a stunning black Marten 49 from Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.
Audi Hamilton Island Race Week Day 5 - Photo Andrea Francolini
The rest of the IRC Passage 2 division must be contemplating whether sabotage is the only way they can get a look in with ACT sailor Matthew Owen’s BH36 Local Hero yacht and Harvey Milne’s Aroona hogging the limelight once again.
This time it was Local Hero’s turn to beat the Sydney boat, their third win from six races, to be a point ahead on the series ladder.
In the Audi IRC Australian Championship results sailing yachts Loki and Aroona have gone tit for tat at Race Week, the final event of the four-part Championship, with Loki back out in front on 13.18 points, 0.47 of one point clear of Aroona counting today’s race.
It’s been a slow week for repairs for the mobile sail lofts and sail makers on Hamilton Island, but today the jobs began to flow with a number of spinnaker melt downs including Nicholas Bartels’ Melbourne Cookson 50 Terra Firma and Lahana yacht which managed to save a tear in their A4 chute from splitting the kite in half by sailing low until they could peel to another spinnaker.
All others divisions enjoyed a second layday today.
The entire fleet will be racing tomorrow from 11am, the scheduled start time for the first windward/leeward race for the IRC Grand Prix fleet with the remaining divisions beings sent on an around the islands race starting from the southern start area.
