Creative genius is all that will be required for two crews to return home with impressive trophies from at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010.

These prizes will come as due recognition for the category winners in the Prix d’ Elegance, a contest that delivers yet another fun factor to the week of great sailing and exceptional on-shore entertainment. It’s open to every yacht and crew competing at the Race Week, from the smallest cruising boats through to massive superyachts.

Lahana - Andrea Francolini/Audi - Image credit to Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010

There will be two categories:

The Best Presented Yacht and Crew (yacht in first-class trim, and matching crew uniforms)

The Best Fun-Themed Yacht and Crew (let your imagination run wild)

At last year’s Race Week it was a crew impeccably attired in safari suits and a yacht that glistened from stem to stern that won the ‘Best Presented’ award, while the trophy for the best ‘Fun-Themed’ yacht went to eight ‘Michael Jacksons’ who had choreographed their own dance routine for the ‘Thriller’ movie theme.

Many crews are already planning their Prix d’ Elegance entries for this year, one from as far away as Tahiti. That’s where the Superyacht Division entry, the 50-metre long ketch Perseus, is currently located, and the crew has been making inquiries about what extremes previous winners had gone to when it came to claiming the trophies. They were told ‘being different wins’.

The Prix d’ Elegance is scheduled for the morning of Friday, August 27 this year. The judges will be located on the Flag Deck of Hamilton Island Yacht Club, and the yachts will be required to parade past the club as they head out for the start of racing. The club’s decks will also provide perfect vantage points for the hundreds of spectators who will be there to enjoy the fun and frivolity.

This year the 27th staging of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week is scheduled for August 20 to 28. Apart from offering some of the best keelboat racing imaginable around spectacular and uninhabited tropical islands, Race Week boasts a diverse and exciting social program unlike anything experienced at other regattas in Australia. All details can be found on this website

Little Joe Fashion Show at the 2008 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week is Australia’s largest and most awarded keelboat regatta.