Audi Hamilton Island Race Week begins

The Hamilton Island Marina is filling fast! 
Five, Four, One, BOOM! The cannon off the Hamilton Island Yacht club will be firing in a couple of days time for the 2014 Audi Hamilton Island Race week. 181 yachts will be competing in Dent Passage off Hamilton Island, and throughout the surrounding islands of the Great Barrier Reef to mark the 31st year of racing.

It’s known as Australia’s most high profile regatta for yachts, and has become somewhat of a pilgrimage for some. With yachts as short as 22ft going up against the super maxi’s like Wild Oats XI, and even the America’s Cup trainers the AC42’s, Hamilton Island Race week is the place to be if you’re into sailing this week.

Even if you’re not into sailing, but fancy a bit of glitz and glamour in the tropics, Hamilton Island sports some of the most elaborate events in the world. This week there’s luncheons, fashion shows, celebrity chefs and meet-and-greets with the who’s who of Australian television. Meanwhile the sailors will be drinking in the 1984 bar (the year ‘Hammo’ started) with beers being sold at 1984 prices!

Of course there’s going to be plenty of sailing going on too. Last year the TP52 ‘Hooligan’ won the IRC division for the third year running. They’ll be back this year for round four against some serious competition in the IRC division. Also back again is the Farr 1104 ‘Moonshine’ which stole the show last year, winning the ‘Gun Boat’ trophy usually awarded to Bob Oatley and Wild Oats XI. The unmistakable green yacht is again entered in the cruising division and hopes to win this years competition on handicap.

Good luck to all the sailors competing, may the tides, wind shifts and start-line bias be in your favour…