On Day 4 of SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week, the fleet was sent on the sailors’ favourite – the Around the Island Race, starting off Peppers Race Headquarters and taking the fleet around Magnetic Island via the stunning Orchard Rocks on another glorious day.
The course was just shy of 21 nautical miles and although the breeze was light, it was summer-like again and the Maggie Island scenery is nothing short of spectacular.
Russell McLaughlin, Freya won Division 4 to Joe Niven’s Chinook and Justin Van Stom’s Calendar Girl in an all Townsville Yacht Club shoe-in.
McLaughlin explained how he had the goods on the rest: “We had a really good win - we went the right way! I know the Island quite well, I sail around it regularly, so I decided to go towards the Island and everyone else didn’t! Everything went well, but we did better than expected.
“The crew are from Melbourne, Canberra, Gold Coast and me from Townsville, four were with me last year and an American joined us. They are a mixed bag and we’re all getting along well. We got a second yesterday, but didn’t do too well before that. We’re not a racing boat, but we go out and do our best and have fun.”
Rod Sweeney was also enjoying his win with Rhomberg Sersa Australia, a Fusion 40 sailing in the Multihull division. It was a big win too – 20 minutes in front of nearest rival, Storm Bay (Mark Gerard, Qld).
“It was a beautiful day and the race suited us because it had lots of downwind. The boat does like upwind and we only had one of those legs, so everyone onboard is very happy.
“We weren’t going to well before that, but all things combined and we had a great day. Everyone had the spinnaker up around the back of the Island and it looked great. I’d like to thank our crew – we had a great team day, he said of the five on board his catamaran.
Another thrilled winner was Craig Douglas, the owner of Popeye, a Beneteau First 47.7 from NSW sailing in Division 2: “You know I found this boat a wreck in Thailand in 2014. I did it up and brought it home. People say, ‘why don’t you get a new boat?’ She’s 25 years-old and weighs 13 tonnes, but I love the boat and we go alright,” he explained.
Of their result, the Sydneysider said, “It’s our navigator (Julie Hodder), she’s so good. We had a cracking start. We had most the start to ourselves, got to the top mark first and were first at every mark after that sailing in clear air. That doesn’t happen often.
“We sailed hard and the wind suited us – we saw about 12 knots. We had a complete screw up with the spinnaker at the top mark and lost around 100 metres. It turned out that favoured us, as it pushed us towards Townsville and the breeze was there.
“We finished with a torn headsail, but we had a great day – no parking lots for us, although we were in 1 knot momentarily.”
Tim Woods had his best day this week with Serenity, (Vic), winning the Non-Spinnaker division today from Thylacine One (Tas). The latter is owned by Glenn Myler, who recently clean-swept the Melbourne to Osaka 5500nm double handed race, sailing double Sydney Hobart winner Alive with its usual skipper, Duncan Hine.
A thrilled Woods said, “It was just a nice result. We’ve had terrible results before now, so to win is good.
“We didn’t fall into any holes, because we were so far behind everybody, we could see what was going on in front of us and the boats heading in to the Island didn’t do too well. So we went out a bit wide at the northern end of Maggie where the mark was well set to avoid the shallows and reef.
“We got a good line and poled out. We had a beautiful beam reach and went as fast as we could go and I think that’s where we won it and the rest is to do with our elapsed time and handicap. The Maggie Island Race Gods were smiling on us and we’re very grateful.”
Ponyo (David Currie, Vic) took the honours in SeaLink Division 1 from Grant Golombick’s two-time Sydney Hobart winner, Quest (Qld) and Daguet, a Mylius 50 owned by Peter Byford and Rob Aldis.
“Amazing. Apparently we won by 5 seconds to Quest. We hung in there. We tried to follow Seeking Alpha around the course. We’re happy. I don’t think we saw more than 11 knots. It was fairly close with the other boats till we got to the corner, the bigger boats went out to sea, the rest didn’t, we bunched at the eastern side,” Currie said. 
“We ran right down the coast with spinnaker up, had the current with us all the way and then we all sailed into a very big hole, drifted around for a time, it was whoever got out the other side. Quest went too far inshore and parked for a while, about five of us got through and beat to the finish. It was beautiful sailing, apart from falling in the hole.”
One day to go at of Townsville Yacht Club’s 18th running of its annual event and SMIR’s official merchandise is from Musto, on site at Peppers Race Headquarters. The wide range of clothing is popular and today and tomorrow are the final opportunities to shop.
Musto CEO, David Oliver, is also racing aboard Mike Steel’s Elan 55, Boudica. Oliver is a dab hand on a boat – his accolades include winning the 2013 Rolex Sydney Hobart on Victoire.
SMIRW comes to a close tomorrow, with the final race to start from 11am – weather permitting.
SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week is supported by Townsville City Council through Townsville Enterprise.
For full results in all divisions, please visit: www.magneticislandraceweek.com.au
By Di Pearson/SMIRW media
