Fortune favoured the chosen ones at SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week
A stunning sunny start in 15-18 knots winds for The Strand Race at SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week, giving enthusiasts ashore at Townsville a prime opportunity to take in some of the racing while enjoying lunch outdoors.
However, never count your chickens before they hatch. Day 2, Tropic Petroleum Race Day, which doubled as Shipwrecked and Surviving Dress Up Day (meaning some great crew outfits, as witnessed by some of the photos, with prizes to be awarded to the best tonight) threw some complex conditions at competitors.
SeaLink Spinnaker Division 1, away first today, avoided the worst of what to come, but the rest were punished. When they rounded The Strand mark, the breeze started to fade and it worsened from there. Some boats from the other divisions took over five hours to finish, others gave up and retired, while the rest of their division mates were finishing in just over three hours.
Nobody was immune, including two local winners from last year. It was a bit of a lottery that left some wallowing, as Division 2 winner, Robert Davis and his Treasure VIII from the Whitsundays, explained: “At the start it was around 15-18 knots. We got a good start and we weren’t covered by anyone. All went well until the Strand mark..
“We set a kite, but we were running too square and then we went to a wrong mark and had to detour back to find the right mark, which cost us a lot of time. But that’s when the wind faded to around 4 knots and at times it was 1 knot.
“We could finally see a line of breeze coming in from the east, so dropped the spinnaker, went wide of everyone, sailed right around them and caught up the leader (Grant Chipperfield’s J/133, Joker X2).
“It was all going wrong after the Strand mark. The wind swung 180 degrees as the old breeze fought the new south-easterly sea breeze. It was a big transition – and if you got stuck in the middle, you were gone. There were big patches of no air and if you were caught, you got stuck in the holes for some time. It was an interesting day out,” Davis summed up.
Treasure VIII beat current series leader, Grant Chipperfield’s Joker X2 (Vic), to the punch by nearly three minutes today. Chipperfield has recently completed the 5500 nautical mile Melbourne to Osaka double-handed race with the boat’s co-owner, Peter Dowdney and all that sailing is paying off.
In Division 4, Rod Wills steered his X43, Great Xpectations (NSW), to her second win from two races in Division 4 and was pleased with their result considering the conditions on the Cleveland Bay course. He beat Brian Pattinson’s Beneteau First 45, Gusto (Vic) in both yesterday and today’s races to claim the spoils.
“It was a day of very mixed conditions with a heavy weather start,” said Wills, who with Mike Thackray and two others, sailed Great Xpectations all the way up here from Sydney where they regularly race.
“Trying to work out what sail plan to use as the breeze died out was difficult. It caught a lot of boats out, but we kept our boat moving, trimming, trimming, trimming the whole time,” Wills said.
An error in Division 1 scoring from the Tan Lines Distilling Race Day yesterday, means a change to the podium. Daguet, owned by Rob Aldis and Peter Byford (NSW) was declared the winner from Seeking Alpha (David Hamilton) and The Goat – all three are from NSW. The latter two were originally shown as joint winners after scoring the same corrected time, but were relegated to second place.
Mitchell Gordon’s Sydney 38, The Goat, proved her worth today, winning Division 1 to take an early series lead. Ken Christensen’s Hick 39, BKT JAMHU and David Currie’s Farr 40, Ponyo – both from Victoria – placed second and third respectively.
On board Tony and Selena Muller’s Brava (Qld) in Division 3 were SeaLink North Queensland General Manager, Darren Spearman and his chief engineer, Kelvin Gallagher.
It’s good to see our naming rights sponsors enjoying a taste of sailing, even though they were among those out on the course longer than they anticipated. Nothing to complain about though, as it was a beautiful day for a cruise back to Peppers Race Headquarters which was jumping last night, with competitors enjoying the lively prize and presentation by Scotty Hillier.
The same is happening this evening after a long day on the water - and it is lay day tomorrow, so it looks like a late night!
Tomorrow’s social program is laden. Townsville Airport Island Breeze Festival is on at Picnic Bay, starting from 9am with Artisan Markets, food stalls, Afrekete Global Roving Performance, the Queensland Country Bank Great Inflatable Race, Fundraising BBQ, Mud Crab Races (raises money for the MI Koala Hospital) and Godfathers of Funk entertaining, among other attractions.
Racing continues on Monday from 11am.
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
