Busy time for yachties

NOOSA Yacht and Rowing Club was well represented in North Queensland recently at both Airlie Beach Race Week and Hamilton Island Race Week, several yachts and a diverse group of skippers and crew who made the annual pilgrimage north.
Yachts and their crews travel from all over Australia to attend the racing each year and this year totalled 202 entries.
All Noosa yachts performed well with podium finishes in their divisions which is an excellent result with such quality competition.
Hamilton Island Race Week is a high profile event attended by such notable yachts as “Wild Oats” and “Alive” for a full week of racing, fun and festivities and enjoys a lot of media coverage.
The format is three days of racing around the beautiful Whitsunday Islands, partying every night, one day off to “rest” and then another three days of racing.
“Wide Load,” a Young 11 cruiser/racer, was the only keel boat to represent Noosa and raced with a crew of six according to owners/skipper Elaine Williams and Allan McClintock.
“We were very happy with her performance and our Noosa crew and we all had an amazing time,” they said.
“We will probably include Magnetic Island Race Week to our itinerary for 2016.”
Last year, the weather for Hamilton Island Race Week was very light but this year there was a bit more excitement on the race course with stronger conditions.
“Wide Load” sustained damage to her sails, but another of the Noosa fleet “Rhumbo”, a Ross 780, lost her rudder and had to retire from racing on day five.
One of the youth sailors was aboard the racing multihull “Fantasia” which was involved in a start line collision in heavy conditions.
The port bow was seriously damaged so the yacht also had to retire.
With the help of our local Noosa boat builders at Noosa Marine, “Fantasia” was repaired overnight and able to compete again the next day.
Now that all the competitors have returned to Noosa, they are back to racing every week on the beautiful Noosa River and competing at various local regattas.
Upcoming events include the St Helena Cup in Brisbane and the Kingfisher Night series of races in Moreton Bay.
The St Helena Cup is always well attended by Noosa yachts and sailors and this year will be no different.
Last year Allan and Elaine with Noosa crew Tim Jones were part of the winning team on the Farr 1104 “Moonshine”.
This year will see Allan and Elaine campaigning their new yacht “Wide Load”, but they will still have all Noosa crew aboard.
“Our team for the Night races will be all youth/young adult sailors from Noosa Yacht and Rowing Club which will be a fantastic way to promote Noosa and our club in particular,” Elaine said.
“Noosa has one of the strongest youth sail programs and highest youth membership bases of any club in Australia.
“Our young sailors are talented and very experienced for their ages, so we expect to be very competitive even against some of the bigger faster boats.”