The weekend of the 6^th and 7^th of April, Cruising Yacht Club of Hamilton Island held there annual 2 day regatta. The winds weren’t kind during the week with a strong wind warning and blowing up to 35knts, but as Friday came around the warning had been dropped and the winds were back down to 20 – 25’s. NQ Yacht Club (Bowen) had 2 vessels to make the trip and Airlie Beach ended up sending 8 vessles, so we ended up have 17 boats compete over the weekend. Handicapping was pretty hard as we had all types of vessels sailing from a 8m trimaran to a 505 Hanse.

On the Saturday we started a little bit later to give other vessels from across the ditch time to sail over in the morning for the regatta. With a 11am briefing for a 12pm start time we had 65 people on the water ready to race. We choose a W/L course with a start line in Dent passage to Denman Island and back. The fleet all started well with most vessels flying spinnakers from the start line which was awesome to see. Sailing across the Whitsunday passage turn into a challenge with the outgoing tide and the SE winds. G’nome (8m tri) showed a clean pair of heels and navigated the passage like a pro which ended up taking line honours by 20mins on finish time. Unfortunately not one Hamilton Island vessel managed to finish Saturdays race due to a couple of boats having trouble with their headsail and the others not finishing in time.

Results for Saturday’s race on corrected time:

1^st G’nome – Airlie Beach, 2^nd Treasure VIII – Airlie Beach, 3^rd Overdrive – Airlie Beach

Sundays race seen 14 boats at the start line for the 10am horn to start racing the 2 x laps of the CYCHI twilight course. With 56 people on water we had better conditions with ESE winds of 15 – 20knts. G’nome gave the fleet a head start by miss timing the start line but quickly showed what she is made of by hoisting the kite and off she went, putting everyone in her wake. With the sun shining water flowing, it was an awesome day in the Whitsundays to be sailing. The course wasn’t to long as half the fleet from Airlie Beach had to sail back home that afternoon. It was great to see all vessels from Hamilton Island managed to complete the course and all finished under time. Line Honours again went to G’nome.

Results for Sunday’s race on corrected time :

1^st Sea Change – Bowen 2^nd Kamaruka – Airle Beach 3^rd Scorpio – Hamilton Island.

Overall Results for the regatta :

^1st Kamaruka 8 points – Airlie Beach. 2^nd G’nome 9 points – Airle Beach 3^rd Sea Change 0 points – Bowen

Would like to thank everyone that made this event possible, from our Sponsor’s HI ELECTROCOOL and RP MARINE, Handicapper, Start boat Officials, Whitsunday Sailing Club, Nth Qld Yacht Club and Hamilton Island.

Find further information on http://cychi.com.au/