The breeze came back for the right occasion. Twenty-five knots and gusting, sunny skies, whales spotted in Pioneer Bay, and a Bay Race to settle the final standings. The 38th Airlie Beach Race Week delivered a fitting finish.
Ray Roberts and Team Hollywood (NSW) won six of seven races to take Rating Passage Division 1. Grant Pocklington's Bakewell-White 40, Anarchy, finished second despite retiring from the final race, and the Malcolm Dean-skippered TP52 Frantic took third. Kiwi TP52 V5, sailed by Brian Petersen, missed the podium by a single point.
Roberts has competed at ABRW since 2015, winning all but three editions, and in those three he still finished in the top three. His reasoning for returning is straightforward: "The best way to train is to race and the problem with racing yachts is we don't race in competition with each other enough. So coming to Airlie Beach is part of the plan and organisation to sail well at Hamilton Island in tough competition."
In Rating Passage Division 2, Paul Heyes' Thompson 920 Road Runner recovered from a chaotic start, a dropped winch retrieved from overboard, to take the series by two points from Bruce McCraken's Beneteau 45, Ikon. "Down the first run we lit up and overtook everyone," Heyes said. "We carried an A3 from Pioneer to Grimston, sitting on 18 knots the whole way." Locals Kate Leeson and Garth Riley with Wazza Red Boat were third.
Performance Racing went to Tim McCall's Barracuda over Iyas Shaheen's Smooth Criminal, with Hughie Lewis' Hartbreaker (Tas) third despite hitting a reef early in the week. "It's our second win at Airlie and the six of us work well together as a team," McCall said.
The multihull divisions produced strong New Zealand interest. In Multihull Racing Division O, Joel Berg's Hooligan won the final race to edge local Paul Mitchell's Ullman Sails by one point across seven races. In Division 1, Graham Catley's Cat+Ion missed the podium by a single point, with the top three going to Queensland boats: Stuart Cox's Cut Snake, Troy Forrest's Mint, and Steven Humphris' Stealth Mode.
Off the Beach multihulls produced another New Zealand result. Terry Bailey won with Teal Spirit despite not having sailed for a year, taking the series lead on the penultimate day and backing it up with victory in the final race.
In Multihull Passage, Trevor Dean's Ocean Blue reversed an overnight deficit to claim overall victory from Bill Kennedy's Freedom Express. Dean had been dealing with a bent rudder since Monday, requiring an engineer to straighten it before racing resumed. "I've only had the boat about 18 months, so to come up here with the smallest boat in the fleet is a good feeling," he said.
Volunteers were acknowledged repeatedly through the closing ceremony. Regatta Director Jenni Birdsall thanked WSC staff and volunteers, a sentiment echoed by Principal Race Officer Kevin Wilson. Event Chair and WSC President Terry Archer was direct: "I particularly want to thank our volunteers on the water and ashore, who freely give their time, a lot of them for many, many years. This event could not be run and run smoothly without them."
The Boss Hog Trophy, awarded for sportsmanship and spirit, went to Ian and Annika Thomson from Ocean Crusaders J-Bird. The couple collected empty cans each morning and donated proceeds to WSC junior and youth sailing, organised a Clean Up Day on Lay Day with 27 volunteers, and hauled rubbish out on their barge.
