Fleet off the grid at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week

by Lisa Ratcliff/Audi Hamilton Island Race Week media on 21 Aug 2010 The opening day of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week was hailed a huge success with breeze from the outset and an enviable line up of 200 plus yachts completing the picturesque 23 nautical mile Molle Islands Race.

At least two boats, each at the opposite end of the size spectrum, made their racing debut today.

Lang Walker’s uber-sized super yacht Kokomo turned plenty of heads at the start of the Molle Islands Race in Dent Passage this morning before heading out into open water to stretch out all 58 metres of waterline length in Race Week’s inaugural Superyacht race.

Designed by Ed Dubois and launched in Auckland, Kokomo’s delivery to Hamilton Island was their test sail with Tahiti proving an idyllic rounding mark.

Also on the start line for the first time today was Roland Dane’s French built Tofinou 9.5 Jessandra, one of only two of its kind in Australia.

Until the starter’s gun today, Brisbane based Dane, owner of the Team Vodafone V8 Supercar team which is currently leading the Teams Championship, was an Audi Hamilton Island Race Week virgin. While it didn’t factor on the IRC passage scoresheet in its first hit out, Jessandra, named after Dane’s two daughters Jessica and Alexandra, handled well in the lightish sou’easters and Dane sees plenty of potential.

'When there’s a blow, we motor,' said the lifetime car enthusiast, who can’t steer himself away from the vernacular.

'Audi Hamilton Island Race Week slotted perfectly into our racing calendar, we are currently on a break with the V8s before the build up to Bathurst.

'It’s the first race specific boat I’ve owned although I’ve sailed all my life. It looks good and it’s different to what everyone else has,' Dane added.

Trucked to Brisbane and then barged to Hamilton Island, Jessandra is a sleek black hulled day race that has no lifelines. Dane’s confident he won’t accidentally lose anyone over the side during the week-long regatta which wraps up next Saturday, however if it should happen he agrees, 'there are worse places to fall in the water'.

With Audi the major sponsor of Australia’s most awarded keel boat regatta, Dane will this week mix comfortably in the motoring circle, including catching up with long term friend and Audi ambassador Brad Jones who will conduct the Audi Final Challenge on Tuesday’s lay day.

The other boat with a motoring connection is Peter Harburg’s RP66 Black Jack which was named in honour of Formula One World Champion Sir Jack Brabham, a close friend of Harburg who is himself a race car driver and collector.

Winner of the new Superyacht Division was Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI and on board was bowman Tim Wiseman in his comeback race after sustaining a nasty injury during the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race which required emergency hand surgery. After three training sails this week on the champion supermaxi Wiseman says he’s almost back to full strength although there’s still tenderness when his injured fingers are accidently knocked, something he’s prone to being the for’ard hand responsible for dragging the cumbersome sails to the bow and clipping them up.

Tomorrow while the IRC division is battling it out on a windward/leeward course the remaining nine divisions will contest an around the islands race as determined by the race committee tomorrow morning once they have peered into the crystal ball that is Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Kenn Batt’s detailed Audi Hamilton Island Race Week forecast.

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