'Wide Load' marks 100th Entry to Hamilton Island Race Week.
The lucky number 100, a Young 11 ‘Wide Load’ from QLD’s Moreton Bay is entering her first Race Week, after being purchased early in the year by Elaine Williams and Allan McClintock, themselves self confessed race week veterans. Conspicuously painted in red, the 11m cruiser/racer is quite the upgrade for the pair, after sailing a Far 1104 named Moonshine for the past 5 years in the event. Equally as eye catching in an all green paint scheme, Moonshine was well known in the cruising circles of Race week after famously stealing the ‘gun boat’ trophy from Wild Oats in 2013. Suffering in the light winds experienced in 2014, the pair decided that Moonshine needed an upgrade, purchasing the 18 year old Young 11, ‘Wide Load’ in January, and spending the year fitting it out as a cruiser racer.
Joining 71 other cruising yachts in the largest division of the event, Wide Load will be crewed by an eclectic group of sailors from all over Australia.
“We have a fun crew comprising an interesting cross-section of friends,” said Wide Loads skipper, Elaine in an interview with Race Week’s Rob Mundle. “Doug Ritchie, who hails from Canberra and lives in a castle on the banks of Lake Burley-Griffin, is certainly a colourful character. But it’s Lindsay Atherton who is causing us the most concern right now. She is an Australian working at an oil rig in Kazakhstan, which is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. The only travel opportunity she has to get back to Australia sees her arriving the day before we are due to leave Brisbane. We just hope she makes it in time.”
As the list of entrants continues to grow, race organizers are also hoping that they’re ready come August, when a mass exodus of the current marina occupants occurs to make way for Race Week entrants. These multi million dollar cruisers all get kicked off their berths for a week to make way for the racers, which often have to raft up to one-another in order to fit inside the marina!
Will 2015 be the busiest year ever? Already entries are up 10% on last year, so things are looking good for 200+!
Cunjurong Pt, NSW
