Light winds have hampered racing off Hamilton Island with the first two days of racing being held in winds in the sub 5 knot range, allowing the high performance divisions to shine.

Racing around the islands off Hamilton Island is challenging to say the least, strong tides push through channels up to 100m deep in parts, with wind shifts and local effects playing a crucial part in racing. Even for the cruising divisions at Race week, charts are being scrutinized pre-race to find the areas of the course with favorable tides.

With winds so light, racing has this week favoured the faster boats able to make use of the 2-3 knot breezes. The Americas cup trainer boat, AC42 ‘Wild Oats’ is loving the calmer conditions, showing off it’s impressive speeds of over 15 knots while the IRC divisions battle it out on shorter courses. Of course it’s business as usual for these guys, many sailing professionally on a constant tour around the world on their yachts worth tens of millions of dollars.

Meanwhile in the cruising division, yachts are stuck in the doldrums with some even opting to throw out their anchor during racing! Mondays race saw the slower half of the cruising divisions suffer a complete becalming in the lee of a small island. With the tide pushing them backwards, some anchored to wait out the wind, others jumped off their boats and went for a swim, one boat retired and headed back to the yacht club (they probably ran out of beer!). More than six hours later, the boats who stuck it out returned to Dent Passage after a very long day on the water.

With a lay-day on Wednesday, Racers are looking forward to a week of more wind to finish of racing in Australia’s biggest sailing event. More updates to follow next week, when we know who’s won!

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