Hamilton Island Race Week - Japanese skipper Yoshikawa enters Hammer

9:40 AM Sun 7 Aug 2011 GMT

'Hammer of Queensland'

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, organised by the Hamilton Island Yacht Club Inc, will be held from 19 to 27 August 2011.

Three times Japanese Offshore Half Ton Yachting Champion Seiichi Yoshikawa will skipper of the Steinman 76 Maxi Hammer of Queensland for Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2011.

Seiichi Yoshikawa - Hamilton Island Race Week 2011 - David Molloy

Hammer was twice runner up in the Sydney to Hobart and will boast some new sails for the regatta. She narrowly missed out on the 1994 Hamilton Island Race Week despite blitzing the field in the last race.

Yoshikawa, better known as Buschy, has been a competitor at Race Week since 2008 on board Condor. Buschy is the Ligard Sails agent in Japan and is a lifelong yachtsman who built both the boats and the sails for his winning campaigns.

Yoshikawa will be working alongside Prosail's commercial master Mick Ekert and the boats regular crew along with 10 charter guests. Hammer's owner and Condor skipper Dave Molloy said 'Buschy is a brilliant helmsman and he was instrumental in Condor's win last year in Cruising Division. While we will miss him on Condor, it will be exciting racing against him this year'.

Charter places are still available on Condor and Hammer for race week 2011. Interested parties can contact Dave on 0418 442 925.

Hamilton Island Race Week website

by David Molloy