Day three of Hamilton Island Race Week, presented by AMEX, produced classic Whitsundays racing – glamour yacht debuts, steady trade winds and tight contests across the divisions – before a spectacular Olympic-class finale.
The Palm Beach Motor Yachts Trans-Tasman 49er Exhibition Series closed out the day with a showcase of elite high-performance skiff sailing that offered a taste of Whitsundays sailing at Brisbane 2032.
New Zealand’s Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush took top honours in the men’s 49er, while Australia’s Laura Harding and Annie Wilmot thrilled local supporters by clinching the women’s 49erFX.
“Palm Beach Motor Yachts is really proud to sponsor and support Olympic class sailing from Australia and New Zealand and we look forward to supporting this amazing event again next year,” said founder and CEO Mark Richards.
Earlier in the day, the return of the trade winds set the stage for thrilling competition across the island courses.
Race Week debutants and regulars find success
Grant Wharington’s Wild Thing 100 took the gun in the 48 nautical mile Rating 1 division’s Nautical Classic long race, while Marcus Blackmore’s TP52 Hooligan came through to beat the fleet on corrected time.
In Rating Division 2, David Hamilton’s Farr 40 Seeking Alpha added another overall win – by a mere 7 seconds – to back up yesterday’s success.
The Multihull Racing division, which boasts the glamourous debutant called Slingshot, and Rating division 2 boats completed medium distance races of 32 and 29 nautical miles respectively.
Formerly Highland Fling 17, Dara Johnson’s Gunboat 68 Slingshot is a 20-tonne carbon-fibre Multihull Racing entrant contesting its debut Race Week.
Alongside Johnson, who skippers Slingshot, is first-mate Maddy McLeay, a 29er sailor from Sydney who runs the boat. Steve Quigley, a longtime Wild Oats crew member, and renowned international navigator Adrienne Cahalan bring superstar talent to the crew line-up of 12.
“We won on handicap today,” Johnson said. “Across the Whitsunday Passage we were seeing 19 knots of boat speed, and we still had the coffee machine going and a nice meal.”
Southport sailors Terry and Amy Robinson also celebrated their first Race Week with line honours aboard Miyu, their new Cure 55 competing in Hamilton Island Multihull White division.
The six-month-old carbon fibre catamaran is hull number one and the first sailing boat for the owners. “We were lucky that another manufacturer let us down. We jumped in late on the build of Miyu and never looked back,” Terry said.
“We’ve been pulling our hair out since the start of racing and finally got it together today, taking line honours and picking up third in division. It’s our first Race Week and we love it. We’re very impressed with the size of the event – it’s got that real island vibe.”
Hamilton Island Light Blue race 3 winner was Ben Davidson’s Hanse 540e Sea Fever, all the way from the Derwent Sailing Squadron in Tasmania, an ocean delivery of some 1,400 nautical miles.
“More breeze and good crew work created the magic,’’ said the proud owner and skipper dockside. “Everything went pretty smoothly, other than we blew out the spinnaker. It’s at the loft right now.”
The Super 40 division enjoyed perfect conditions for three short course races in the Eastern Passage in 14 knots of ESE wind and enough chop to produce brilliant action shots.
The consistency of Sam Haynes’ Cape 31 Celestial, recording three seconds, elevated them on the series pointscore to second behind Ray Roberts’ Botin 40 Team Hollywood, a revered Race Week trophy winner.
With the 49er showdown providing the finale to day three, the regatta now pauses for the traditional lay day – a chance for crews to make repairs and enjoy the onshore festivities or just do some washing and settle in poolside to soak up the atmosphere.
Off the water, Furnace and the Fundamentals will fire up Front Street tonight, promising an evening of celebration before racing resumes on Thursday 21 August, when the breeze is forecast to build for the second half of Hamilton Island Race Week’s 40th anniversary.
Results: https://www.topyacht.net.au/results/2025/hirw/index.htm
Day 3 video highlights: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/197rCn6Smf/
All Race Week details, videos and images are available on the website.
More history on Hamilton Island Race Week here.
