As we come within a month of Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2016, regatta organisers are speculating on whether this year’s fleet will top the record of 227 which coincided with Race Week’s 25th anniversary in 2008.
Currently there are 209 yachts nominated for this year’s series, up by 35% on the same time last year.
The 200th entry to be lodged this year came from well-known Etchells and keelboat sailor, Steve O’Rourke, from Botany Bay in Sydney.
“There’s no other regatta where you can have so much fun racing around islands in tropical tradewinds and so easily be part of the onshore party scene,” O’Rourke said.
Hamilton Island CEO and Olympic and world champion yachtsman Glenn Bourke is optimistic that this year’s fleet will be the largest in Race Week’s 33-year history.
“Equally impressive is the cross-section of yachts making up the fleet,” he said.
In other news, the hotly contested Prix d’Elegance will be hosted a day early in 2016 – on Thursday, August 25, from 9am to 10am on the waters of Dent Passage.
SOURCE: WHITSUNDAY TIMES
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