Whitsunday fun sail with Sunsail: some 20 Sunsail yachts chartered to compete in Audi Hamilton Island Race Week also battled amongst themselves to hold aloft the ocean slam sunsail trophy

Offshore Yachting, Oct-Nov, 2007 by Anthony Twibill

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OCEAN Media, publishers of Offshore Yachting and OCEAN Magazine, teamed up with the SLAM brand and Sunsail, to "contest" Race Week 2007, the best ever! What a week we had racing in the Cruising Spinnaker Division, but also sailing a Sunsail yacht, we competed in our in-house 'comp within a comp' for the OCEAN Slam Sunsail Championship!

Co-skippering our Sunsail Jeanneau 45 Ocean Princess was Anthony "Skippy" Twibill from OCEAN and "Captain Jack" Anthony Young of SLAM. Luckily there were dual helm wheels because the battle on board was sometimes as good as the contest with the fleet on the racecourse.

Of course only Sunsail yachts were eligible, which made for some great (mostly friendly) rivalry on the water and camaraderie on the Sunsail marina. Every race morning, the marina was abuzz with activity as all the Sunsail competitors made their way to the start.

At the end of each race, the Sunsail staff provided exceptional service as they guided your yacht in to the marina, checked that all gear on board was fully operational, and, if not, they repaired or replaced it on the spot.

All while cooking up a couple of hundred sausage sandwiches on the marina BBQ complimentary for all competitors, washed down with a cold beer or two. Now that's service!

The winners of each 'race within a race' in the OCEAN SLAM Sunsail Championship were:

Race 1 Winner--Ocean Princess (that's us from Ocean Media and SLAM- we started the regatta well and it all went south from there!)

Race 2 Winner--Falcon-Evan Lutey

Race 3 Winner--Stargazer--Gary Cripps

Race 4 Winner--Muir--Ross Muir

Race 5 Winner--Muiragain, who race at Hamilton each year with Sunsail and go to great lengths to extract every last bit of performance from their Sunsail yacht!

Race 6 Winner--Dreamer-- Colin Kelly

The overall winner of the OCEAN SLAM Sunsail Championship was Tony Byrnes and the crew from Stealing Beauty. They were presented with a magnificent perpetual trophy crafted by regarded yachting sculptor John Woulfe and a smaller replica to retain.

And of course, there was the prize for last place overall--A draw between Lifestyle Chef- Brian Pozzey and Sunstruck--Chris Wain. Better luck next year boys!

As usual, a few fun trophies were awarded to the intrepid and embarrassed applause on the final day at the Sunsail prize giving. All in a bit of fun! OCEANMedia and SLAM provided some great prizes to Sunsail competitors including complimentary subscriptions to OCEAN Magazine and Offshore Yachting, OCEAN SLAM Sunsail hats, belts, computer bags, backpacks and all weather vests.

The overall winning skipper and crew all received a high-tech SLAM weather station and a special SLAM jacket for the winning skipper.

Widely hailed throughout the island as "the best race week ever," with the guidance of the Oatley family and association of Audi as major sponsor, the event seems to have very much found its 'second wind'. The 25th Anniversary Regatta next year appears set to be another record breaker with 250 yachts expected to compete.

As Kim McKee of Sunsail commented, "What has made this week great has been a wonderful mix of perfect sailing conditions, interesting and scenic courses, awesome entertainment courtesy of Hamilton Island, but most of all a great bunch of Sunsail clients that come back to race with Sunsail year after year."