 Start line mayhem at Hamilton Island Race Week  |
The noise was deafening. The roar of blood pumping through my head as we charged forward, hell bent on hitting the start line milliseconds after the gun went. The commands of the helmsman as he bawled his constantly changing manoeuvres. The subtly controlled hysteria of the tacticians tongue dominating the mayhem as he called the countdown. The aluminium hull bashing and crashing through the pre-start chop, the whir of winches grinding, Kevlar crackling and sheets slapping as we jockeyed for position. A cacophony of pandemonium, multiplied a hundred times over, as each yacht manically converged, seemingly, on the same point.
It was my first Hamilton Island Race Week in 1994 and it was exhilarating mayhem. Bobsled, a Kell Steinman pocket maxi, had been chartered by a group of keen yachtsmen intent on getting around the course as fast as possible. Having just conservatively sailed this downwind flyer gently through many thousands of miles on the return of the Brisbane – Osaka race, it was a shock to see my temporary home (affectionately known by the delivery crew as the Bobsled Hilton after four months at sea through the western Pacific) sailed so aggressively. Not that she wasn’t up to it: Bobsled had recently slashed the 308nm Brisbane – Gladstone race in just under 22 hours, averaging 14 knots. Race Week was just another opportunity to let her loose amongst a fleet of like-minded speed freaks who had chartered Bobsled for the week. But she was only one of many yachts on charter for that week.
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