It's the final morning of racing at Ocean Dynamics and Mount Gay Airlie Beach Race Week 2024 and once again it is light and lovely and expected to be almost a replica of yesterday, with the sea breeze poking her nose into the Whitsundays around midday.
PRO Kevin Wilson is ready to start racing from 11am but advised the on water crews that shortened courses may be called for if it becomes necessary. Wilson wished one crew extra luck as they strive to put together four races for the 4.4 Weta trimarans. It's been impressive seeing 12 here competing, the largest fleet since they were added to the event in 2021, as they grown in popularity.
Dreamland Solutions has been causing a stir in Performance Cruising Division 3 of Whitsunday Sailing Club's 36th edition of ABRW. Her owner, Phil Cormie, only purchased the Dehler 41 recently and Airlie Beach is the first time the Victorian and his crew have raced the boat.
True Colours (a Bavaria 44) Victorian owner, John Strahan, is impressed by Dreamland Solutions' performance and so he might be, as the latter, as of yesterday, is poised at the top of the leaderboard. True Colours had led till yesterday but is now in second place, with Richard Grundy's Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 409 Minnow (NSW) in third.
We talked to Cormie to gain some insight into his success.
"Our team has sailed together quite a few years and we've sailed a Jeanneau 49 a couple of times at Airlie. We've been sailing a Sydney 36 in Melbourne, but decided we wanted a bigger boat and looked around for a while. We found the 41 and renamed it Dreamtime Solutions," Cormie said.
"It's a nice boat to sail and so far it's been pretty good. The rudder had some corrosion in the shaft and there were electrical problems we had to fix. We sailed the boat up from Royal Brighton Yacht Club over a few days.
"Our first time racing the boat was the first race of this regatta. The first three days were very heavy and the boat went well and it's going well in the light too," Cormie said after winning Race 4 and placing fifth in Race 5 for a two point gap to True Colours.
"We actually bought it as a fun boat to sail because we're all a bit old. "I've got a good crew on board. I've got a shoulder injury, so we're sharing the duties around. My brother Lindsay is sailing with me along with Larry, two Peters and another Phillip. They've all done a fair bit of sailing one way or the other.
"It's a stable boat. We haven't taken much notice of the competition," he confessed, "we're mainly looking at sailing the new boat the best we can and getting the boat sorted. We're enjoying ourselves here, as the team gets on well together, so they sail well together. When we sailed up here, we were surprised to see how good the new club looks."
Today will decide the podium places and there are only three points between the top three with a big gap after that, so Dreamtime Solutions will go home with a prize or two, including Mount Gay rum.
This morning at the volunteers' breakfast, Heather Sutton, the event's volunteer co-ordinator, gave her heartfelt thanks to all and asked all to come back next year. I'll add thanks from the competitors here too, as many have said no regatta could happen or be a success without them.
Tonight, a DJ will start the final night's entertainment, followed by the band 'The Lyrical'. A fireworks display will take place around 8pm following the Series Presentation.
Ocean Dynamics and Mount Gay Airlie Beach Race Week 2024 is held from place from 8-15 August and enjoys continued support from Tourism and Events Queensland, including as a feature on the It's Live! Queensland events calendar. The event also enjoys support from Coral Sea Marina Resort and d'Albora Port of Airlie Marina.
