11 Jul
Skipper Tim Lewis and the crew of Hanse 445 Charm Offensive will be among the more than 160 entries at this year’s landmark 40th Hamilton Island Race Week.
It’s the most eagerly anticipated and enjoyable week on many sailors’ calendars.
Hamilton and adjacent islands’ tropical delights of sunshine, warm sapphire water, steady trade wind breezes and relaxed dockside bonhomie stretching into balmy nights make Race Week a beacon for many sailors enduring the winter chill in the southern states of Australia and beyond.
Tim Lewis from Melbourne knows the allure of “Hamo”, as it’s known, all too well. This will be his 25th Race Week.
“We love going up there,” he tells Windshift. “Generally the water’s fairly flat, five to 15 knot breezes and it’s a regatta with a few dimensions to it – there’s serious tides, wildlife and you see some incredible changes of fortune within a race,” Tim says. “It can come down to just 50 metres,” he confides. “Someone can slip into a slightly different breeze or tide and just take off. It can be very cruel,” he adds ruefully.
Tim and the Charm Offensive crew experienced the full rollercoaster of tight regatta racing in the Whitsundays last year, when they were leading in the final stages of the last race.
“We actually lost it about 500 metres from the finish,” Tim reveals. “We gybed in about five knots and wrapped the spinnaker. It took us five minutes to get it down and we lost the regatta by five minutes,” he recounts. “Even after so many races up there you just go out and you don’t know what you are going to get,” he notes wryly.
Charm Offensive still celebrated their third place (on a countback) in Hamilton Island Pink Division in traditional style at the Tavern on Front Street, the focal point for post-race socialising with live entertainment, food stalls, and pop-up bar tents.
For Tim, a music buff, the nightly line-ups on Front St are a Race Week highlight. Jimmy Barnes, Diesel, along with musos from the Baby Animals, The Whitlams and INXS have all rocked the stage at Hamo.
“Some of the acts they’ve had over the years have been the best in the business,” he recalls.
“I like to sit up on the balcony at the old pub, listen and take it all in. Someone will walk past you sailed with ten or twenty years ago and there’s a bit of reminiscing. Everyone’s talking about the high and lows of the day and you’ll hear ‘you were bloody lucky at the corner there’. The banter is terrific,” he adds.
Based in Townsville and owned by James Permezal and Mick Grimes Charm Offensive is a well-performed regular on the North Queensland tropical regatta circuit which comprises Airlie Beach, Hamilton Island and Magnetic Island Race Weeks. James is a friend of Tim’s brother and the crew is an eclectic mix of mates with a range of sailing experience.
“The guys who’ve joined us over recent years had never yacht raced before and they have got a nice adrenaline buzz out of it – especially on the start line when there’s only a couple of feet separating you from the next boat,” he jokes.
A very experienced yachtsman with world champs on his CV, Tim agrees at 11.5 tonnes Charm Offensive requires some decent south-easterly trade wind pressure to get going but once cranked-up, the Judel/Vrolijk design maximises its waterline length.
““A tight reach is the (445’s) best point of sail,” he confirms. “They also do reasonably well downwind with the right sail up in better breeze when you get them up to hull speed, and use every inch of the waterline length,” he explains.
From the first regatta in 1984 Hamilton Island Race Week has grown into an internationally acclaimed event on both the sailing and social calendar. Back in the early years though things were a little less structured and the parties, especially on lay day at Whitehaven Beach, achieved a certain notoriety.
““Everyone would sail their boats over there and it was really chaos,” Tim confides.
“More than 150 boats and on the beach all kinds of games including a non-PC version of twister, bars and mini-restaurants. I guess at the end of a long day for everyone to sail back probably wasn’t the most responsible thing to have done. But we all survived,” he laughs.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the event there will be an extensive list of social events, from Champagne garden parties and beachfront feasts to intimate wine dinners and Italian-inspired evenings.
For the more than 1,500 sailors expected to flock to the island from August 16 – 23, it’s the tight but friendly competition on the water and memorable shoreside camaraderie we are most looking forward to.
After all, it’s not difficult to find a few friends on an idyllic tropical island, a spiritual home of sorts, to mariners.
More information on Hanse Yachts at: www.windcraftyachts.com/portfolio/hanse/
More information on Hamilton Island Race Week: www.hamiltonislandraceweek.com.au/en
