07 Aug
Philip Cormie and his crew will rely on a proven formula aboard the Dehler 41, Dreamtime Solutions, at the 2025 ABRW.
Over 130 boats are contesting the 37th edition of Airlie Beach Race Week (ABRW), this year sponsored by 74 Islands Distillery and held from 7-14 August on the sapphire waters of the tropical Whitsunday Islands.
Among them is Dreamtime Solutions, which convincingly won Performance Cruising Division 3 in 2024, taking the gun in every race. Owner Phil Cormie, with 25 years of sailing experience, though, puts it all in perspective.
“My philosophy on this is if you count good days sailing as the ones that you win, then it means you have an awful lot of bad days,” he says. “Sure, we like to win – it’s great when you do,” Phil agrees. “But we just try and sail the boat as well as we can. The fewer mistakes you make, the better you’ll do,” he adds.
Last year’s campaign on Dreamtime Solutions was an evolving journey. Phil only purchased the boat in July 2024, and their first race was Race 1 at Airlie Beach Race Week, which they won on both line honours and corrected time.
In a post-race interview, he downplayed the benefits of “experience” that the Dreamtime Solutions crew brought to the racecourse.
“We actually bought it as a fun boat to sail because we’re all a bit old,” Phil revealed to Race Media. “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,” he rationalised.
Recognised for their all-round sailing ability, Dehlers respond to active trimming and perform especially well when they are in the ‘groove’ – that point of sail, according to North Sails, in which you sail against the wind most efficiently, at a consistent angle of heel. In practice, the groove covers a range of a few degrees angle to the wind in which you are able to steer consistently at a steady speed.
Phil has this well sussed out. “We have a TWA (true wind angle) guide that we sail to. So if we’re sailing to windward and it’s ten knots, the number’s 42 (degrees), we then go up and down trying to find where the optimum performance is,” he explains. “As long as we have reasonable boat speed and reasonable clear air, that’s all we can do.”
He also puts last year’s success down to even that the Dehler 41 is not a lightweight flyer, it has a very clean hull line and underwater aspect. This is from a Dehler 41 review:
“The T-keel is relatively narrow so likes speed before being leaned on, but that said it was relatively easy to keep to a decent groove. Certainly the 41 responds to the trimming subtleties, does not like to be starved of power, over-strapped and lets you know when everything is just right, delivering an easy balance and regular speed.”
Airlie Beach Race Week is the first of the triple-treat of tropical regattas held in August and September, attracting boats from Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, and as far away as South Australia and Tasmania, as well as New Zealand. Phil and the Dreamtime crew, who are mostly from Melbourne, enjoy the laid-back vibe at the Whitsunday Yacht Club, the focus for nightly shoreside socialising.
“We like Airlie because of the club atmosphere, the water’s reasonably flat even when the wind gets up, and there’s a nice variety of courses,” he tells Windshift. “Our other rule is to avoid protests,” he imparts sagely.
Phil has engineered a few tweaks for Dreamtime Solutions’ defence of its Divisional title. He’s installed a new electric halyard winch and the boat should be even more slippery thanks to a new rudder.
Dreamtime is the latest in a diverse range of boats owned by Phil including a Sydney 36 and various Jeanneaus. What attracted him to the Dehler is that “it’s a really trade-off between being a nice boat to sail and very comfortable downstairs for cruising.”
Dreamtime Solutions is a two-cabin version of the Dehler 41 with the Owners cabin the bow featuring a roomy double berth, the VIP cabin aft to starboard and a large stowage locker to port accessed via the head with separate shower. Options here include a mattress and shelves instead of the stowage locker, or a mirror image of the starboard aft cabin with double bed, although this layout loses the very desirable separate shower cabin and wet gear/sail locker.
For Phil Dreamtime represents the best aspects of the performance cruiser class – a stylish crossover between a boat that you can take racing and do well and being able to cruise in comfort.
More on the Dehler range at:
