'A great regatta with trade winds forecast for the first four or five days of 'the Regatta'. That's the enthusiastic outlook from Denis Thompson, Race Director of the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week that gets under way on Friday in the tropical waters of the Whitsundays of Far North Queensland.

'It's going to be another Tropical Shirt Regatta with a record keelboat fleet of 109 yachts representing Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland and even entries from as far away as New Zealand, Western Australia and Tasmania.'

'All told, there will be some 800 sailors in Airlie Beach and most will be at the Crew Welcome tomorrow (Thursday) evening.

'The tropical weather is wonderful.I'm watching the Whitsunday Sailing Club's twilight race and they're out there sailing in a 10-12 knot south-easterly tradewind. Further out in the bay it's probably blowing a steady 15 knots.'

Denis said most of the fleet had already arrived at Abel Point to join the strong local fleet. 'Quite a few of the Sports Boats have launched today; they are all fired up and are out there practising late this afternoon.'

He forecast keen competition in all divisions, headed by the clash of the 50-footers in the IRC Division. 'The Sports Boat division will be very interesting and spectacular,' said Denis, explaining that the 20-boat fleet would racing under the Sports Boats Association's new handicap rule, SMS (Sports Boat Measurement System) that is a derivative of AMS used for keelboat racing in Victoria. 'It looks a very fair rule for handicapping a very diverse fleet but the Sports Boat Association may need to do some tweaking after this regatta,' he added.

The opening race for the 2008 Meridien Marinas Audi Beach Race Week on Friday, 15 August will be the traditional Cone Island/Armid Island Race, generally a windward/leeward race of about 19 nautical miles.

After two days of racing there will be a lay day on Monday next, with racing continuing through to Thursday, 21 August.

by Peter Campbell

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