Hamilton Island Race Week

Now this is one of the big ones on the calendar. In a few days leading up to the start of the race week and the return of Tim and Bryony, jack and myself have been super busy transforming proteus from a luxury cruising yacht to a slick racing machine (you can take that last part slightly loosely but we've definitely made a marked improvement). Hamilton Island Race Week pulls in some serious boats with the likes of Wild Oats, Bob Oatley's 90 footer, a lot of TP52s and various other racers down through cruisers and classics with an overall entry list of 150 plus boats. Proteus is in the cruising division 1 along side some other racy metal that I wonder what is doing in the same class as us but unphased and in very light airs, sometimes starting races in 2 knots of wind we went for it with the permanent core crew and a couple of extras including Tammy who was recommended to me by the marina manager and Anthony who is the publisher and director of Ocean magazine which I have read a few times back on the other side of the globe. The whole team pulled together amazingly well and made some good tactical calls with the help of some local knowledge combined with our many thousands of miles of experience and managed to gently caress Proteus and her large 50 ton weight forward with some constant and precise trimming of sails through the water and the race fleet to bring in some good results whilst surrounded by the picturesque Whitsunday islands. The conclusion was a few trophies for the days racing and an overall 2nd place. For such a big completion as HIRW this is an incredible result and a credit to the crew and also to the boat. Now back to cruising and on to catch up with the rest of the oyster fleet