An easy way to enter Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010  

26 July 2010

It’s still not too late to get a crew of family and friends together and compete at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2010. No matter where you are in the world you can still be part of what is Australia’s biggest and best keelboat regatta simply by chartering a yacht.

Charter yacht operators based amid Queensland’s tropical Whitsunday Islands – where Hamilton Island stands as the centrepiece – have yachts available for Race Week, which is scheduled for August 20-28.

And, if you think you won’t have a chance of winning just ask Victorian yachtsman Bruce Griffiths, who raced the charter yacht Silhouette at Race Week last year. As if winning the cruising division he entered wasn’t enough, he then went on to be declared the winner of the special prize, an Audi A4 Avant.

Needless to say, Bruce will be back again this year with the hope he can win his division again and then be eligible for another special Audi prize, this time a very impressive Audi A5 2.0 TFSI Sportback, valued at more than $80,000 on the road. ‘The beauty of chartering is that anyone can do it – even those with little or no experience,’ Bruce confirmed. ‘It’s a fabulous and relatively inexpensive experience for a family or friends.’

Two of the major charter companies in the Whitsundays, the Hamilton Island based Sunsail, and Whitsunday Rent A Yacht, operating out of nearby Shute Harbour, have a few yachts for charter. Sunsail has a Beneteau Oceanis 343 and a Beneteau 43 ready to race, plus one spot in their special ‘singles’ crew.  Whitsunday Rent A Yacht, which is home to Silhouette, is offering a Beneteau Oceanis 31 and a new Bavaria 46.

This year the fleet at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week will extend from the 6.1 metre long Sb3 sportboats and tiny cruiser/racers, like the 9.4 metre Faarst One (Tony Horkings, Qld), through to a stunning new 58-metre superyacht, Kokomo.

Entries for this year’s regatta close on August 6. Currently the fleet stands at 165, so it is likely the total will be around an impressive 200.

Hamilton Island Race Week’s naming rights sponsor, Audi, is the fastest growing German premium carmaker – and the largest supporter of yachting – in Australia.

Audi Hamilton Island Race Week is Australia’s largest and most awarded keelboat regatta.

All details relating to on-water and onshore activities can be found on the website: www.hamiltonislandraceweek.com.au

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