News & Events

While south of the border the weather is anything but warm and sunny, competitors at Airlie Beach Race Week Festival of Sails 2019 are being spoilt rotten with warm sunny waters and a light breeze – and more of the same is on the cards for Day 2.

Racing was delayed for a couple of hours, but finally got underway at the Whitsunday Sailing Club’s 2019 Airlie Beach Race Week, with 5 knots starting the day off and the entire fleet headed from Pioneer Bay and up past Double Cone Island, conditions peaking at 12 knots before dying out again.

Fast forward nine days to 8 August, and it will be on for young and old at Airlie Beach Race Week Festival of Sailing, Whitsunday Sailing Club’s (WSC) signature event, which continues to bring more tourists to the region than any other major event on the calendar.

Whitsunday sailor Rupert King is the 100thentrant to the 2019 Airlie Beach Race Week, with his performance cruiser Overdrive. Deciding he was “over” driving, the former truck driver built the Richard Edlin-designed 10.6 metre trimaran after falling in love with her sister ship.

Entries across all classes and division are shaping up well for Airlie Beach Race Week Festival of Sailing as the organiser, Whitsunday Sailing Club (WSC), announced the winner of the early entries prize draw which offered the full value of the event’s entry fee in food and drink vouchers at the Club.

The Airlie Beach Race Week organising committee is saddened to report that long time Race Director, Denis Thompson, has withdrawn from this year’s event due to personal health issues.

Whatever direction the wind is blowing on Tuesday, August 13, Northerlies will be the flavour of the month for sailors competing in Airlie Beach Race Week.

TP52 racing by any standard is a thrill to watch, particularly when it involves the current top two Australian players in Ichi Ban and Hooligan, with the two heavyweights of yachting returning to Airlie Beach Race Week Festival of Sailing to battle it out for the top spot in IRC Racing again.

When Bill Hopton entered his Swarbrick S99 into the 2019 Airlie Beach Race Week, he wasn’t expecting to be the first local in the Festival of Sailing’s fleet.