Former HYC Commodore Neil Harrison’s Beneteau Oceanis 41.1 ‘Bellabreeza’ overcame a poor start to their title defence to fight back and finish mid-fleet at the recent Race Week at Hamilton Island, Queensland. Although based in Queensland, ‘BellaBreeza’ was HYC-registered and competed flying the HYC burgee.

A longstanding feature of the Australian racing calendar, Hamilton Island Race Week caters for a myriad of boats, sailing experience and budgets. Annually bringing together a high calibre of crew and cross-section of ocean racing yachts plus trailables for stunning passage racing around the mostly uninhabited isles surrounding Hamilton Island in the picturesque Whitsunday Islands.

Last year, long time Race Week competitor Neil Harrison and wife Wendy were joined by co-owners Ian and Maree Conboy and were pleased with a surprise 2nd place in their non-spinnaker division in their first attempt. Unfortunately, this year’s challenge to go one better, began poorly as the light flukey winds present in the opening three days of racing did not support the large 41 ft cruiser/racer with a self-imposed handicap of a small self-tacking jib, resulting in finishes at the back of the fleet. However, as the wind picked up throughout the week, their fortunes improved. Skippers and crew worked hard to turn results around with a winning 1st place in Race 4, 5th in Race 5 and 3rd in Race 6. The strong results in the final three races pushed them up the ladder, ultimately achieving a mid-fleet finish of 9th place from the 20 competitors.

Following Race Week, ‘BellaBreeza’ assumed activities she was more accustomed to as Neil and Wendy enjoyed a week cruising throughout the Whitsunday’s. Both Neil and Ian have indicated they will return to Hamilton Island next August to emulate their 2023 result and to also again savour the joys of cruising in the tropics.

Ray Murphy