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says. Her ready laugh and calm, down-to-earth approach helped create a supportive and hugely productive environment. ‘Over the years more and more men joined, but I would say the overall mix would have been 60 per cent women. I taught them all the right way – my way.’ Sailing clubs also have a crucial role to play. ‘Having a great


community and ensuring the club is a place where people genuinely want to spend time is another key,’ Mackay adds. Recounting her own experience growing up at Napier Sailing Club,


her memories are less about sailing and more about ‘messing around with my friends, which was a big part of why I love the sport’. In this respect much work remains to be done. At a national level Yachting New Zealand last year completed a survey of its 108 member clubs and found women made up less than 30 per cent of the membership, with a similar representation on club committees. ‘While we have experienced some growth in the number of female


sailors in the sport, inequalities remain,’ says Raynor Haagh, Yachting NZ’s National Sport Development Director. ‘As part of our ongoing efforts to grow a confident and connected female sailing community we have refined our strategy for an even crisper focus on pathways, removing barriers… and improving visibility for wahine (women). Increasing gender and ethnic diversity among our member clubs remains one of Yachting New Zealand’s key strategic pillars.’ Ivor Wilkins


49 Indigo II, with sailing master Stacey Jackson working with a crew who have been on the boat for less than a year: ‘There is a cool fleet of 40-42 footers here this year. For us with a new crew it is all about eyes out of the boat. Most of us are not regularly exposed to these tides and currents, so it is about observing the water as well as the fancy digital information… For example, coming into Dent Passage for the finish there are back-eddies with up to 2kt of current so cutting an obvious corner is not always the best answer.’ As always at Hamilton Island, there were plenty of shoreside


distractions too. Wild Oats’ ladies’ lunch, surf and turf dinner, Charles Heidsieck Champagne lunch, Prix d’Elegance parade, then on the lay day the annual beach party at the stunning Whitehaven Beach – with the whitest sand you will ever get between your toes. But perhaps this year’s standout feature, that other race organisers


in sunny venues worldwide could take note of, is the free skin checks here, run by Scott Maggs and his Skin Check Champions team. Scott and his team of three nurses had every appointment booked out, giving more than 600 free skin checks, 1,105 images documented… identifying 401 suspect lesions including 14 potential melanomas. If you are a sailor or event organiser – please read that again. Friday evening at Hamilton Island Yacht Club saw the Women in


Sailing event, with speakers Nic Douglass, Stacey Jackson, Katie Spithill and Jessica Watson, hosted by Hamilton Island and introduced by Wild Oats XIskipper Mark Richards. The key message that emerged is that whoever you are – female, male, young or old – the phone is not going to ring, so call people, work on your skillsets, make it happen, network and build longterm relationships on and off the water. So that is another Hamilton Island Race Week done. Weaving


through the fleet in a media boat in bright sunshine spotting whales and calves tucked in close to the shoreline, then walking down main street past the evening’s entertainment, I could feel the energy this event generates during our southern winter, which can bite in Sydney and particularly in Melbourne. Two big boats didn’t make it to the end of the week. Andoo


Comanche touched the bottom heading back to the marina and had to be lifted out. Hands up anyone who has never touched the bottom during an event? Thought so… The other retirement was Wild Oats XI, with cracks in the bow


Ukrainian-born Australian supercoach Victor Kovalenko (far left) has seen most things over the years, but since signing on with Hamilton Island regular Marcus Blackmore’s team a few years back he has also been steadily accumulating fancy dress outfits. Kovalenko’s incredible success offers brief hints of the famously rigorous former East European techniques: if returning from an Olympic Games with a silver medal then everything starts again; so no spinnaker until every white-sail manoeuvre is 100% perfect


AUSTRALIA Full-on fun Hamilton Island Race Week 2023 was full on, with breeze all week up in the 18-20kt range lifting to 20-25 for the final two days, to push 180 boats from every Australian state plus more from New Zealand and New Caledonia with over 2,000 crew right up to the final gun. For the smaller boats and trailable yachts it was fast and furious stuff around the island courses, with blue skies and trade winds combined with strong tides to create plenty of challenges through the narrow passages and turning corners. There were 13 divisions, from the trailables to the big boats in Rating


Division One, plus two multihull divisions. For the big end of the fleet it was Duncan Hines’ RP66 Alivethat took out Rating One, with a solid crew list that included Chris Nicholson, Stu Bannatyne and Adrienne Cahalan – signed up as navigator for this year’s Sydney Hobart. In the 50ft range there was plenty of talent and some new boats


performing well, particularly Marcus Blackmore’s cruising Reichel/ Pugh 52 Ammonite, complete with powered winches, a decent galley, plenty of headroom, hot and cold showers and air-conditioning. But inevitably, with a fast hull shape, carbon Nomex fit-out below and clean cockpit layout, this lean, elegant, tight and tidy boat just flies; she really is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. One of the standouts during the week was Darryn Purdy’s Marten


28 SEAHORSE


section. Don’t forget this boat was launched in 2005 and has gone through multiple foil configurations plus countless different forestay and jib tack locations on that fine bow. Plus of course today’s furling headsails are both immensely powerful and incredibly stiff. At the start of one race here I was under her bow in a fast camera boat, and when the Code Zero was deployed I could almost hear the foredeck crew’s teeth rattle. The loads are simply enormous, yet more evolution for a boat first launched with hanked-on headsails. It is 20 years since the Oatley family acquired Hamilton Island and


over that time it has evolved into the premier inshore regatta in Australia. As Marcus Blackmore commented: ‘Nobody else could have achieved what the Oatley family have done here, continuing with Bob Oatley’s vision to create a stunning destination for a world-class regatta. Thank you, Bob, and thank you, Oatley family.’ Blue Robinson


SPAIN Please don’t spoil this Weeks before the first America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova there was little talk here in Barcelona or in the local media about what, for me, is the Mother of All Regattas. Many cultural and sporting events take place in this city but there is almost never interest in them outside the period they take place. And the America’s Cup – in fact, the first racing in Barcelona – is still one year away. When the Vilanova Regatta is reported it will be a challenge to


explain that these events are irrelevant in terms of AC 2024, playing no part other than the obligation to participate… short of seeing if American Magic will attend the second preliminary regatta in Saudi Arabia. Different and equal boats for everyone, different from those of 2024, fleet regattas… Also this time, even more than in previous editions, neither organisers nor teams want to talk. The law of silence


SALTY DINGO


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