Hey people!
Just wondering if anyone here has raced their cruiser in the Hamilton Island Race week.
Looks like a lot of fun and the category of "Cruiser - non spinnaker" sounds interesting.
I see one of the other threads at the mo about the "Wild Oats Sydney to Hobart waffle" and the race not being for the little bloke (or woman) anymore, maybe Hamilton Island would be an alternative.
Not expecting to win anything at all, but what an experience it would be.....
Don't know about this race in particular.
but I had some good mates who where world class sailors, they had done Syd/Hob in the past. Never again!
But would Never miss Hamilton.
I crewed on 44ft yacht in 2013 , great fun , my best sailing experience
We sailed in the cruising spinnaker div 2
Nightlife was great, it was the 30th anniversary so beer was selling at 1983 prices for a few hours every night 
I'd love go back if anyone is looking to put a crew together
Another event to consider is the Magnetic Island Race Week. A local mate came back from it about 6 weeks ago and said he had a ball.
Select to expand quotenods said..
Don't know about this race in particular.
but I had some good mates who where world class sailors, they had done Syd/Hob in the past. Never again!
But would Never miss Hamilton.
I have dreamed since I was a child of doing Sydney to Hobart!
Probably no one can give you the "correct" answer because it's so much a matter of personal taste. I found the two Hamo weeks I did to be rather bizarre. Very much a "scene" on an over-commercialised piece of the Gold Coast, inside a stunning area. The racing can be good but these days the fleet is pretty patchy in some ways, apparently.
To me a classic example pf the Hamo "style" was when the racing was cancelled one day due to lack of wind. Our boat went to one of the bays and we had a fantastic time snorkelling. Most of the boats just went back into the marina and the crews headed for the bar or restaurants, just as they could have done in Sydney or Melbourne.
Another year we were doing the national offshore championships, so we mainly did windward/leeward races. Many of us would have preferred more round-the-islands racing as we can do WW/LW anywhere.
Hamo does still get some small boats, though, which is a great thing. And if you want to get surrounded by "glamour boats" it's cool.
The Hobart is a completely different level of sailing IMHO.
