Yes, you are reading correctly,2025 SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week entry opened today and was sold out in a record 10 minutes flat - you have to be quick with the fingers to be one of the lucky ones attending Australia’s ‘must do’ regatta at the end of autumn.
Event Chairman and Townsville Yacht Club’s (TYC) Commodore, Mike Steel said, “It’s unbelievable to us how popular our event has become.
“Last year it took just short of 12 minutes before the quota was full, the year before that it was 15 minutes and before that less than four hours. We’re so pleased sailors love to come here to race and relax with family and friends. We love having everyone here,” Steel said on behalf of the host club.
Don’t panic if you have missed out – go online and enter and TYC will put you on a ‘wait list’, in case of any withdrawals.
And while a number of names are familiar from previous years, some new players are in for the 18th edition to be held from 28 August to 3 September.
Quest, the famous two-time Sydney Hobart winning TP52, was recently sold to the Great Northern Boatshare syndicate. Grant Golombick, originally from South Africa, said they had looked at a few boats. Quest has been to the Island before, but with two former owners.
“Quest was beautifully kept by Clinton Evans, so we bought it. I previously sailed when I was young in South Africa and then in the UK. I bought Miss Scarlet in New Zealand and spent every penny I had on it. Larry Jamieson was bringing it to Australia, but it caught fire and is at the bottom of the sea somewhere,” Golombick said.
Golombick, who wanted to get back into sailing continued, “Sailing is a bit dead in Cairns, but I want to push it and get it going again. We’re (he and Dani Whichello) are getting a regular crew together, including my teenage son and we’re coming to Magnetic Island Race Week.
“We’ve never been before, but it’s the closest event to Cairns and we want everyone on the boat to have a good time. I heard it’s good. I can’t wait. I’ve already ordered a couple of new Jib Tops,” he said.
Daguet 2 is also making her SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week debut, Rob Aldis and Peter Byford joining the exodus from NSW to the warmer climes of Magnetic Island in Northern Queensland. The pair has competed here numerous in the past, but it is a first Daguet 2.
“We’re really looking forward to it. It’s a fantastic event,” said Byford, who will join the likes of David Fuller, for whom it will be a second time.
Fuller’s first experience was in 2018 with his Corby 49, Vamp and enjoyed himself so much, has made good his promise to return. This time it will be with Another Duchess, a Davidson 55.
Melburnians Grant Chipperfield and Pete Dowdney also entered for the first time in 2018. This time they will arrive with Joker X2, on their cruise home from competing in the double-handed Melbourne to Osaka Yacht Race, which they start on 16 March.
“Townsville is where we clear customs, so we’ll leave the boat there around late June, then come back to Magnetic Island and probably have a holiday while we’re there,” Chipperfield said.
“We’ll (he and Dowdney and Dowdney’s wife Sally) get some friends on board and celebrate being back in Australia.
“I marked the entry open date and time on the calendar and got through on Top Yacht and got in. Isn’t that awesome! We are looking so forward to doing it again,” Chipperfield enthused.
Glenn Myler is in that boat too – he is sailing two-time Sydney Hobart winner, Alive, with Duncan Hine in the 5500 nautical mile race to Osaka, but will bring his Beneteau Oceanis 43, Thylacine One, from Tasmania to ‘Maggie’ Island.
There is also an influx of Melges 24 and 32s from NSW and Victoria, Stephen O’Rourke’s Panther, Burke Melia’s No Mercy and Andrew McDougall’s Mac 2, will join Victorian Brentan Carnell’s Phoenix 3 from Geelong.
Then there are the regulars, among them the multihull crowd, who just can’t get enough of the Maggie Island drug. And across the board entries represent Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and WA this year.
Time and again, competitors are drawn to this quaint island and the regatta. From the minute you alight the SeaLink ferry at Maggie Island, you are in another world and all cares are left behind as sun, racing and fun takes over. The ferry is just a minute’s stroll to Peppers Blue on Blue resort where all the action springs from.
And the secret its success? Once you’ve been to SeaLink Magnetic Island Race Week you crave more – and that’s why it sells out so quickly.
For all information including list of entries please visit: www.magneticislandraceweek.com.au
By Di Pearson/SMIRW media
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