Instead of missing out on a great event, Peter Hewson and his sailing mates have come up with a successful formula for getting to Airlie and having fun.
 
They simply band together each year, decide which boat to take north and then pack their party shirts in readiness for Airlie race week.

“No one has any crew anymore. It’s probably the same everywhere. Everyone is struggling for crew for
a 40-foot boat so to give other people the opportunity to have a go in the race week we have been getting our crew together and jumping on other boats.

“We have taken north everything from Northshore 38s to NSX’s, Farr 40s and others,” Hewson said.

The choice this year is Hewson’s Sydney 41, Storage King Wallop, winner of the 2013 Australian PHS Championship.

The 24th Abell Point Marina Airlie Beach Race Week, being held from 9th to 16th August, will be Hewson’s 14th year of enjoying the competition with his Lake Macquarie mates and his third time racing his own boat.

His combined crew will be made up mostly of ex-505 dinghy class sailors including 505 World Champion
Tom Woods and their very fit 72-year-old mast man, Jacko. 

Last year the Lake Macquarie sailors campaigned Al and Danielle Ovenden’s Adams 15-metre, Let’s Go, in the Cruising Division. Next year they plan to tow up Tom Woods’s newly purchased canting keel Farr 36 to Airlie for another swap of crews.

The PHS winner has had to make the tough decision of which division to enter in his Storage King Wallop. “I have been contemplating whether to do IRC or Performance. We went so well in the Coffs Harbour regatta racing against some flash IRC boats, but with 12 crew interested in racing and IRC having a crew number restriction, I have got to flip some people to make IRC.

“What’s made me lean towards IRC is that Newcastle has managed to get the Australian IRC
Championship next year and that’s a big plus for Newcastle. It will build up some more IRC boats to race out of Newcastle”

The crew accommodation is booked, the fast on-water Quantum shirts and the bright blue beer bottle
party shirts are packed, the entry is in and the Storage King Wallop team are ready to go IRC racing.

For event information, go airlieraceweek.com/