A bit more breeze on Saturday night March 20th (by probably 85 knots) when Cyclone Ilui sailed over the Gateway to the Whitsundays, than entrants in the 2010 Meridien Marina’s Airlie Beach Race Week will want to see in August, when this major Queensland regatta comes of age at the 21st annual event.

Owners and charterers of suitably found boats are invited to apply for entry in the 21st Annual Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week, on the waters of Pioneer Bay and the Whitsunday Passage from 12th to 19th August 2010. The Whitsunday Sailing Club (WSC) is the organising authority.

There are some important additions to the invited classes of boats for this 21st birthday party.Race Director Denis Thompson has added Racing Multihulls to the fleet for 2010.He explained today ‘We will have OMR rated multihulls which will be racing on their own courses both around Pioneer Bay and amongst the Whitsunday Islands.

While many regattas excluded the racing multihulls because of space considerations at big regattas, for the first time we are able to take advantage of the large area of Meridien Marinas Abel Point Marina to expand our fleet. ‘We expecting another big year with the ever growing Sports Boat fleets and now their big brothers the Super 30’s, which include boats like Farr (Mumm) 30s, Melges 32s, will be joining the fun.’