With two wins and a second, prominent Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania members Wayne Banks-Smith, Stephen Keal and Hughie Lewis have sailed the chartered boat On Location to a commanding overall lead in PHS Cruising Division 2 at the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

On Location, a Bavaria 50,  has followed it second on corrected time in Saturday’s first race with two wins in the fleet of 39 boats, one of the largest divisions among the 200 yachts contesting Race Week on the waters of the Whitsunday Island Group in North Queensland.

With two wins and a second, prominent Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania members Wayne Banks-Smith, Stephen Keal and Hughie Lewis have sailed the chartered boat On Location to a commanding overall lead in PHS Cruising Division 2 at the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

On Location, a Bavaria 50,  has followed it second on corrected time in Saturday’s first race with two wins in the fleet of 39 boats, one of the largest divisions among the 200 yachts contesting Race Week on the waters of the Whitsunday Island Group in North Queensland.

“We have three skippers and each of us takes a turn at steering the boat or calling tactics,” an elated Banks-Smith said after Monday’s second straight win.  “We also have an outstanding sailing master in another Hobart yachtie,  John Nibbs,” he added.

Banks-Smith is owner/skipper of the Farr 40 War Games, while Lewis owns  another Farr 40,  Euro Centro, and Keil owns the cruiser/racer Cyclone in Hobart.

“The breeze so far has not got above 11 knots and the start today was a real drifter,  with only one boat in the division ahead of us having crossed the line when we were due to start…there were 60 boats on the line,” added Banks-Smith,  the starting helmsman of the three skippers of On Location. “But we again got a good start!”

“In the light winds, judging the tides around the islands is vital…and we have done it with finesse,” he added. 

In race three today, On Location won on corrected time from Muir, another boat with strong links to Tasmania, sailed by Brisbane-based Sean and Ross Muir and Hobart-based John Muir.

After three races of the six race Hamilton Island Race Week (Tuesday is a lay day), On Location has a low score of 4 points,  eight points clear of the second-placed Joie de Vie (Peter Byford).  – Peter Campbell