Airlie Beach starts today

Form guide to the regatta on the Great Barrier Reef

Ninety six boats are lining up for the 18th annual Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef, with 15-20 knot trade winds powering the fleet.

The battle in the eleven boat IRC Racing fleet is looking very interesting with the best fleet of 46-52 footers assembled in Australasia over the past year. Five of these are New Zealand-built.

Aucklanders' Brett Russell and Rob Bassett believe their Bakewell-White 52 foot canting keeler Wired, should be the fastest boat in the regatta. As Bassett explains, "she was designed for speed rather than to a handicap formula."

However the Elliott 50 Ran Tan 2, campaigned by Wellington sailor John Meade, has proven she is slippery opponent.

While the Kiwi's sailors should blast around the course, two Cookson 50s are expected to be the top IRC handicap contenders. Michael Hiatt's Living Doll has a good regatta record. She was the first of the Cooksons' to centre her canting keel for IRC short course racing. Hiatt has now ripped out the canting keel mechanism, deepened and fixed the keel and add a turbo rig.

Ray Roberts' Quantum Racing is the defending IRC Champion; she will be sailing with her canting keel locked. Roberts and his tactician Steve McConaghy have the best IRC winning record in the Asia Pacific over the last two years and it's hard to imagine she won't be on the podium.

Alan Brierty's Corby 49 Limit, the line honours winner of the Sydney to Mackay race is a strong IRC racer and as Flirt, she cleaned up regularly on the Victorian scene.

Bob Steel's new TP52 Quest showed she is likely to be a threat after her divisional win in to the Sydney to Southport race. She has a good crew with Jamie MacPhail on the wheel.

Karl Kwok's Reichel Pugh 46 might have to fight for clear air. Kwok, who won the 1997 Sydney to Hobart race, is representing the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club with his Hake's Marine built racer.

The Performance Handicap fleet is one of the strongest ever with the 21 boats. Greg Tobin and Charlie Preen's Dehler Magic, Restless Kane Davidson's Cape 35, and Mistery Urs Waldmeier's Swarbrick S99 were the top three boats from last year and they are all back and ready for another tight tussle.

There's lots of character and characters in the 24 boat Cruising with spinnaker fleet. Don Algie's Storm II is expected to enjoy the steady breezes forecast, as should Brian Pattinson's Open 60 Gusto. John and Kim Clinton's brightly emblansoned Beneteau Ocean 523 Holy Cow is a popular favourite with the Wolverines, who will be playing during the regatta.

13 boats are lined up to start in the Cruising non-spinnaker division. The smallest boat will be Stuart Garner's owner-designed and built, Splish Tic and the largest, Brian Evans' 17 metre Adams-Radford Planit Flash Dance.

Peter Hall and his team of Aucklanders, all building industry mates, have once again chartered the Beneteau 473 Rainbow. This is their sixth year at Airlie Beach and they were certainly enjoying the atmosphere last night at the Shingley Beach Resort. Once again, good fun will be had by all right across the division.

The Premier Cruising division looks interesting; eight boats with John Bacon's Sydney 39CR Hussy, a previous IRC Cruising division winner here favoured, but the two Beneteau 40.7s Chancellor and Liesel could go well, as could the Western Australian entered Sydney 36, This Way Up.

The toughest battle across the entire Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week fleet will probably be in the Sports Boat Division. Race Director Denis Thompson believes this is the biggest sports boat fleet of the year in the Asia-Pacific. Not silly, these sailors agree it's better to be in T-shirts in the Tropics at this time of year, that on Port Philip or Sydney Harbour.

It's a 19 boat fleet. Peter Sorensen's bright green Bethwaite 8 Vivace will be battling to keep clear of Bob Cowan's Stealthy - with plenty of wet and wild action, the sports boats will again be a sport photographer's magnet.

Racing starts today at 11:30am on Pioneer Bay with the fleet heading north for the traditional opener, the 28 nautical mile Cones Armit Race. The weather forecast is for 14-17 knot south easterlies.