Back on the water in swell style

Low Isle Launch Rally

Shaun Hollis

Journalist

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The WindSwell crew won the Low Isle Launch Rally prize for best dressed. Picture: Shaun Hollis

Hundreds of glistening blue scad mackerel leap out of the water in front of our catamaran as we cut through the waves heading out towards Low Isles off the coast of Port Douglas.

There is some sort of amazing-looking rainbow cloud off to the right perched above WindSwell crew member Jason “Trip” Cyran as he hangs out off the boat in a harness swinging around like a parachutist - he later told me he has done about 15,000 skydives throughout his lifetime as an instructor in regions such as Cairns.

The cloud, which has a full edge lit up in rainbow colours through some bizarre trick of the light, is the last remnant of a small squall that happened as our boat headed out of the estuary past the Port Douglas Yacht Club start line of this year’s Low Isles Launch Rally.

This is the 50th rally, but the first in about a decade, as the Yachty tries to resurrect one of Port’s proud old traditions.

PDYC Rear Commodore Peter Cooper is one of those leading the charge to get more people sailing in the region.

“I’m the Rear Commodore of Port Douglas Yacht Club now, we haven’t had one for a couple of years,” Peter says.

“So my job is to get people back out on the water.

“And we’re not a sailing club, we’re a yacht club, so that’s motor boats, motor launches, sailing yachts, everybody back on the water is what I’m trying to do.”

Peter says he is excited about how the day has gone, and he has even bigger plans going forward.

“Today was a wonderful success, I was out there sailing and I had a fantastic day.”

There were 13 boats who took part in the race around Low Isles and back, with me tagging along with the local WindSwell adventure sailing crew to find out more about what the event means for local yachties.

The WindSwell team certainly embraced the event with its customary enthusiasm - skipper Brett Wright and the motley crew of pirates, mermaids and other assorted clowns took out both costume prizes for the day and had a lot of laughs along the way.

We spotted reef sharks and other exotic fish in the Low Isles lagoon, learnt a bit more about sailing, dodged the Port Douglas Fire Station water hose at the start of the race, and had a brief panic attack as we headed out after reports of 35-knot winds at the headland.

But in the end it was a beautiful day for sailing, with enough wind to keep us moving but not enough to blow the catamaran out of the water.

Restarting the Australia Day boat rally is part of broader plans by locals such as Peter Cooper and Brett Wright to get the town’s tourism industry moving better again since setbacks such as Cyclone Jasper and Covid-19.

And, if the smiles on the faces of all the crews are anything to go by, there will be more events to come.

Watch this space.

Full results:

Fastest overall time: Indigo²

Line honours: Allora

Best dressed crew: WindSwell

Best dressed boat: WindSwell

Boat starting closest to allocated time: Skye II 

 

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