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The 2004 Festival of Sails in the Whitsunday Islands has been another outstanding success with the record Hog’s Breath and Hahn Premium Race Week fleets creating an unparalleled standard of sailing and social fun in the tropical winter sun.

Admirals Cup champion Colin O’Neil and his high performance Aftershock crew clinched their second Hog’s Breath Race Week championship in three years while Grant Wharington steered his super maxi Skandia to win the prestigious Hahn Premium Race Week title in the grand prix IRC class.

Winners will always be grinners but they were not alone as every crew who committed to the cost of traveling the miles from distant ports in the Deep South were also smiling.

Sure the healthy sun tans and the tourist brochure type weather was a significant role maker in creating the happy regatta scene.

But essentially all of the crews enter these high profile regattas for the sport and the standard of competition which was of an exceptionally high standard.

While Aftershock won the Hog’s Breath Race Week line honours title the new generation super maxis Skandia and the equally impressive New Zealand big boat Konica Minolta (Stewart Thwaites) set the course speed averages at a new level at Hamilton Island.

Skandia was pressed to produce a supreme performance by her match racing rival to be the star performer of the regatta and become the first maxi to win in14 years after Tony Paola helmed the famed Condor to victory in 1990.

However Konica Minolta expressed her design potential to score impressive line honours in the 30 n/ml Baynham Island and then breaking Hammer of Queensland’s 11 year old record in 22.3n/ml Lindeman Island race.

Their next full on match race will start on Boxing Day when they line up to contest the 60^th Rolex Sydney to Hobart race.

Meanwhile a past generation of high performance maxi yachts will go into tactical combat mode on Pioneer Bay this Saturday to do battle for the useless prize of an empty bottle of Rum mounted on a slab of rain forest cedar.

Former Sydney-Hobart line honours winner Ragamuffin (Bernard Heiman) will defend her 2003 Great Whitsunday trophy win against the great big boats of yesteryear including Apollo, British Defender, The Card, Matador, Condor and Hammer of Queensland.