Owners' weekends, rallys and regattas are becoming more and more part of everyday boating for many Australian boat owners. Most of the big manufacturers and importers are organising events for their owners and most summer weekends will see gatherings of likeminded boaters with similar-badged vessels sharing lunch in coves and at beaches all over the country.

These events can take many forms. They can simply be a get together at a local beach for a day, a weekend away, or in the case of some of the yacht companies, a regatta of races  over one or more days with prizes and dinners for owners and their crews.

I've attended a few of these over the years and they're great fun. They are also terrific ways for people to swap stories about their boats, trade ideas and tips and generally chin-wag to other owners.

Of course, it's great for the manufacturers and importers too. It's a way that they can showcase their latest boats and hopefully get some orders from loyal customers who want to upgrade to the next or newest model.

Seawind Catamarans has been running regattas in Sydney for many years but now there's more for the owners of Seawinds.

I was recently invited on Seawind Catamarans' inaugural owners' rally in the Whitsundays. As luck would have it, I was already booked to be in the area for the Hanse story you'll see in these pages so it was no great hardship to extend the trip by a couple of days to attend.

The Seawind Rally is open to all owners and potential owners and even those who might want to charter a Seawind from one of the charter companies that also got involved in the event.

Owners for this event came from as far as Sydney and Brisbane to attend.

The format was fairly simple, get your cat to Airlie Beach on or before June 10 and enjoy a week sailing around the beautiful Whitsundays. If you've never been to this are, take it from me, it is one of the great cruising areas of the world and one of my favourite places in Australia.

The Seawind guys put together a fantastic program for the rally which included races between pristine anchorages, dinners ashore in fine restaurants, beach barbecues, a themed pirate night and basically just heaps of fun.

All I had to do was turn up at Airlie Beach, climb aboard a new Seawind 1160 with company MD Richard Ward, and head off into the sunset.

Only problem was, it was raining. Not to be deterred, we turned up at the allotted time and climbed aboard. My prediction was that the rain would abate for the start of the first race which would be from Airlie to the lovely anchorage of Cid Harbour.

In the end 12 Seawind cats lined up for the start which was just off Abel Point Marina. Our committee boat was, naturally, a Seawind Venturer power cat which was manned by event co-ordinator Brent Vaughan from Seawind. Unfortunately, our start was marred by a lack of wind and we crossed the line pretty-much last. However, we managed to pick up the pace across the Whitsunday Passage and past North Molle Island and finished in a much more respectable second place.

Sawmill Bay is a lovely anchorage which is sheltered from the prevailing sou'easeterly winds at this time of year. We had a marvellous barbecue dinner on the beach here hosted and catered by Whitsunday Rent-A-Yacht which has a substantial fleet of Seawinds for charter in the area.

During the night the breeze came up and caused a few anchors to drag, including ours but no harm was done. What was rapidly becoming apparent, though, was that the next day's race to Hamiliton Island would be into the teeth of a 30-plus-knot southerly!
As we listened to the morning weather report, I mused on the fact that my limited catamaran sailing experience did not extend to racing in "south to south-easterly winds of 20-33kts", as the weather girl so sweetly put it.

We had a meeting aboard the MD's boat in which he laconically expressed his interest in proceeding with the race. By this stage the bullets were over 35kt and Brent, the event co-ordinator was looking more pale by the minute.

It was finally announced over the VHF that racing for the day would be cancelled and much cheering was heard from nearby boats.

Boats would now make their own way by either power or sail to Hamilton Island and meet there for the night.

NEW RESPECT
One of the 1160s headed out with reefed main and half-furled headie and we decided that we'd give it a go as well. Heck, we had the owner of the company on board, and we figured he'd know the limitiations of his boats.

The 1160s are the newest in the Seawind range which also includes the popular 1000 and the 1200 models - the model numbers obviously representing their length in metres; the 1160 being 11.6m or just a smidge over 38ft.

They're a powerful boat with a tall rig and a big, roachy main. The headsail is smallish and self-tacking so they're very easy to sail.

I was really interested to see how they handled the conditions, which were not abating.

We set out and motored down the Hunt Channel toward the Witsunday Passage. As we reached the true breeze we set two reefs in the main and a small headie and we were off, bashing into a fairly big, sharp seaway with gusts of 30-plus on the nose.

The Seawind handled it admirably. I was impressed with the ride over the slop. The 1160 didn't 'slam' like some cats I've been on. They seem to have a pretty good bridge clearance under them and though we did get a little thump or two, it wasn't a problem at all.

We handled the wind easily with the rig and set a course of about 35-40 degrees apparent and scooted along at around seven knots.

Then, off in the distance what did we see? The other 1160 with a similar sail plan up and a 1200 not far behind us as well. Hell, this was a race after all!

The other 1160 changed course to engage us and the 1200 came up too. From there it was a tacking duel to the lee of Dent Island then, as the seas calmed and the wind speed dropped a little, we shook out the reefs and unfurled the headie. Still in about 20-23kts, we charged toward Hammo.

On flat water, these big cats are great fun. You can throw them around at will with no-one having to move. Of course we were mucking around with the traveller and the main sheet trying to get every bit of advantage over our rivals in the other 1160 but apart from that there's nothing to be done during the tack.

At one stage I felt a bit of a goose when I yelled the warning: "tacking!" The crew looked around as if to say, "Who cares?" They continued their conversation with the girls not even lifting their chardies off the table. Lovely.

In the end we were beaten by a whisker by the other 1160. The 1200 languished in third and great fun was had by all.

It certainly gave me new respect for the cats. We handled the conditions admirably. We went well to windward and were not fazed by the breeze strength or the seaway. As Richard Ward explained it's just a matter of getting the right sail set.

Ward went on to tell us that one of his Seawinds had just completed a rough trip to the Solomon Islands travelling in company with some other vessels both single and multi-hull: "It got a bit uncomfortable out there," he said. "But we didn't suffer any damage and most of the other boats did."

After our little trip on the 1160, we motored into Hamilton Island Harbour and moored with the other cats. Some had sailed and some had motored in from Cid Harbour but there wasn't a word of complaint. It seems all these catamaraners are happy with the rough-weather performance of their Seawinds.

The evening was spent ashore at the comfortable Romano's restaurant and the next day the wind was still blowing hard.

More decisions had to be made. The day was supposed to take the cats to the pristine sands of Whitehaven Beach but the wind and the rain were quickly putting paid to that plan.

Brent and Richard decided that the best idea was to hold a skippers' meeting and see what the consensus was. A decision was made that the boats would stay in Hamilton Island for a day and an optional race would be held around Dent Island.

The rally would continue north the next day and culminate with a presentation night and dinner at South Molle Island after a week of fun and sailing.

Unfortunately, our time was up and although the Seawind Rally still had four days to run, we had to depart back to the cooler climes of Melbourne.

We'd had a great time, met new friends and had a couple of memorable sails on the Seawind. The twin-hulled craft had certainly risen in my estimation. They are a roomy, comfortable and certainly seaworthy craft. Perfect for the Whitsunday environment.

As I sat in the airport lounge at Hamilton Island watching the wind whip the rain down the runway and hoping my plane would be able to land, I looked out into Dent Passage and there they were, three Seawind 1160s tacking up the passage in about 25kts of breeze. Reefs in and headsails out in mortal combat. I knew they'd have a great run down the other side of the island, and I knew that the crew would be warm and dry inside and probably having a nice lunch around the table with a bottle of fine wine... how damn civilised.

For more information on Seawind Cats and upcoming events, phone Brent Vaughan at Seawind on (02) 4285 9985.