Light winds create chaos in the "wetsundays" of Airlie Beach

Defending Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week champion Michael Hiatt and his high performance Living Doll crew were forced to play catch up in the warm Whitsunday Islands earlier today.

The high pressure system which dumped 31/2 inches of rain on the ‘wetsundays’ on Tuesday finally drifted away leaving an uncertain wind pattern behind forcing all tacticians to be on guard or fall into difficult times.

A glass out forced both race officials and the crews to play the waiting game for the breeze to fill in.

Close on 90 minutes later the Grand Prix IRC fleet were forced to accept sailing in a soft 5-8 knot south east breeze while race favourite and current championship leader Living Doll placed their race chances in damage control when they were forced to execute a penalty for a start line breach and were last boat away.

However good crews make their own luck and the Living Doll combination was back in the hunt when they tacked close into the mainland shore avoiding the current.

They progressively pegged back the leaders Howard Lambourne’s Lambourdini and the New Zealand sloop Wired before rounding White Rock and sailing into the favoured side of a 60 degree wind shift.

“We were in good shape but that changed near Daydream Island when ‘The Doll’ sailed into a calm patch”. Aaron Linton said.

This forced Living Doll to almost share the same sea room with her New Zealand challenger Wired (Brett Russell) when spinnakers were set for the run north along the Whitsunday Passage.

The separation came when Living Doll replaced her spinnaker with a powerful Code Zero which ultimately proved to be the secret weapon logging 10 knots in 7 knots of true breeze to take line honours by 11 minute 51 seconds over Wired with Lambourdini another 25 minutes 18 seconds away third.

But Lambourdini racing with 1968 Mexico Olympian Carl Ryves playing a role in the tactical strategy finished with the fastest corrected course time beating Living Doll to become the progressive leader on count back after two races.

Progressive Points after race 2: Lambourdini (David Lambourne) 2-1 3 Pts 1, Living Doll (Michael Hiatt) 1-2 3Pts 2, Bobby’s Girl (John Leman) 5-3 8pts 3 Victoire (Darryl Hodgkinson) 3-5 8pts 4.

 - Ian "Stripey" Grant