Keeping the in-laws happy

This year’s Audi Hamilton Island Race Week 2017 kicked off in idyllic conditions with a 25-30 knot south-easterly and strong tide on day one making for a whiteknuckle downwind run through Dent Passage at the Whitsundays venue.

The Melges 32 Panther was one of several boats to broach in the gusts. Panther’s owner Steve O’rourke fell overboard, so his son-in-law Burke Weila gallantly dived in to keep him company in the warm water.

“We had a standard broach and I got flicked out … Burke saw me go and dived in first,” said O’rourke.

“We’d been through a man overboard practice together and the boys did a great job handling the boat. They came back and picked us up on the second pass.”