Fleet-footed yacht puts pep in the step of vitamin-maker

Vitamin tycoon Marcus Blackmore might have lost $400 million but he has been having better luck this week.

A flotilla of yachts competes in a race at this year’s annual Hamilton Island Race Week. Picture: Salty Dingo

Vitamin tycoon Marcus Blackmore might have seen $400 ­million wiped off his personal­ ­fortune but he’s having better luck this week — on the yacht-racing front.

Mr Blackmore’s Transpac 52 class yacht Hooligan has just won Airlie Beach Race Week and has this week snared two out of three races at Hamilton Island Race Week’s IRC Division 1.

Addressing the share price of his vitamin-making company Blackmores, which has fallen below $100 in recent months, with him losing $400m in paper profit, Mr Blackmore said the company had a leadership ­vacuum.

“The $400m is only paper money … I am not worried about it,” he said. “We need to recover. Our sales are fine but our costs have got away from us in the last couple of years and we need to smarten ourselves up.”

Blackmores has hired Coty’s Alastair Symington as chief executive, starting next month. “We think he will make a significant difference to the company, we have been a bit weak in our leadership,” Mr Blackmore said.

He has been a long-time yachting enthusiast and entrant in Hamilton Island Race Week, which began on Saturday. And while entries might be slightly down on the 2016 record of 252 yachts, Whitsunday Island’s chief executive said there’d been champagne sailing conditions all week.

“It’s been awesome,” said Hamilton Island CEO Glenn Bourke.

“We have had three days of fantastic champagne sailing conditions, we have 234 boats — the second biggest fleet ever — and everybody is having a fun time.”

With A-list guests including members of the Paspaley family and Hong Kong entrepreneur Karl Kwok, Mr Bourke said it was important to lure a cross-section of people to the island, which had been initially developed by the late white-shoe-brigader Keith Williams and subsequently transformed by the late winemaker and billionaire Robert Oatley.

“I think it’s great to bring the fresh eyeballs of people who haven’t been here before to enjoy Hamilton Island and grow an ­affiliation with the place and it can turn into home and or apartment ownership,” Mr Bourke said.