THE Whitsundays' Rob Davis has had one of his best Airlie Beach Race Weeks in 10 years of competing after claiming best performing local boat and an overall third place in his division at the final presentations hosted by the Sailing Club last night.

Treasurer VIII is manned by a local eight person crew.

Davis said it was an up and down week but it all worked out well in the end.

"We thought we might have been out, but it's never over until the fat lady sings," he said.

"The crew make the difference. If you don't have good crew or people who know what they're doing then you'll be up against it. I'm so glad I had those eight, they were great."

Davis said he had traditionally struggled at Airlie's marquee sailing event with a previous second place in the trailable division his highlight.

"This was better. The boat was nicer, the fleet was bigger with 20 in our competition. The whole thing was more challenging," he said.

"The crew that I had were all my local sailors that normally sail the boat. We didn't have one thing go wrong - it was astonishing.

"Our starts were great, we got to the top mark six times out of six out of everybody.

"We didn't break anything, tear anything, lose anything and nobody got hurt."

What did he put the successful week down to?

"It was great teamwork. Everybody knew the boat well. The conditions suited us, it was a good breeze and the boat goes very well in those conditions," he said.

"We weren't ever short of anybody. Everything just came together really well."

Davis said there was one big turning point during Race Week.

"Tuesday was a horrible race. That's the one that really affected us," he said.

"We couldn't get a broad enough angle to get our spinnaker up in those conditions. If we'd done better in that one we could have done better overall.

"But that's racing."

Davis said overall it was another great Race Week.

"The organisers and volunteers are fabulous at this event. They really go out of their way to make sure everything is done well," he said.

Even the earth moved for the Treasure VIII crew this year, although they had just reached shore when the 5.8 magnitude quake hit the Whitsundays on Race Week's last day.

"We just tied the boat on and put all the covers on at Abell Point Marina. It was time to have a beer and talk about the race. Then all of a sudden there was this roaring noise first, sounded like a truck out of control then… the walkways on the pontoon started to move and the boat jumped and down and vibrated. It went for a minute I suppose," Mr Davis said.

"Then we all realised the boat was shaking and we realised something was moving on land."