Donehue headed to the world stage

MOUNT Gambier’s Andrew Donehue has headed to Belgium, about to embark on his first foray into international judging at the World Water Skiing Racing Championships.

Donehue also has a long history as a scrutineer that has landed him multiple jobs worldwide over the past 15 years but this is the first time he will be headed to an international event as a judge, having been chief scrutineer at the previous six world championships.

Water skiing has been a big part of Andrew Donehue’s life since a young age.

It also runs deep in the Donehue family. It started with Les and Margaret Donehue, who shared their love of the sport with their six children, including Andrew, and now there are 16 ski crazy grandchildren as well.

“I started water skiing when I was five. Then I started ski racing when I was 11. I’ve been ski racing ever since basically,” Donehue said.

“We started it (water skiing) as a family and started racing as a family.

“I got started getting taken away with another couple of racing enthusiasts and that was in junior boys then, and basically travelled ever since then.”

Donehue turned to driving boats after being involved in a serious water-skiing accident at the age of 21, suffering shocking injuries to his lower and upper body.

“I raced competitively for quite a number of years and then I had an accident when I was 21 so I took up driving after that when I came back to the sport,” he said.

“And I’ve been drive racing competitively ever since then.

“I got impacted by a boat when I was 21. Broke both legs, ribs, shoulder, collarbone and ended up off work for three years.

“So then when I recovered, I only went back to social skiing and that sort of stuff.”

Such was his expertise in the sport, though, it is hardly surprising that his skills would be much sought after and he has held roles including the Australian Chief Technical Scrutineer and head of the World Scrutineering and on the World Racing Council.

“In 2011 I got asked to be the Chief Scrutineer at the World Titles in Brisbane in Australia. I was the Australian Scrutineer at the time, then I was asked after that to go to Spain to do the same job, which I did.,” Donehue said.

“Then I got invited to go on the World Racing Council in 2013 then I was the Chief Scrutineer in New Zealand in 2017 then I went to America to Scrutineer in 2019 and I was Chief Scrutineer in France.

“It’s been awesome, big job but it’s been pretty good.”

Andrew’s caravan and pool business – Donehue’s Leisure – has gone from strength to strength since the family moved to Mount Gambier from Hamilton.

“It started originally from Hamilton then I moved over in 1994 when they had the recession in Hamilton,” Donehue said.

“We started over there and opened up and bought out Linmara Pools and Spas and then we decided to bring caravans over here as a family business.

“We were in Commercial Street, so we were there for 12 months then we moved out to Penola Road and we basically grew from there. We were there for 17 years then we moved out to where we are now.”