ORCV Melbourne to King Island

Where you off to, then, Governor?

At noon on Saturday, Scarlet Runner leads the race to King Island and all its delights, both panoramic and gastronomic, having done 60nm of the 114 needed to get here. They are 6nm ahead of Gusto and doing about 7knots. Expect them in at maybe 2000hrs.

Not going quite as fast as this, but moving along nicely, anyway - Scarlet Runner

There are some very important efforts that appear from the noon sked, as well. We do hope their efforts are rewarded at the 1800hrs sked and their places cemented in. First to mention is eXtasea. They're in third place, which is handy when you give 20 feet away to 2nd and 8 feet away to first. They are nine miles astern, but travelling about 1.5knots slower. Still, with the kind of lead they have over the remainder of the fleet, an IRC win looks pretty certain for the always well-sailed DK46 of Paul Buchholz.

Five miles astern of eXtasea are the 39 footers Jazz Player and Arch Rival. Half a mile behind them are Spirit of Downunder, Cadibarra 8 and Nutcracker. Well done to the latter, who is only 35 feet and up to seven feet shorter than the others. It goes to show the level of skill onboard and just as importantly, the level of determination for the boat's first adventure in the Paddock. White Noise is just behind them and with that boat's rating, expect a podium result there, as well. At the back are Magic and Spirit of Freya, with Escapade around 7nm behind and the most Easterly boat of the fleet.

Now earlier on in the day, there were a three boats that departed Grassy, one of which was Mirrabooka and another was Andalucia. I reckon it is the former in this pic, below, as it has a blue boom cover and lazy jacks...

A little while ago, we got the van to cross the 40th parrallel and wondered when you lot out there racing would do the same. This is Race Director George Shaw with his Assistant RD, Robyn Brooke over by the sign.

Now chatting with the irrepressible and extremely diesel train like gent whilst he's asleep, known to all as the Immediate Past ORCV Commodore, George Shaw, we spotted a lot of Osaka Expression of Interest holders in the gang on their way here to King Island. There are 23 EOIs in the mix for the 2013 race, so far and a number of others floating about who haven't found the button, which is HERE, BTW.

At any rate, there are nine Osaka parties out there racing to King Island, either on the boat they're going to take or the one before the one they plan to take, on someone else's vessel altogether and lastly, not known to the general yachting community, as yet. This is the list:

• Team Beyond Outrageous - Tony Warren
• Cadibarra 8 - Paul Roberts and the boat will still have the M2KI record after this year's event
• Escapade - Robert 'Vladimir' Bradley
• Jeremy Walton is the Naviguesser on Brian Pattinson's Gusto (and Brian completed his last one with the yellow Open 60, Gusto)
• David Clancy is aboard our original Love Boat, Nutcracker
• Scarlet Runner - Rob Date
• Boat X - who shot to fame in the 2010 M2V and won the 2010 Sovereign Series (Oh - Am I that obvious???)
• Spirit of Downunder - Laurie 'Lozza' Ford
• Boat Z - which just made it in to the water before Xmas and ran over to Launceston on December 27.

Sun's back out and it really is glorious... If you're not sailing, you may want to see where the boats are during the race on the ORCV's Tracker, which is HERE.

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

Please contact me for re-issue rights.

	Councillor Island on the left, as seen from the plane... Remember the currents!!!!

ORCV Melbourne to King Island

Morning.

How are you?

It's a wonderful day here with the sun coming up in a blaze of glory and a gentle 10 to 15 knots blowing from the East Nor'east.

The fleet got away at 0100hrs fine and well, with the ships coming out straight after them. Busy evening for movements with the Yankee Foxtrots, as well. What we can say is that after the 0600hrs sked, five hours following the gun, Gusto and Scarlet Runner were just 14nm down the 114nm track and had already used up half of the time to be on record pace. In other words, to get back on pace, they would have to have done 20knots average for the remaining five hours. Well and truly possible with those two vessels, but highly unlikely given that the AIS beacons on a couple of vessels were showing just a tenth of that speed. i.e. Two and a bit knots. Doh!

So then, the wallabies love us and the sunrise is wonderful. The steak last night was up to the usual impeccable standard and it is delightfully moderate, with only a jumper and beannie required. Ostensibly, the runners in tomorrow's annual, 20 mile race across King Island will be moving faster.

Golf Course glowing in the morning sun, above and below is the Western side of Grassy Harbour.

Hope the crews are well versed on entertaining themselves... If you're not sailing, you may want to see where the boats are during the race on the ORCV's Tracker, which is HERE.

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

Please contact me for re-issue rights.

	Councillor Island on the left, as seen from the plane... Remember the currents!!!!

ORCV Melbourne to King Island

It looks like?

This. We saw in both Launch and The Promise, that the hope was for a downwind race in a strong enough Nor'easter. A brisk trip in the sun where it was more about sunscreen than wet weather gear. For the bulk of the fleet, this is very unlikely to be the case. Indeed, even the record looks to be somewhat safe, as the leaders would appear to get to the bottom about the same time as the current is trying it's best to head North.

After a cool and oh-so-grey morning in Melbourne, the haze and muck burnt off, the plane finally got in the air (Melbourne's airport is having one of the runway's resurfaced, which is slowing the scenario down a lot and our plane was late in from it's last port). So sunny, blue and pleasant skies greeted us and I got the feeling we were about to witness on the Friday, what all the models had been saying for over a week was going to be occurring on the Saturday.

As we got in to Bass Strait, you could not help thinking 24 hours seemed like a very special amount of time indeed...

The top of the Bay.

Queenscliff at the bottom of the image and Point Nepean at the right of the engine nacelle.

I think this is what everyone was expecting Bass Strait to look like for the race. Lots of white caps and a heap of sunshine...

Landing at King Island, the clouds had appeared about 10 minutes out and the wind was Nor'east, strong enough and cool, as well.

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

Please contact me for re-issue rights.

	Councillor Island on the left, as seen from the plane... Remember the currents!!!!

ORCV Melbourne to King Island

The Promise.

For the last 10 days or so, there have been some excited Skippers and keen Naviguessers, as the classic downhill race, with up to 19 knots from the Nor'east, was going to deliver the fleet to the island in the middle of Bass Strait with pace and dare I say it, gusto (argh, argh, argh). The express versions up the front were looking like breaking records and the rest would be in before the sun set on Saturday. That adventure seems to have ended, with the leaders now due well after their 1100hrs target. 1400 hrs is what the routing software from our pals at PredictWind have to say. Our other friends from Tidetech also indicate the currents and tides are there for all to deal with, especially at the top of King Island.

So, the promise of a dash for the record seems to have evaporated. The Brass have chimed in with "Crew in this year’s King Island race will be working hard to gain each mile towards King Island. The positives; sea sickness and water on the deck and cold are not going to be a problem. The negative; you will get tantalisingly close to King Island when the wind dies out. So the crews that are set for the long haul will come home with the handicap honours."

"If we look at the four day forecast map, we will see that we will have a weak cold front and a trough passing through the race course on Saturday. The effect of the trough will be that the boats in the right position on the race course will win. So rhumbline sailing is to be avoided at all costs! You will be lucky if the wind exceeds 15 knots for the race. If you look at the two PredictWind models, you will see that for the Beneteau First 40 and the Farr 52, both the GFC and the CMC computer models are predicting the same route, which is to go well East of the rhumbline, so that you don’t end up running downwind in no wind. Not fast at all", the Brass added.

The models below are for a Beneteau First 40...

The models below are for a 52footer...

Above is start time and below is 1000hrs on Saturday.

This is 1600hrs - check the area bounded by the red band - and below is 0100hrs on Sunday morning.

"Despite it all looking the same, it wont that way with trough moving around, so you will have play it as you see itI have added lots of other information that all says the same thing it won’t be the same and your strategy will have to change as the race develops. So good luck and happy sailing. Looking at the tides provided by Tidetech, we note that these will will not help the attempt at the record, as the tide will be against them on Saturday afternoon", was the Brass' final point.

Above is the start time flows from our friends at Tidetech and below is 0600hrs Saturday.

Above is 1000hrs and below is 1400hrs.

One crew well into planning mode to deal with it all are our newbies - Arch Rival, the old Rouseabout. "From a race standpoint, I imagine the big boats are rubbing their hands together and measuring up a new trophy cabinet. They may well be in before the breeze shuts down. In the same sense - it's a classic rich get richer scenario - If we can be well up the fleet in the light running conditions, we may well get a result in the 38 - 40 footer division. Can you all have a good long hard look at your gear, cull anything that's not absolutely essential:

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

Please contact me for re-issue rights.

	Councillor Island on the left, as seen from the plane... Remember the currents!!!!