McConaghy Melbourne Offshore Championship

(M2S as part of the MMOC)

Lefty Loosey and Righty Tightey.

As the McConaghy Melbourne Offshore Championship gets underway with the annual Melbourne to Stanley race, you would not want to be a navigator/tactician.

Race Administrator, Dennis Livingston, certainly had his finger on the pulse during the week,
as all the calls came in for Stanley and the new regulations.

Conditions are light and variable - variation being a theme in Bass Strait at any time of year - so the question becomes does one go right and tight, as such, off towards King Island and it will be straight into it, but soft with the promise of some eased sheets later as you get to the Tasmanian coast? Alternatively, does one go loose as a goose out East with whatever breeze there is and then work back in later, when the breeze fills in a bit and makes the going a little easier? There’s even a little dead patch to ponder over…

Boiled lollies, chocolates, heroes and zeros! You name it. There could be some very lonely souls on the quay here in Stanley, depending on they have fared during the course of their journey.

Many thanks to Toll Shipping for getting us here to Tassie on Thursday.

Now speaking of local, it has been blowing 15 to 20 all day from the NE here in Stanley on Friday and the locals feel it will be NW then SW over the next little stretch. The BOM and their sensational wind charts don’t see it the same, however.

Soft (at start time 04:30) and then Softer (+4 hrs)...

Hole in the middle, then the filling in... (Start +10 and 17hrs respectively)

Breeze for everyone (start + 17hrs) and plenty to get you home again (start + 36hrs)...

One thing we can tell you is that as Saturday morning unfolds and the Champagne is flowing at Flemington for Derby Day, there will be boats going all over Bass Strait, much like the guests in the Member’s Car Park, as they flit from one gathering to the next being careful not to spill the expensive contents.

By John Curnow