ORCV Members and Friends TeamO Special Offer

Modern lifejackets, how they have evolved! ORCV is pleased to announce our partner Adventure Safety is now selling the TeamO back tow life jackets, a jacket that is being used more and more globally in today's Ocean Races. It is the only lifejacket with integrated harness on the market with Back Tow Technology. The BackTow lifejacket is the only life jacket that can keep you face-up in the water if you go overboard clipped on. Winning several design awards and worn by sailors all over the world

If you are thinking of buying a new jacket, looking to upgrade to a better jacket for the new season or just interested to find out more about this crucial piece of life saving equipment see the video. https://youtu.be/KSC8EasVhfg

People often ask if they should make their lifejacket choice based on their body weight, but in reality, it is more to do with the type of sailing you are planning. For overnight sailing, offshore weekend racing, coastal passages and cruising etc the 170N will be suitable for the majority of sailors. If you are heading off to do deep ocean crossings or sailing in very cold climates, it is recommended you consider the 275N lifejacket.

Four Quick Facts:

1. It works like any normal premium lifejacket harness. You clip on at the front and it functions like any other jacket.
2. If you go overboard whilst tethered, the lifejacket will automatically inflate and the BackTow handle will be available to pull. You must manually pull the BackTow handle for BackTow to work.
3. Once the handle is pulled it releases the clip-on point from the front of the body over the shoulder, which automatically rotates the wearer in the water.
4. The wearer is now face up, and chances of survival is dramatically increased. (The BackTow line is also an approved lifting point, so recovery of the person overboard is much easier, with reduced risk of injury.)

The ORCV Members and Friends Offer:

To buy a TeamO 170N or 275N BackTow Lifejacket with integrated harness visit Adventure Safety and use the promo code ORCVTEAMO2020 at check out to get $75 off

January News

Sail long enough and you're sure to have had a leg where all factors conspire against you: wind, tide, waves, competitors, sheets coming out of cleats, passing motorboats, knots coming loose, everything!

That's what 2020 was like for the ORCV organisers of our sailing and training events. But, determined to exhaust every opportunity to get our sailors on the water and trained, the ORCV team has been working hard over the past months and have put together a great sailing and training calendar for you. Highlights include;

• Coastal Sprint Race 2 on January 23rd
• Safety & Sea Survival Course on February 20th and 21st
• King Island Race on March 6th
• King Island Rally on March 5th
• Rip Tour on April 11th
• Coastal Sprint Race 3 on April 24th
• Safety & Sea Survival Course (refresher) on June 6th

In addition, the ORCV is launching a new concept 'ORCV Yacht Rally'. Developed by ORCV race veterans, the ORCV Yacht Rally aims to bring the best of professional race team support and route planning to the participating cruising yachts and is run in parallel to each of our ORCV destination races. Each rally will have a support boat that will chaperone the rally fleet to and from the destination. For the ORCV it's all about the balance between sailing, exploring, travelling and socialising.

The ORCV Yacht Rally is an adventure, not a race and is designed to build confidence through experience for boat owners and their crews, providing a pathway to sailing in ORCV Races and further afield.

The first ORCV Rally is set to start 6 hours before the ORCV King Island Race on 6th March. For more information about the ORCV Rally please contact Grant Dunoon on 0402 993808, see the website or click here.

Cole and Walker win Rudder Cup for yacht race from Melbourne to Devonport

Guillaume Leroux’s Class 40 Lord Jiminy took line honours in the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s “Rudder Cup” Melbourne to Devonport Race, crossing the finish line at 10.45.55 this morning. That gave the boat an elapsed time of 23 hours 29 minutes and 5 seconds for the 195nm race.

Paul Buchholz’s Cookson 50 Extasea was the early leader, following on from their line honours win in the ORCV Cock of the Bay Race on Boxing Day. But during the night, they went east of the rhumbline while Lord Jiminy stayed to the west, and the smaller boat’s tactics paid off.

“We wanted to stay west of the rhumbline to have a bit of leeway when the wind started picking up, and also in case it went more southerly than west,” Guillaume Leroux explained.

“We didn’t know where Extasea was during the night but we saw them on our AIS early this morning and we were surprised to see them behind us.

“It was a close race. The wind went from south-west to west then to north-west at around 9am. The last couple of miles we had the northerly sea breeze, and we managed to win, so that is good.”

This is the boat’s third major victory in ORCV races, having taken line honours in the Melbourne to Stanley Race and the Melbourne to Hobart last year.

Lord Jiminy clears away from the fleet shortly after exiting Port Phillip Bay. Photo Steb Fisher.

The Class 40 is a fast, affordable offshore racer, often sailed single- or double-handed in European events. In this race, the boat competed in the Four + Autohelm division, carrying three crew on board and allowed to use the autopilot.

Jason Close’s J133 Patriot was third across the line and in third place in the AMS handicap division as they finished. They then had a nervous wait to see whether the boats ahead of them on handicap but behind them on the water would get slowed by the light northerly wind.

Patriot preparing to launch a spinnaker under grey skies. Photo Steb Fisher

With the wind strength holding up, a big group of boats finished within three hours of the leaders. Among them was the new Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 RMS, owned by Jade Cole and Barney Walker who are using it to campaign for Australian selection for the Paris Olympics in 2024. A new mixed gender offshore race is scheduled to make it’s debut at the Games, replacing the Finn Class.

In this race, Walker and Cole sailed three-up with Jade’s husband Aaron, who is also their sailing coach, and showed they will be a pair to contend with in double-handed events.

RMS crossed the finish line at 2.02pm to give them a corrected time of 23 hours, 59 minutes and 53 seconds.. That won them the Rudder Cup by just 38 minutes from Patriot. RMS has also provisionally won IRC and ORCC handicap divisions and was second on PHS.

As this was the first time they had raced in the Sun Fast, Barney Walker said that they were fairly conservative in the way they sailed her.

Rudder Cup winner RMS on the way to Devonport. From left, Aaron Cole, Jade Cole, Barney Walker. Photo Steb Fisher.

“We were literally sailing our own race the whole way,” he said.

“We had a tough time with this little boat last night, with 40 knots of wind. We didn’t know what she could take so we had a storm jib up and three reefs in the main. When the wind moderated (at first light) we took a few reefs out and then it moderated some more and we finished with full main, number four jib and a spinnaker.

“We’re used to bigger boats and we’re all a bit sore in the stomach from bracing ourselves. We’ve got a lot to learn, but it’s a good little boat.”

The fact that they could win this competitive race while still learning how the boat performs bodes well for more victories for the pair as the 2021 ORCV offshore season progresses.

The Rudder Cup is Australia’s oldest sailing trophy, having first been contested in 1907. The race across Bass Strait is the fifth oldest ocean race in the world still being contested, predating the Fastnet by nearly 20 years and the Sydney Hobart by four decades.

With both the Sydney Hobart and Melbourne to Hobart races cancelled in 2020, it was the only interstate offshore yacht race in Australia over the Christmas period.

Some of the crews will turn around and head home to Port Phillip almost immediately after finishing but others will stay and celebrate for a couple of days before either exploring Tasmania or King Island during the rest of their summer break.

- ORCV media

Melbourne’s Christmas yacht races draw huge fleets

Victoria’s yacht racing community will be out in force between Christmas and New Year as sailors shake off the cobwebs after a long winter in lockdown. 

More than 120 entries have been received for the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s two Christmas events, the Cock of the Bay and the Rudder Cup.

Cock of the Bay Start Photo Dave Hewison

Cock of the Bay

A record fleet of 106 yachts will face the Cock of the Bay starter at Port Melbourne on Boxing Day before racing 22nm to Mornington. The course takes them along the north-eastern shoreline of Port Phillip to Sandringham, providing a spectacle for cyclists, walkers and beach-goers, before heading across the Bay to the finish line.

In pre-COVID times, crews would mingle at the Squadron after finishing, usually staying the night on their boats.

However, ongoing bans on large gatherings mean that a big barbecue is not possible, causing the ORCV to shorten the course so that crews have time to sail back to their own clubs in Melbourne for onboard twilight celebrations. Some will choose to sail on to other holiday destinations, while 22 boats have chosen to enter the Rudder Cup race from Portsea to Devonport on Tasmania’s north coast.

ORCV Commodore Grant Dunoon said that the record fleet for the Cock of the Bay was no surprise to race organisers. “After a pretty dire winter, with no sailing for so many months, we’re seeing boats on the entry list that haven’t raced in a long time. I think the shortened course also helped attract a big fleet, but for the most part it’s just the chance to get out on the Bay and enjoy some sailing that has appealed to so many.”

The ORCV has been pro-active in recent years, encouraging double-handed racing and a new division which allows for four crew and the use of autohelm. Yachts will be competing in four broad divisions, with a range of handicap options in each division.

Divisions include Unrestricted Monohull (IRC, AMS, ORCc, PHS); Double Handed (IRC, AMS, ORCc, PHS); Cruising Non-Spinnaker (PHS); and Multihull Racing (OMS).

The race starts at 10.30am.

Rudder Cup

On Sunday December 27, 22 yachts will set sail from Portsea on the 195nm dash across Bass Strait to Devonport. Following cancellation of the CYCA’s Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and ORCV’s Melbourne to Hobart, this will be the only interstate yacht race in Australia over the Christmas period.

Commodore Dunoon said that the club made an early decision not to run the Melbourne to Hobart this year. “After a hard lockdown, the Victorian crews are just looking to get back to sailing. They haven’t had the time to train hard, to be safe and comfortable with the longer ocean races such as the M2H. At 195nm, the Melbourne to Devonport is a short race to get us all comfortable with offshore racing again.”

Yachts will compete in four different divisions and the winner of the biggest division will take home the Rudder Cup, a magnificent trophy first presented in 1907. This makes it Australia's oldest ocean race and the fifth oldest organised ocean yacht race in the world, predating the Fastnet by nearly 20 years and the Sydney to Hobart race by nearly four decades.

The trophy itself cost 60 Guineas, a huge sum of money at the time and equating to around $180,000 in current currency.

Among the crews taking part will be Barney Walker and Jade Cole, racing their newly-purchased Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300. The Victorian pair will race with their coach Richard Grimes, a veteran of 30 Sydney Hobarts, and will use the race as preparation for their bid to gain Australian selection for the Paris Olympics in the new Double-Handed Mixed Keelboat class.

The chase for line honours and the race record of 19 hours 32 minutes 56 seconds set by Prowler (Joe Westerlo) in 1998, will be led by the Cookson 50, Extasea (Paul Buchholz). Possible handicap winners include Peter Davison’s Archambault 40 RC Arcadia, Matt Fahey’s Sydney 38 Faster Forward and Scott Robinson’s Sequest RP36, How Bizarre.

Historic Rudder Cup - Photo ORCV

- ORCV media