Osaka Cup-Advance Party!

Several members of the Race management team and volunteers from ORCV are at Hokko Yacht Club awaiting the arrival of the fleet. George Shaw tells us they are at the finishing line awaiting the arrival of Optimus Prime . Weather report- “drizzling rain”!
George, Robyn Brooke and Julie Davis were greeted on their arrival several days ago with a Commodore’s party at Melbourne House.

Commodore's Party celebrations for the "ORCV" Team

A small part of the wonderful dinner

"Bazza the Bundaroo" awaits the competitors

David James and Rosi Colahan have joined the group and preparations are underway for the celebrations for the fleet.

Rosi and David at Melbourne House

Preparations underway

And whilst the wind has died for Optimus Prime, Escapade sent this message

"we must nearly be there" "how can you tell captain robert?" "well, when we left we had just enough muesli to last to osaka and there?s two serves left" ditto on fuel, rum, beer & wine. plenty of sugar though. the nav function in the new b&g display says 80.9M to go"

Melbourne to Osaka Double Handed Race 2013, 0600 Wednesday 24th April. At the 0600 sked Optimus Prime had less than 25 miles to go to the finish, storming up Osaka Bay in a 35 knot southerly, with “Shipping everywhere”.

Wasabi is less than 40 miles behind and Escapade another 14 miles back at sked time.

At about 2.00 am Optimus Prime reported “.. dodging between ships surfing at 16 knots was different. Bare headed now only doing 11.5-12 drag racing the traffic past I-Shima... having a lot of fun tho :)”.

Cadibarra was about 100 miles behind Escapade at 0600 and with the current conditions should close that gap as they approach the finish.

Spirit of Downunder, Gusto and Turbulence all making good speed now, with the wind strengthening as they get further north. Turbulence reported a 17 knot easterly and 9.6 knots boat speed.

No report from Funnelweb this morning, the tracker still shows yesterday morning’s position.

Kiss Goodbye to MS is still in Saipan.

Southern Cross is now 140 miles south east of Saipan.

Melbourne to Osaka Double Handed Race 2013. Tuesday evening and Optimus Prime has made it to the head of the fleet with less than 130 miles to go (The finish line on the Tracker has now been corrected).

At the 6.00 pm sked, they reported 11 knots boat speed in a 20 knot south easterly. “Light cloud cover, still freezing cold. A1 up although might have to go to the smaller A0 as old mate is having trouble keeping the mast pointing to the sky. Crew are fit with no health issues”.

 

Escapade is hanging on – 140 miles to go - but Wasabi was making good speed less than 30 miles behind and likely to catch Escapade overnight.

 

Cadibarra is about 110 miles behind Wasabi with 15 knots behind the beam, and Spirit of Downunder was 150 miles behind Cadi at sked time.

 

Gusto has finally found some breeze, reporting 30 knots + and big seas, and it’s a change of pace for Eric and Paul on Turbulence – “9.6 knots boat speed, 4 metre NE swell and plenty of clouds and rain squalls”.

 

No report from Funnelweb tonight, and we’ve been unable to update their tracker position since the 6.00 am sked this morning. Hopefully we can address that after the 6.00 am sked on Wednesday morning.

 

Kiss Goodbye to MS was still at Saipan at sked time, no news yet on when they’re leaving there.

Southern Cross, still making good progress, is about 200 miles south east of Saipan.

Watch the Tracker overnight for updates on how the leading boats are managing as they approach Osaka Bay.

Osaka Cup.Optimus Prime 23.4.13  1330

Hi, Again thank you for your support. Amazing the interest our run to Osaka has generated.

Day 27 – Friday (Overnight)
What is it with the nights. Another baddy in the end. Before it started to swing we got hit with some good winds so changed to the no 3 jib and put a tuck in the main only to take the tuck out shortly after as the breeze settled a bit. Whilst the change from SW to NE did happen the transition from one to the other had a few holes in it – about 3 hours worth so not good. Wasabi does very well through the light patches though and has gone from 60 miles behind us before we ran into the light stuff a week ago and ended up 50 miles or so in front of us at one stage. Good luck to them …… but not too much more hopefully.

During the early hours we swapped out the number 1 for the jib top and then at first light the call was for the small spinnaker so up it went and away we go.

At this morning schedule we were advised to expect Gale force winds out of the North on Sunday night and into Monday so that should sort out the men from the boys. OP doesn't mind a bit of bashing and crashing so it may in fact help our cause with Escapade and Wasabi.Time will tell.

Day 28 – Saturday
The boat loves this little kite. Was never really sure what the parameters for this spinnaker were but at 14 knots and a 110 degree true wind angle (the angle between where we are heading and where the wind is coming from) it is very well balanced and we were humming along. The first time for awhile but we actually had some current helping us along today and where doing up to 11 knots and more over the ground for 3 or 4 hours or so. Why is it that when we get some help with current it doesn't last very long but when we are banging into it it seems to go forever. We were pushing against 2 knots of it for most of yesterday. Not too worry, we enjoyed it while we had it this morning.

Dropped the little spinnaker in the water mid morning which was a shame as I really was having fun with it. We managed to get it back on board without any damage and got busy putting up the jib top and staysail. This time it was the chord that connects the furling line – yes, we are using them again - to the head of the spinnaker, so the spinnaker fell away but we didn't lose the halyard. Just as well because we don't have too many left that we can use.

Carried on with jib top and staysail. Nights are getting colder so Dan and I have both gotten our bear suits out again. For those that don't know a bear suit makes up some of the middle layer of protection from cold, wind and rain etc and is a full length sleeveless suit that is lined with polar tech or similar and looks like a bear suit only with the fur on the inside. Anyway it is now cold enough at night to have to put them on under our wet weather gear.

Did I say we may be getting a little more competitive? Was having a nice snooze when the call came at about 2300 for the big kite to go up. No worries and up she went. I went back to the cot only to get the call a short time later that this kite too had fallen into the water. Again we were able to get it back on board without any damage and get the jib top back up. We should just about know how to do this by now! While I was tidying up Daniel was busy re packing the spinnaker and sure enough up she came ready to be deployed again. By now we were down to only one halyard as this one had broken as well and in much the same way as the one we lost on the first day. Not sure what is going wrong with the top furler but something is amiss it would seem as we have broken 2 and damaged a third. After trying a knot in the lucky last of our halyards to make it useable the big kite soon went up again.

Day 29 – Sunday
Morning sched has us 130 miles behind Escapade and 30 miles behind Wasabi with about 3 days to go to catch them.

We carried the kite through the morning and on into the afternoon. The breeze had kicked in to 20-22 knots for most of the day prompting the question as to how the two of us where going to get it down conventionally. We both thought about it and came up with a similar resolution when the time came, which in the end went well. We have had worse take downs with a full crew so perhaps we were lucky. Otto is having trouble steering when the big kite is loaded up like this so we have been hand steering for most of the day. Breeze now too tight for kite so the jib top has gone back up before we get ready for the Northerlies.

After the 1800 radio check we decided to put a tuck in the main and the number 4 jib up ready for what was to come. By the time we had done that the breeze had kicked in a bit but not yet started to swing so we put a second tuck in as well. Prudent competitiveness or conservative? Doesn't matter. We are ready for whatever happens. It was just as well too because sure enough it started to kick in even more and swing to the North so we just went with it until it was time to tack onto starboard. OP does enjoy this sort of thing though, even if the crew would rather not. Life is spent living on a lean whilst you bounce around inside the cabin every time you want to do something like get dressed in all of your clobber before going up on deck for your watch.

Getting knocked around was well worth the effort though as at the 0600 sched we are now only 70 miles behind Escapade and 7 miles in front of Wasabi.

Day 30 – Monday
On the nose all day so just more of the same really, bouncing around, banging down over the backs of waves and holding on tight to whatever you can find whilst downstairs. We are hoping that the forestay is up to the job and that we do not have a recurrence of when we last encountered this sort of weather back off of the NSW coast 4 weeks ago. Still worth the hard graft because as of 1800 we are now only 33 miles behind Escapade and 15 miles in front of Wasabi. It has gotten to the point where Dan is checking every 4 hours as Yellow Brick updates the positions of us all to make sure that we are still moving forward on these two. So far so good. I also note that some of you back home are also getting up at ungodly hours to follow our progress when yellow brick updates. You seem to be as excited as we are about it. Thank you very much for joining in on the ride.

Dan also downloaded a weather update that suggested that at about 0200 we may be able to put up a kite and carry it all the way to the finish. Wouldn't that be nice! Anyway sure enough by about 2 o'clock in the morning the breeze had swung to the east but with some bullets in it up to 20 knots so I got Dan out of bed to help put up the number 1 jib and put the number 4 away for a rest.It had done it's job.

Pay back I think because during Dan's watch he called me up, although I was expecting it and had laid down in my wet weather gear on one of the sails ready for such a call, to put up the big kite. The little one doesn't seem to get a look in lately.

It is all about where the others are now as we get down to the pointy end of the race. As we lost time carrying out repairs and still await what our penalty will be for outside assistance, it is unlikely that we will do any good on handicap so the only thing now available for us is to be the first boat to Osaka. Besides we each have ten dollars in the sweep for the order of finishers and we both put OP down as first home, so if we want to win the $220 on offer we had dam well better be the first yacht there.

0600 sched – Escapade now only 12 miles ahead and Wasabi 33 miles behind and at 100 hours yellow brick has Escapade 9 miles ahead and Wasabi 36 miles back. We have had a great couple of days and just need to work hard for another day and a bit and we may well get there first. The fat lady has not started to sing yet but as they say, she is in her dressing room gargling and getting ready.

Day 31 – Tuesday
A Geraldton race to go (220 miles).

Kite has been up all day so far although the breeze did lighten off a bit mid morning. It has kicked back in now and we have currently have 14 knots from the SE pushing us along at 9 to 10 knots almost directly at the entrance to Osaka Bay. How good does it get!

That will do for now. I will get a final wrap up of the finish and the festivities afterwards out to you all – promise Grace – in a few days or so.

In the meantime wish us well as we try to be the first to the finish.

All the best
TT and Dan