Port Fairy - ORCV

Ocean Racing Club of Victoria

Steb Fisher

Port Fairy Race Presentation

As the last of our intrepid crews make their way home from another very successful Melbourne to Port Fairy Race, we can now bring you some photos of the race Presentation, which was held at the Port Fairy Yacht Club on Saturday Morning.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Commodore Hugh Parker and all of the wonderful volunteers at the Port Fairy Yacht Club for being great hosts again this year, and we look forward to their hospitality again in 2015.

The final results for the race are as follows:

Line Honours

1. Twitch

2. Blue Chip

3. Yoko

4. Seduction

5. Running Wild

IRC & AMS

1. Seduction

2. Twitch

3. Blue Chip

PHS

1. Yoko

2. Blue Chip

3. Seduction

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Hugh Parker Presenting Hugh Ellis, Skipper of Twitch with the first of his three prizes (1st Line Honours, 2nd IRC and 2nd AMS).

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Hugh Parker with Ian Lewis, Skipper of Blue Chip (3rd IRC, 3rd AMS, 2nd PHS), good mates after a job well done.

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Richard Nichols, Skipper of Seduction, receiving one of his three prizes (1st IRC, 1st AMS, 3rd PHS) after another great race.

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Hugh Parker presenting Robin Hewitt, ORCV Secretary and Skipper of Yoko, with his prize for 1st Place in PHS.

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Whilst not in the hunt for the prizes this year Barry Levinson received his trophy from last year's race, delivered in the ORCV van.

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Although the weather got the better of them in this year's race, nothing was going to prevent Justin Brennan and the Alien crew from enjoying a relaxing Easter in Port Fairy, and the train proved to be the better method of transport for this one.

Stay tuned for our comprehensive race report.

Easter Saturday on the Moyne

After a tough 24 hours of working their way down around Cape Otway and out along the "Shipwreck Coast" the crews of Twitch, Yoko, Blue Chip, Seduction, and Running Wild are enjoying a well earned rest.

The tranquility of the Moyne River this morning is in stark contrast to the weather the fleet experienced yesterday afternoon.

The provisional results for the Melbourne to Port Fairy Yacht Race are now finalised and can be found here.

Congratulations to the following divisional winners:

Line Honours - Twitch

IRC - Seduction

AMS - Seduction

PHS - Yoko

The presentation will be held this morning at 11:00am.

A Good Friday to Race to Port Fairy?

A short ocean sprint, 135nm in total distance, 65nm in a South Westerly direction to the famous and historic Cape Otway, then a 70nm reach to the north west, along arguably the most iconic stretch of Australian coastline, past the Twelve (8???) Apostles and on to the idyllic coastal village of Port Fairy, what could possibly go wrong?

That's what Alan Briedahl and his crew aboard his RP46 Hartbreaker were thinking as they sailed down the bay last night.

Sure, like the rest of the fleet, they were focused on the 3:00am start at Queenscliff, and more importantly the south westerly change the fleet was expecting by mid morning, but their experienced team was more than up to the task, and following a solid practice sail last weekend, they had high expectations of taking Line Honours and even AMS and PHS honours, particularly if they could make the most of the favourable north westerly conditions in the start of the race. And for a while, it was all coming together nicely for them, and they were all set to be the 'hero' of this year's race.

Every great story has to have a villain, otherwise, there is no great story to tell in the bar at the end, right?

Cue the south westerly change!

This villain never seems to disappoint, especially at this time of the year. Even a moderate Bass Strait sou-wester will throw an element of surprise at even the most hardened of yacht racing teams.

Back to our supposed 'hero' in the story....Hartbreaker.

The Change met the fleet almost as predicted, between 0900 -1000, when they were almost abeam of Lorne.

Hartbreaker were the first boat to experience damage as the front hit. As we all suspected from watching tracker as the morning went on, they suffered damage to the mainsail, and decided to turn for the heads and the shelter of Port Phillip Bay, and even more time over the Easter Break with their families and loved ones.

Alien was the next yacht in the fleet to succumb to the effects of the front. They too turned their backs to the breeze, later citing "weather conditions" as the reason for retirement.

Merlion was our third casualty of the race, deciding to take refuge in Apollo Bay, primarily for the purpose of finding a nice, secure tree to seat a seasick crew member!

So that is the story as most of us know it, however, as many stories do, this one also had a twist in it.

Our would have been 'hero' Hartbreaker called the race management team at approximately 1415 and reported that they were approximately 10nm from Port Phillip Heads and they had started taking water through the rudder stock, which was being managed by bailing and pumping from the manual bilge pump.

At that stage they were fine, and wanted the race management team to be aware of their circumstances.

The Incident Management Team were immediately contacted and began providing assistance via mobile telephone, and before long they were able to liaise with Queenscliff marina to arrange access to the travelift, and by late afternoon the boat was secured in a sling with the rudder stock well out of the water, and we'll out of harms way.

All's well that ends well, as they say!

LATEST PREDICTWIND ROUTINGS

The latest PredictWind routing shows a race time for a Beneteau 40.7 of just over 13 hours and both models agree so the planets seem to have aligned just in time. A record breaking trip seems on the cards so go Hartbreaker!

FINAL UBIMET 2014 M2PF PRE-RACE WEATHER FORECAST

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