Ocean Racing Club of Victoria
Steb Fisher

 2014 Apollo Bay Race Weather Routing 

Both the BOM and PredictWind are showing 15-20 knot N-NW winds throughout the race so maybe leave the spinnakers at home and make sure the jib topper is all set to go for quick ride down the coast to Apollo Bay, arriving in time for breakfast! 

 

The PredictWind routing for a Beneteau 40 shows a race time of just under 6 hours for both wind models although the wind details do differ somewhat so keep a weather eye on the emerging forecasts.

With a few faster boats in the race maybe this year will finally see the fifteen year old race record of 5 hours 24 minutes finally broken!

 

2014 Apollo Bay Entrants

Notice to Mariners

If you are racing to Apollo Bay this weekend please read this Notice to Mariners that relates to changes to the lights around the Ex-HMAS Canberra Dive Site.

 

Notice To Competitors

2014 Melbourne to Apollo Bay Yacht Race

Appendix D - Courses of the Sailing Instructions is amended to now read;

Apollo Bay Course

For the ocean race to Apollo Bay, from the starting line, leaving a virtual buoy at latitude 38 deg 17 min S, longitude 144 deg 38.9 min E to port (intersection of the South Channel and Great Ship Channel), remaining west of the western boundary of the Great Ship Channel until well clear of the Heads and then to the finishing line at Apollo Bay

Ray Shaw

Chairman

ORCV Sailing Committee

 

2013 Apollo Bay Media Competiton Winners

The 2013 Melbourne to Apollo Bay Media Competition has proven to be one of the most supported activities that we have run!

With a fleet of 24 yachts and over 200 crew out on the water, there were plenty of moments and images to capture throughout the weekend and great interest to share them with all of us, either directly to our Facebook page, or to our Media email address.

With so much fantastic content to review in the categories of Photographs, Video and Written Word, we have decided to award minor prizes for the best submissions in the non-winning Category.

Video

This category was shortlisted to entries from the two front running Beneteau First 40's, Mitch Batson on Bandit and Scott McDonald on Dry White.

Both are excellent presentations and the judges have decided to award the major prize of the ION HD Video Camera from Adventure Safety to Mitch Batson for the Bandit 2012-13 Offshore Championship Series video.

You can see both entries here:

Bandit

Dry White

Photographs

As expected, this is the most popular format and in spite of indifferent conditions over the weekend, we had some excellent entries.

With a shortlist of 4 entries, the judges have chosen the entry from Mille Sabords for the West Channel Pile photo, and the minor prize of a Burke Thermo Skin long sleeve top is awarded to Anne-Florence Plante for this great photo.

The shortlist for photos are here:

Winner! West Channel Pile from Mille Sabords. Anne Florence  Plante
View from Shamrock -Gaby Carr
On the rail- aboard Dry White
From aboard Mille Sabords- Anne Florence Plante

 


Written Word

This is a category that has invented itself, and we are delighted to receive several very interesting pieces of creative writing to capture the essence of what the race to Apollo Bay meant to our participants.

The shortlist for this category came down to poems submitted by David Taylor on Upbeat and Belinda Callander on Addition, with the judges awarding the other minor prize of a Burke Thermo Skin long sleeve top to Belinda Callander.

Addiction's Day to Apollo Bay...  Belinda Callander

It was midnight at St Kilda, it was dark and cold and grim
I questioned what I was doing, with an element of chagrin
It was a perfectly good Friday night, a wine I’d like to drink
So heading out into the freezing cold, for a moment made me think?
But the wine will always be there, a challenge is what we seek
As we made our way to Queenscliffe, it was a nice way to end the week.
We prepared ourselves for the start, but it was postponed for some time
As we all reassessed our situation, of how to hit the line.
Many boats were out there jostling, vying for best start
To hit the line at high speed, sends blood pumping to the heart.
A near miss we did encounter, but undeterred we launched ahead
With a small but willing crew, that would hold us in good stead.
Apollo Bay was our target, as we chased the breeze all day,
But the persistent rain that accompanied it, was much to our dismay.
But the beauty of ocean racing, the bad can slip away
The sun comes out, the rainbow shines and the dolphins come out to play.
But we focussed on the job at hand, and aimed for maximum speed
But the changing winds and bitter cold, makes it hard to do indeed.
But many hours have gone by, the finish is so near
But that squall that’s sitting by the coast, might delay our finishers beer!
But we’d battled on all day, and nothing would stop us in our quest
To reach the line at Apollo Bay, knowing we’d given it our very best.
A job well done, we achieved our goal, we crossed the finish line,
Now to turn around and all head home and consider now that wine….

Upbeat's Poem  David Taylor.

A series of haiku reflecting the M2AB 2013 race on Upbeat


no moon just darkness
few nav lights visible then
dawn reveals the start

wind on the nose
weaving our way through squalls but
dolphins all around

dual rainbows to port
yachts racing to Apollo Bay?
or their pots of gold

good wind bad wind but
crawling towards the finish
becalmed near the line

returning home and
out of darkness all around
sqalls, rain, and the cold

the deck at the club where
the wind abates, the sun's out,
great food, drinks and friends

In addition to these great poems, the ORCV would like to give a special mention to Kathy Macfarlane from 2 x Squared who submitted her very interesting and insightful log entry for the entire trip. We will post a series of extracts from Kathy's log over the next few weeks.

With the Helly Hansen Winter Series commencing at the end on June, we would like to encourage everyone to continue to submit their photos, videos and poems and stories.

APOLLO BAY RACE WRAP-UP

For the 24 boats that started, The 2013 Apollo Bay race will be remembered for generally light and variable winds, with large shifts making navigation challenging, some might say even a lottery. A sloppy sea and regular rain showers did not make for the most enjoyable sailing conditions at all!

Congratulations to Bandit who won on IRC as well as seconds in both AMS and PHS.

Hush took out the honours in AMS and Upbeat in PHS.

In their first ORCV race, Senna was first across the line as well managing a second on IRC so well done!

The M2AB race was the last in the Off-Shore Championship so stayed tuned for the official results there.

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ams
phs

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3 Aquatic Drive, Albert Park VIC 3206 Ph. 0493 102 744 E. orcv@orcv.org.au