ORCV Melbourne to King Island

Morning.

How are you?

It's a wonderful day here with the sun coming up in a blaze of glory and a gentle 10 to 15 knots blowing from the East Nor'east.

The fleet got away at 0100hrs fine and well, with the ships coming out straight after them. Busy evening for movements with the Yankee Foxtrots, as well. What we can say is that after the 0600hrs sked, five hours following the gun, Gusto and Scarlet Runner were just 14nm down the 114nm track and had already used up half of the time to be on record pace. In other words, to get back on pace, they would have to have done 20knots average for the remaining five hours. Well and truly possible with those two vessels, but highly unlikely given that the AIS beacons on a couple of vessels were showing just a tenth of that speed. i.e. Two and a bit knots. Doh!

So then, the wallabies love us and the sunrise is wonderful. The steak last night was up to the usual impeccable standard and it is delightfully moderate, with only a jumper and beannie required. Ostensibly, the runners in tomorrow's annual, 20 mile race across King Island will be moving faster.

Golf Course glowing in the morning sun, above and below is the Western side of Grassy Harbour.

Hope the crews are well versed on entertaining themselves... If you're not sailing, you may want to see where the boats are during the race on the ORCV's Tracker, which is HERE.

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

Please contact me for re-issue rights.

	Councillor Island on the left, as seen from the plane... Remember the currents!!!!

ORCV Melbourne to King Island

It looks like?

This. We saw in both Launch and The Promise, that the hope was for a downwind race in a strong enough Nor'easter. A brisk trip in the sun where it was more about sunscreen than wet weather gear. For the bulk of the fleet, this is very unlikely to be the case. Indeed, even the record looks to be somewhat safe, as the leaders would appear to get to the bottom about the same time as the current is trying it's best to head North.

After a cool and oh-so-grey morning in Melbourne, the haze and muck burnt off, the plane finally got in the air (Melbourne's airport is having one of the runway's resurfaced, which is slowing the scenario down a lot and our plane was late in from it's last port). So sunny, blue and pleasant skies greeted us and I got the feeling we were about to witness on the Friday, what all the models had been saying for over a week was going to be occurring on the Saturday.

As we got in to Bass Strait, you could not help thinking 24 hours seemed like a very special amount of time indeed...

The top of the Bay.

Queenscliff at the bottom of the image and Point Nepean at the right of the engine nacelle.

I think this is what everyone was expecting Bass Strait to look like for the race. Lots of white caps and a heap of sunshine...

Landing at King Island, the clouds had appeared about 10 minutes out and the wind was Nor'east, strong enough and cool, as well.

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

Please contact me for re-issue rights.

	Councillor Island on the left, as seen from the plane... Remember the currents!!!!

ORCV Melbourne to King Island

The Promise.

For the last 10 days or so, there have been some excited Skippers and keen Naviguessers, as the classic downhill race, with up to 19 knots from the Nor'east, was going to deliver the fleet to the island in the middle of Bass Strait with pace and dare I say it, gusto (argh, argh, argh). The express versions up the front were looking like breaking records and the rest would be in before the sun set on Saturday. That adventure seems to have ended, with the leaders now due well after their 1100hrs target. 1400 hrs is what the routing software from our pals at PredictWind have to say. Our other friends from Tidetech also indicate the currents and tides are there for all to deal with, especially at the top of King Island.

So, the promise of a dash for the record seems to have evaporated. The Brass have chimed in with "Crew in this year’s King Island race will be working hard to gain each mile towards King Island. The positives; sea sickness and water on the deck and cold are not going to be a problem. The negative; you will get tantalisingly close to King Island when the wind dies out. So the crews that are set for the long haul will come home with the handicap honours."

"If we look at the four day forecast map, we will see that we will have a weak cold front and a trough passing through the race course on Saturday. The effect of the trough will be that the boats in the right position on the race course will win. So rhumbline sailing is to be avoided at all costs! You will be lucky if the wind exceeds 15 knots for the race. If you look at the two PredictWind models, you will see that for the Beneteau First 40 and the Farr 52, both the GFC and the CMC computer models are predicting the same route, which is to go well East of the rhumbline, so that you don’t end up running downwind in no wind. Not fast at all", the Brass added.

The models below are for a Beneteau First 40...

The models below are for a 52footer...

Above is start time and below is 1000hrs on Saturday.

This is 1600hrs - check the area bounded by the red band - and below is 0100hrs on Sunday morning.

"Despite it all looking the same, it wont that way with trough moving around, so you will have play it as you see itI have added lots of other information that all says the same thing it won’t be the same and your strategy will have to change as the race develops. So good luck and happy sailing. Looking at the tides provided by Tidetech, we note that these will will not help the attempt at the record, as the tide will be against them on Saturday afternoon", was the Brass' final point.

Above is the start time flows from our friends at Tidetech and below is 0600hrs Saturday.

Above is 1000hrs and below is 1400hrs.

One crew well into planning mode to deal with it all are our newbies - Arch Rival, the old Rouseabout. "From a race standpoint, I imagine the big boats are rubbing their hands together and measuring up a new trophy cabinet. They may well be in before the breeze shuts down. In the same sense - it's a classic rich get richer scenario - If we can be well up the fleet in the light running conditions, we may well get a result in the 38 - 40 footer division. Can you all have a good long hard look at your gear, cull anything that's not absolutely essential:

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

Please contact me for re-issue rights.

	Councillor Island on the left, as seen from the plane... Remember the currents!!!!

ORCV Melbourne to King Island

Launch!

Speaking with Rob Date of Scarlet Runner, who won the Adelaide to Port Lincoln race recently, he said, "Hopefully we won't be eight minutes behind the gun for the start of the King Island race and it would be tremendous to not have to deal with the rain, as well!" Of course, Scarlet Runner went on to win IRC for the whole Lexus Lincoln Week, as well, which did cap off a great time in South Australia, overall, Rob told me.

The race itself provided for some great images. It was meant to be super soft, but 30 knots kicked in and as you can see, it was wet from both the rain and the fast passage that was being enjoyed by the leaders, Scarlet Runner, SMB 3.5 and Calm. Rob purchased these images for us to review from local shooter, Greg Pratt, of Paparazzi Digital Photography.

Now speaking of fast passage, it did look like the KI record of 10:08:04 was set to tumble, which would have seen the leaders of the 25 boat fleet in by early morning. We'll have a detailled piece on this lot shortly... As for the front of the pack, it is a shame that Calm ended up not being able to join us at this time, but great to see that the intent is there. Perhaps they will be part of the Dash Back system from Port Fairy, this Easter...

One boat definitely off to KI, is the Line Honours favourite, Gusto. She is 66 feet long and draws 4.1m, won the Melbourne to Stanley race last year, set a new record for the 2010 Boxing Day Dash from Port Melbourne to Blairgowrie and then won the mighty Westcoaster last Christmas, doing 25 knots across the bottom of Tasmania in the process. She is lovingly referred to as the Big Blue Boat or the Skiff on Steroids.

Gusto barrelling out the Heads last Xmas - pic with thanks and ©  to, Teri Dodds.

There are some first timers also coming to partake of the deep and protected waters of Grassy, to say nothing of the steak sandwiches or the plastic bag raffle. John Hall's Arch Rival (the old Rouseabout) and Andrew Griffith's FullyNPushing (he's an Obs and Gyno) both fall into the newbie class, but there is plenty of experience there. Also with plenty of experience onboard and sort of sneaking out into the ocean, somewhat quietly until I got onto it, are our original Love Boat - Nutcracker. We'll be watching proceedings aboard this vessel closely....

Also attending this year are venerable ocean racers like Yoko, along with a plethora of 35 to 40 footers. Current record holder, Cadibarra 8 is racing, after having come back to Melbourne from Queensland. She could do well on handicap, as will Alien, Extasea, Slinky Malinky, Halcyon and White Noise. Jason Close's new B First 35 got ready just before the start of the run to Launceston at Xmas and she, along with Peter Dunne's Upbeat (a B First 36.7) both did well for the entire three-race series.

Arch Rival and Matrix, which are near sister ships to each other (the former was the plug for the latter) and designed by the same man as the current record holder, should also do well. Don Jones is known for his boat's ability to well once the sheets have been eased just a little. Given the likelihood of a downhill race, then Spirit of Downunder, along with the pair of Inglis' - Addiction and Beyond Outrageous should feature, too.

Chris Furey's great image of Team BO with the fractional Bag up!

You know, we have had some interesting interpretations of crew roles from boats like Caledonia before (they're going to KI, BTW), but these came in from Biddy Hu II...

• Brian Burggraaf - Tactician - best known to us as one half of the Remedy team
• Wayne Butson - Rigger - hope you're not needed too much
• Les McKee - Gourmet Chef - with both Ingenue and The Secretary not there, it's good to see someone is keeping Master Seachef alive. Les was aboard Samskara in the 2010 Melbourne to Vanuatu race
• Colin Andrew - Speech Therapist - just gotta ask???????
• Paul Lindermann - Skipper - left the disco balls behind in the 2009 Eastcoaster
• Craig Shepherd - Motivator - Good job
• Phil Garvey - no title - hope he's not the gimp?

All in all, it is an excellent turnout and it equates to some 200 sailors, which is double the competitors that the island gets from the trans-island running race, which is on at the same time. 

So you'd thought I'd forgotten about the weather, then? I hadn't. For the last ten days or so, during various conversations, the astute Skippers and Naviguessers have been talking about Nor'Easters of up to 19knots, with the freshest bits just before dawn. Start is 0100hrs off Drapers Reef at Queenscliff, BTW.

Now, with not that much time left to go before launch, The Brass have lobbed in their spiel and we'll bring it to you shortly...

You know you're making progress when a 52 footer looks like this!

© John Curnow, ORCV Media

Please contact me for re-issue rights.

	Councillor Island on the left, as seen from the plane... Remember the currents!!!!