ORCV Melbourne to King Island (M2KI as part of the MMOC)

Would Sir like the Beef or the Swan?

Now King Island in the middle of our notorious Bass Strait is gastronomically famous for amazing beef, superlative crayfish and sensational cheese. This weekend, the annual Melbourne to King Island race gets underway and those culinary delights are going to be joined by Swan, which was a favourite of English Regals, not all that long ago.

'Independant Endeavour' is taking to the seas again!

Our Swan, however, is going to be a Nautor Swan 65, called Independent Endeavour and we’re delighted to be seeing her make her way out into the big blue, for the first time in a long while.

Joining her is Malcolm Mitchell’s, Caledonia, who hold one of the McConaghy Melbourne Offshore Championship flags already and are keen for another, which may well be enough to see them walk away with the McConaghy wheel at the end of the season.

Caledonia departing Port Phillip Heads for the 2009 M2L at Christmas. Pic © and with thanks to Teri Dodds.

They also seem to be ultra keen on securing another much coveted Ocean Racing Club of Victoria title: that of, ‘Happiest Crew On The Water’, which is currently held by Audacious, who also went after it with much vengeance and passion. I say this because their exceptionally well-completed entry states the following as their crew roles; -

• Malcolm Mitchell, Captain
• Paul Pascoe, Yeoman
• Paul Jenkins, Ship's Chaplain
• Kim Barnard, Purser
• Shane Davies, Cook
• Fletcher Johnson, Cabin Boy

We certainly hope the Cabin boy doesn’t suffer a whipping and all I can say is that I am glad he is not named Roger…Perhaps with a name like Fletcher we should be more worried about a mutiny, which is why ORCV Race Administrator, Dennis Livingston, reminded me that “Ship’s Chaplains preside over burials at sea and can also perform marriage ceremonies – the nuptial only valid for the duration of the voyage”, he added with a smile. With all the marriages going onboard Audacious, perhaps they should be coming to King Island, after all… Try before you buy, you know. (You can see what I mean HERE)

'Magic Carpet' is a Pacific 50, very similar to Dream, who did so well in the 2009 M2HE.

Also sticking their nose out into it for the first time in a while is the Pacific 50, Magic Carpet. She’s making the voyage two-handed and their entry states that Dean Coates is the Skipper and Steve Twentyman is the Co-Pilot, so I guess we now know who is going to be up in the clouds flying the carpet.

Roger and Michelle Wale and crew from Pretty Woman are going and they won the very first MMOC flag for the season opening Melbourne to Stanley race. As Rosie and David are not going with Ingénue, I fully expect them to rise to the culinary challenge and provide scrumptious meals for the voyage down and back. Let’s see what happens there.

Roger and Michelle Wale, standing aboard their 'Pretty Woman', proudly show off their MMOC flag, which was the first of the season.

While we remember, let's also thank our hosts at the King Island Boat Club who amongst other things, make all the amazing meals we eat down there.

In terms of winners, well ocean racing is. So thanks to all of the competitors for getting organised and being part of it. Look for Magic Carpet to be amongst it, Beyond Outrageous and Addiction to feature if the kites get an airing, last year’s Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster winner, Jazz Player, will be the dark horse and finally, Independent Endeavour to put all her waterline length to good use if there’s a strong breeze to lift her hefty skirts.

By John Curnow

ORCV Melbourne to King Island (M2KI)

It's not quite enough...

... for them, that they took The HCOTW (Happiest Crew on the Water) prize recently (see HERE). Now they want 'Nutcracker's Love Boat title as well (and see HERE for that). I wonder if it is all part of some 'Audacious' plan or something (Basil Brush - boom, boom)?

A lovely sunset training session for team 'Audacious' turned into something quite different, just recently. In the words of the Skipper, Greg Clinnick -

The Tactician gets a wife and the Trimmer gets a husband - all at the same time. Here is how KD, our tactician popped, the question to Kate, our trimmer.

We were completing our last training sail off Brighton, just before the Sydney 38 Nationals. KD calls for the S3 kite to go up at the end of the session, which is a bit of an odd call because it is our heavy weather kite and the winds were light. But hey. We were training, so let's whack it up. The kite was brand new and hadn't been out of the bag yet, but little did I know that it had actually and ever so secretly, been out earlier on that afternoon...

KD walks back past me and says "Watch Kate's reaction when this kite goes up." Now I am thinking KD is going to crash gybe, part way through the hoist or do something equally as difficult.

Anyway, the kite goes up, Kate as trimmer sets the kite and there in the middle is a message from KD - "I love you. Will you marry me?" Kate starts blubbering and is totally taken by surprise. All of the crew are stunned and are waiting for Kate to say something. Through the tears there is a mumble of "Yes I will" from Kate and then it's hugs, kisses and high fives all around. We pack the boat up and everyone is very happy for K2 (Ken and Kate's nickname for when we are talking about both of them).

If she had said no, we would have been in big trouble, but Ken assured me he was pretty confident of a yes and was just giving our Bowman and Sally some time to get over their Whitehaven Beach proposal before popping the question.

So I think we're going to have to get you guys out to sea to calm everyone down. Greg if you are away for M2KI, you'll have to give Captain Capper, Phil Bedlington, the keys to 'Audacious' again and get your lot to go and stick there noses out in the big blue. On different watches, of course. Well done BTW.

Club Marine Series, Day Five - Feb 20 - is next, as we do need some sailing to get in the way of all this fun and frivolity...

By John Curnow

ORCV Melbourne to King Island (M2KI as part of the MMOC)

Just make mine Black!

All rightey then.

As M2KI approaches - it's on 06/03/10 - let's see who's aiming to get their hands on the Black! The Black is of course the über-cool McConaghy carbon fibre steering wheel, which is the prize in the 2009/10 McConaghy Melbourne Offshore Championship. It is being awarded in the PHS Division, which is fantastic to see, as this is quite a departure from the norm, where the boats at the front usually get the accolades!

Here's the wheel in question.

Here's what you could look like with it - pic © Christophe Laumay.

Here's the flag you win for each race. All it might take is two of these and the wheel could be yours!!!

Here's the sticker to show you're part of it all. These should be on your boom, so if they're not, please get 'em on!

M2S Winner, 'Pretty Woman', pictured here rounding the top mark in last year's inaugural M2G.

M2L Winner was 'Caledonia', pictured here with her owner, the very cheery, Malcolm Mitchell.

M2HE Winner - 'Ingenue' - why hang on to Stainless, when there's carbon up for grabs? This is Rosie Collahan aboard 'Ingenue' at the 2009 M2HE start. Pic © Steb Fisher.

M2HW Winner - 'Jazz Player' - pic © Steb Fisher

M2KI Winner - ?

M2PF Winner - ?

M2AB Winner - ?

MMOC Overall Winner - you get the picture...

There are no Cafes at sea, but if you win this gem, you can take your strong Black with you (Captain Raw would love that, I tell you).

By John Curnow

ORCV Melbourne to King Island (M2KI as part of the MMOC)

Guilty!

Many thanks to our newly crowned, Happiest Crew on the Water, 'Audacious'. You can read about that event HERE. Anyway, as I sat down to gnocchi with prawns and chorizo in a white wine sauce, with enough white wine left for the chef and Holly, I got this email from Greg Clinnick about their weight. Talk about making me feel guilty... They were sitting down to Lite n' Easy, fruit salad with a side order of a run at the end.

OK - It's time to play our new game, called Collective Nouns, which started HERE. This image is of the Sydney 38's parked in a row at Geelong. I'm going with Squad of 38s, derived from the US Police, who love the Colt 38 Special. Any advances??????????????????

Reflecting upon their version of Audi Victoria Week, Greg says After a shaky start, our good crew work and aggressive tacking and helming started to pay off with a 3rd place in race 4 and a dead heat for 4th place in the last race in 20+ knot testing conditions. We enjoyed holding out 'Challenge' (and why wouldn't they, eh Dennis?) in the passage race, with them nipping at our heels for a good hour and a half down the Corio Channel. Overall we finished 5th and just in the top half of the fleet - with two Interstate boats and a sprinkling of World Champs, National Champs and professional sailors, 5th was a good solid result. We can take plenty of positives forward into our National Titles, which are on soon.

The Audacious Conspiracy campaign is now in full swing. We leave Melbourne on Wednesday the 10th of February to truck all of our sails and gear up to Pittwater, which is just north of Sydney. For those who may have missed some of the earlier emails, we are chartering a Sydney 38 in Sydney called 'Conspiracy' and using all of our own gear, to sail her in the Sydney 38 Australian Championships, which are going to be held over three days, starting on Friday, February 12. This will be a real test of how we are progressing and will toughen us up for the Victorian Titles, which are going to be run in April of this year.

Last Saturday KD (Ken Dog, who is our tactician) and I went up to Sydney to race on Conspiracy and test out the boat we will be using. Whilst a little older than 'Audacious', she seemed fast enough and our conclusion was that with our newer, faster sails and some sharp crew work, we will have a boat that will be competitive in the regatta. We will now add our own little improvements: like marking the halyards, mast, backstay, and car positions to be able to find our settings quickly and then lighten the boat by removing everything except what the rules require us to carry. Finally we'll scrub the bottom, re-tune the mast, slacken the lower life lines to allow harder hiking, clean the bilges and we are pretty much into it!

Now. With a week and half to go, we pulled out the scales and weighed the crew. We have been dieting since Geelong, in order to get down to the class requirement, which is a combined maximum crew weight of 750kgs or just 83 kgs each on average for 9 crew (Ed - bet Nicky and Katy are smiling right now). We only realised yesterday that the scales are actually reading a couple of kilos light. As a result, we now know that we are about 20 kgs over the limit! If we cannot get down to 750 kgs, someone will have to step off the boat, which would be a disaster for the individual and a disaster for our campaign (Ed - and oh so hard for the Skipper to tap them on the shoulder!!!!!!!!!!!). So the diet is on in earnest (Ed - I'm really going to resist an Oscar Wilde reference - really), as we need to cut the kilos quickly. We are all on strict diets, off the grog and exercising when we can. The official weigh in isn't until 5pm, the day before racing starts and this will mean little, if any, food on that day, until we have been passed as legal. A sauna session and running up the hill in wet weather gear are the fall back position of the day.

So you will see the Audacious crew eating Lite N Easy, fruit salad, lettuce and drinking lots of water over the next 10 days.

Good luck team - you'll be ready for a nice, fattening Ocean Race, to the land of senstaional steak sandwiches and awesome crays when you return. Did I mention CHEESE? No. Well I was too busy stuffing my face. King Island does wicked cheese and the factory is a tasters heaven... Don't forget the plastic bag raffle either. I was told that the steak sandiches were enough to even turn a vegetarian over for the weekend. Don't know and we are PC here at the ORCV. What I can tell you is that the onions definitely ARE tougher than the beef. So there you have it!

BTW - Geelong pics from Mikey their bowman, who is a Rock Band (...Weddings, Parties, Anything... and I can now hear everyone going Boom Boom - Basil Brush).

By John Curnow