Well the 2016 Stanley race is done and dusted with competitors heading home with stories to tell.

The race went well from the ORCV’s perspective with 19 entrants and 18 starters.  All boats finished with all but one (Extasea) staying in Stanley due to the adverse weather forecast.  The race start was delayed for 45mins under instruction of PMOC.  Conditions were excellent, with light winds at the start the winds filled into a moderate reaching breeze through to the finish.  The first to finish was Simply Fun (in daylight no less) finishing at 18.52, the final competitor (Alien) finished at 23.38.

The Stanley festival, organised by Smithton Lions Club was in full swing with band, food and drinks laid on until very late in the night.  The yachties worked hard to ensure every last bit of food or drink was used and an exhausted Smithton Lions club headed home at last.

Presentation was brought forward to 10.30am and was well attended.  We gave a special thanks to Irmantas in the office, Sheryl from Smithton Lions, Mary from Smithton radio and all the race volunteers.  We posted some great photos on Facebook.

The return home was a concern for most boats, including the entrant who did not start.  Extasea headed back immediately so we watched and waited to ensure they got back ok.  Most others decided to wait another 24hrs, so with nothing better to do we retired to a local Stanley establishment for a pleasant Sunday afternoon extended lunch.

Despite the Race Director team being “off watch”, we progressively received more and more “advice” and “suggestions” as the night wore on by people making progressively less and less sense.  It was all good natured and well intended, we had a lot of laughs and shared a lot of stories. 

In all the race met our objectives, it was inclusive, it was fast and it was fun.

For full results click here

2016  Stanley Race Weather

What a difference a few days makes, the race weather has improved and coming home the cold front has moderated, so the trip home is improving. The ORCV are of the strong view that your trip home should be started on Monday.

The Race Weather forecast

The race will start in light easterly winds of five to ten knots followed by a light patch and then increasing to 15 knots by lunch time. As the boats approach Stanley the wind will increase and start to move North easterly at 25 knots so we should see spinnakers hoisted and the fleet finish in a hurry. If the fleet have a decent run through the light winds at the start we should see all the fleet home between 9pm on Saturday night and early hours Sunday morning.

The Synoptic Situation

Start Time - Predictwind models (PWG on the left, PWC on the right)

Saturday 12:00

Saturday 20:00

Saturday Midnight

Sunday Morning

Predictwind Race modelling (PWG blue, PWC red, GFS green, CMC yellow)

The Summary

This is why we hope all the crews will have dinner with us on Sunday night. The map below is the 500mpa level and the winds on the surface are half that of the winds speeds on this map. The good thing is the area is moving north so will have less impact on the fleet returning home

Melbourne to Stanley race long range weather forecast.

The current outlook  for this year’s Stanley race is for a pleasant motor down the bay followed by a slow start in east to southeast winds of less than 10 knots. The wind should build during the day to east to northeaster  finally moving to the north. At this early stage like many previous Stanley Races positioning your boat to the west of the rhumb line would be advantageous but that’s hard to do in  an easterly.

Predictwind has a Beneteau 40 finishing in 19 to 24 hours

The race record looks safe this year and you might need a few more meals and a return home on Monday is looking like a more comfortable trip. The next update will be on Wednesday so stay tuned

Predictwind models for Sart time on Saturday

Predictwind Models at 1pm on Saturday

Predictwind models for Sunday morning at 4am

Satellite Race Trackers- Where have we been and where are we going?

Several years ago, the ORCV was an early adopter of using satellite tracking systems for our longer distance ocean races. They proved to be an instant success, allowing friends at home to watch the progress of a race from their armchairs and providing the race management team a great tool to better manage the race as well as adding another valuable element to our already comprehensive safety management system. Sailors understandably have now come to expect these trackers to be a routine part of our ocean race offering.

In the early years, the trackers were sourced from YellowBrick, a UK based company that provides trackers worldwide for many ocean races. Their product proved very reliable and their website has been highly refined over many years of operation.

For the ORCV, notwithstanding our high level of satisfaction with their product, there were significant challenges in working with YellowBrick. Firstly, and most importantly, there was the cost. Over a year, the YB trackers were costing $10,000-15,000, which was a very significant component of our race expenditures, and rising due to the weakening Australian dollar. On top of that, having to forecast our needs months in advance and then shipping the trackers half way around the globe and back again and was administratively difficult.