Melbourne Latitude Series

Cutting themselves some Latitude.

At 06:30hrs on 21/11/09, we will have three newby Skippers going out to stick their noses in it. Bass Strait, that is... You may remember the call to go and cut yourself some latitude from HERE and that is precisely what Rodney and Sandy Watson on 'Emma-Kate' and Kathryn De Garis on 'Allegresse' are going to do. Well done!!!

There are 11 other boats going out there to get even more crew experienced to the blue water way. One of those boats is Joanne Harpur's 'Spirit of Freya', a Sunfast 36. She did the very last MLS on Nick McGuigan's 'Magazan 53' and now has her own boat. If that's not a full Victor Kyam moment right there, then I'm going to hang up my keyboard!!!

The Boss and his 'Secretary'.

The Farr38 'Escapade' from HBYC is going out, as too is 'Schuss' from RBYC, who've already taken care of their MOB drill for real (which was captured for posterity HERE). There's also the little S&S30, 'Harmony' from HBYC in there, Laurie 'Lozza' Ford from 'Spirit of Downunder' (RYCV) and the Boss, our ORCV Commodore George Shaw, aboard his J44 'The Secretary'. We look forward to seeing how these and all of the fleet goes.

Won't be this wet for Lozza and the gang out there this weekend (famous last words huh)

I'm glad it looks fairly benign out there for the Bass Strait component of the weekend for the sake of our newest arrivals. No-one wants to have to face a super cold and blustery one, but then the last one earlier on this year kind of qualified for that... No matter, Race Director, Neville Rose indicated that there was likely to be SE to NE at 5 to 10kn, with a change arriving overnight in time for the Pursuit Race from BYS to SYC. So if it isn't, then one of us has put the hex on it. The change is believed to be some 15 to 20kn out of the South. Giddy Up or what, eh Nifty?

Anyway, that's the prediction - let's see what actually happens!

Come back soon to see how our newbies have gone with going and sticking their noses in it.

By John Curnow