Apollo Bay Ocean Race

Vertigo takes IRC honours in Apollo Bay Race Vertigo, the Summit 35 owned and skippered by Tim Olding, has won the IRC Division of Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s (ORCV) slow-going 52 nautical mile 2019 Apollo Bay Race, which started on Saturday at 8.15 am with a record fleet of 29 entered.  Olding and his daughter Clare, who missed this weekend’s race, regularly make the podium in Victorian offshore and keelboat events. This time Vertigo beat Justin Brenan’s Lidgard 36, Alien, and Archie, the Archambault A35 of Jeff Sloan and Simon Bell for the overall win under IRC.    [ ... ]

It's going to be a close call. Late afternoon with still challenging conditions for all saw teams having time between puffs of wind and sail changes for dolphin watching. The arrival now of the first boats is close, hopefully in the next hour. At 1pm today, we said farewell to Norma Jean. All safe onboard. With the finish close, it's going to be close call with Carrera S leading from After Midnight, Extasea, Jaffa and Peccadillo.

  It's now the Great Ocean Road Sail Challenge Not long after the start, saw an explosion of colour as yachts host their spinnakers in light northwesterly winds, crews applied sunscreen and popped on sunglasses to admire the shoreline of the Great Ocean Road, giving a beautiful photo opportunity to those driving along the Great Ocean Road today. Late morning saw a change with a large number seem to be darting around looking for a "breath" of wind. It's now the Great Ocean Road "Sail Challenge" Photos:  Top - crew on Faster Forward just after the start.  Lower:  Boa [ ... ]

9am Race Update With the fleet finally on their way. We find that Patriot is leading the balance of the fleet along the rhumb line. Allegro seems to be taking the offshore approach and chasing the breeze, east of the fleet. With a light breeze reported at 5 knots from the NW, the fog has now burnt off and on all accounts, it's shaping up for a stunning run down the coast. A great introduction for Jill Blunsom, the ORCV Beyond the Bay participant, who has joined the crew of Blue Water Tracks for her first ocean race experience.


We say farewell to Etoile who has retired and is heading home,  [ ... ]

New start line and time for the 2019 Apollo Bay Race 6.40am Saturday 18th May Light winds and low fog cover has race director Nick McGuigan announcing the alternative start will be used for the 2019 Apollo Bay ocean race. The 28 boats and 188 crew will now start outside the heads at the alternative start line (as indicated below) with a new start time of 8am.   As this race is close to the coast with good reception most of the way, you can follow the boats via Marine Traffic (web or app) or follow our posts on Facebook

The Apollo Bay Harbour Master and his team have been dredging all week and advise that the entrance is in good condition. The soundings shown below, taken on Thursday the 16th show depths and Lowest Astronomical Tide pus 1m.  These depths are very similar to those which can be expected at low tide at 4.45pm on Saturday 18 May 2019. Tide information is given in the S.I.. Please note that the leads for the Harbour entrance have recently been renewed and should be used in the Approach.  Boats are asked to raft up against the jetty beyond the floating marina unless otherwise direct [ ... ]

Thursday May 16th 6.00pm
2019 Apollo Bay Race News A big welcome to all entrants in 2019 ORCV Apollo Bay race. The ORCV Race Director is Nick McGuigan (myself) with the able assistance of Ryan Blackstock. Ray Shaw will be handling starting arrangements with Gary Tomlins and his team of Coast Guards manning the start boat and in addition, Ray will be managing the midday position schedule. Light winds weather forecast has been the topic of discussion over the past few days. A large high-pressure system over Victoria means light winds are predicted and the race it will be slow. On the plus side, [ ... ]

ORCV 2019 Offshore Championship The ORCV Offshore championship is scored using each boat’s best 4 measurement handicap results in Unrestricted Monohull Division races. In summary each yacht scores points under a system which is driven by the number of boats beaten over the finish line with a weighting which reflects the assessed difficulty of the race.  The skipper of the yacht with the highest number of points is the Offshore Champion. With the cancellation of the Port Fairy Race, 5 boats are in serious contention. Each has completed only 3 events in the series so all races will co [ ... ]

Plastics out of the Ocean - Clean Seas - An ORCV initiative    This video provides an overview to the campaign. It is estimated that more than 8 million tonnes of plastic is dumped into the ocean each year (as of 2018) and by 2050 there will be more plastic by weight in the ocean than marine life. This year, the ORCV Apollo Bay Race has set up a campaign "Plastics out of the Ocean" as part of "Clean Seas" which urges the teams to share ideas on how they can run a more sustainable boat. You can donate by supporting a boat. All funds raised go to the Australian charity The Tanga [ ... ]

Apollo Bay Harbour Update With 2 weeks to go the fleet is currently standing at 26 yachts and the harbour at Apollo Bay is in great shape. The harbour leads have been renewed, providing an accurate guide to the entrance, and the dredging restrictions which effectively prevented entry last year have been lifted. The Harbour Master advises that the entrance is currently dredged to 2.5m above low water. Tides are favourable on the day of the race with the predicted low tide at 4.45pm being 1.1m above low water. On that basis we currently expect that the harbour will be open for the vast majorit [ ... ]