Melbourne to Devonport Race - The Rudder Cup

This year, the Melbourne to Devonport, The Rudder Cup, Australia's oldest ocean race, will be honored as the ORCV race that runs on the "Melbourne Cup" long weekend. With a start off Queenscliff, the fleet will race to Devonport to be greeted and kindly hosted by the Mersey Yacht Club.

The Devonport race is a qualifying event for the 2024 Melbourne to Hobart "Westcoaster" and is expected to attract another large fleet. Devonport has always been a popular destination for ORCV and is a great place to visit.

The 195nm Devonport race starts off Queenscliff and proceeds across the Bass Strait to the finish line at the entrance of the Mersey River. Finishing yachts may proceed up the Mersey to the marina at the Mersey Yacht Club.  

The Rudder Cup is part of the ORCV Offshore Championship and is open to yachts fully crewed, 4+autohelm, and double-handed.

For a short time, around 2000 - 2007, the Rudder Cup race ran to Low Point at Launceston before moving back to Devonport, where it had been for 50 years or so before that.

The Rudder Cup

In 1907, Thomas Fleming Day, editor of the American magazine "Rudder" wrote to his friend, the Commodore of the Geelong Yacht Club, T. A. Dickson, suggesting a race across the Bass Strait to Tasmania to promote the sport of yachting. Day struck a trophy worth 60 guineas, a fortune at the time, as a prize for the winner.

More than 100 years later, yachts are still racing across the Bass Strait for the honour of winning the Rudder Cup. The Rudder Cup is Australia's oldest ocean race and the 5th oldest organised ocean yacht race in the world, predating the Fastnet by nearly 20 years and the Sydney to Hobart race by almost four decades.

The inaugural race was run from Port Phillip Heads to Low Head at the mouth of the Tamar River, a distance of 198 nautical miles. This first race was won by the 14.6m yawl Thistle skippered by Edgar Newland with a crew that included his wife and daughter. Conditions were reported to be very rough, so much so that Mrs. Newland refused to relinquish the Rudder Cup to dissuade other sailors from attempting such a dangerous race.  The race continued using alternative trophies, including the Doc Bennell Perpetual Trophy, funded by the Royal St Kilda Yacht Club.

In 1968, the original Rudder Cup trophy again came to light and was presented to the Cruising Yacht Club of Victoria, now known as the ORCV, by Edgar Newland’s son. The Rudder Cup Perpetual Trophy is awarded to the measurement handicap winner of the race across Bass Strait to Northern Tasmania – typically Devonport or Low Head at the mouth of the Tamar River.

The 195nm Melbourne to Devonport race forms part of the ORCV Offshore Championship and is open to yachts racing fully crewed, “autohelm plus 4” or double-handed.

This is a Category 2 event, as amended by the ORCV Special Regulations, which allows for using Satellite Phones instead of HF radios by suitably equipped yachts.

Race History

* Winner of the Rudder Cup based on the largest handicap division. 
^Race started Queenscliff, not Portsea Pier.

Prior Winners of the Rudder Cup

For a short time (1986 to 2005, the Rudder Cup was awarded on a 3 race series basis comprising of the Cock of the Bay, Melboourne to Devoport and Top of the Island races) with prior and after this time being for the one race.

Melbourne to Launceston Ocean Yacht Race

In previous years, Launceston was the destination for a post-Christmas dash across the Bass Strait.

The 198nm Launceston Race started from Portsea, proceeding across the Bass Strait to the finish line off Low Head at the entrance to the Tamar River. Finishing yachts then proceeded up the Tamar to the marina at Beauty Point for the final race in the series and the post-race hospitality and prize-giving dinner conducted by the Tamar Yacht Club.