ORCV Melbourne to King Island (M2KI)

Club Marine Series - Back on deck!

The Club Marine Series returns to Port Phillip, this Saturday. The Royal Brighton Yacht Club is hosting Day Four of the annual Yachting Victoria seven-day series. It is a great way to keep practicing before heading back out to sea with the M2KI on March 6.

Bags a plenty during the last Club Marine Series day. Pic © Steb Fisher

There are four divisions, all very hotly contested by members from the various clubs that surround the Bay. The Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, in Williamstown, is currently leading the club championship in both IRC and AMS.

There are 12 Grand Prix boats contesting the Division Zero race in the morning. They are joined for afternoon race on their course, by the 50 Division One boats, which start five minutes behind them.

Over on an adjacent course, the 54 boats of Divisions Two and 38 boats of Division Three, will have their race. All in all, 154 boats of all manner, shapes and sizes will be out, which makes for a sensational spectacle for anyone enjoying walks, BBQs and the many other seaside activities and those on the official boats.

'Calm' won the inaugural M2G last year, which is when this image was taken.

The current series leader for Div0 is 'Calm', from SYC. Fellow club boat, 'Challenge', leads Div1 in IRC. 'Executive Decision' is the AMS leader.

Lou Abrahams aboard his 'Challenge' - pic © Steb Fisher

'Challenge' - now doubt in the midst of winning a race on Port Phillip.

Div2 is lead at the moment by 'Surprise' in IRC and 'Godzilla' in AMS. Both of these boats are from the series club leader, RYCV, where as both of the leaders in Div3, 'Intrusion' and 'Rhiannon', are from SYC.

'Surprise' are always splashed throughout these pages - won their Div at AVW as well... Pic © Steb Fisher

Our previous Happiest Crew on the Water holders, 'Godzilla'.

The weather appears to be fair to solid, for now, but then at this time of year, that can vary. The Bureau of Meteorology states ‘Winds: South to southeasterly 15 to 20 knots tending east to southeasterly 20 to 25 knots during the late afternoon and evening. Seas: 0.5 to 1 metres increasing to 1 to 1.5 metres during the evening.’ In all likelihood, the fleet should be in their pens when things freshens up significantly. The Race Director of the day, Simon Dryden, feels that it “Should be delightful and provide for marvelous racing!”

So I guess we’ll be here on Saturday to find out. We trust all the crews are super-honed and recovered after their recent forays down at Geelong for Audi Victoria Week.

By John Curnow