ORCV Melbourne to Port Fairy

(M2PF as part of the MMOC)

Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

A total of $1500 has been pledged by the crews competing in the annual M2PF. Well done. It's a bit of a tradition for the annual Easter race, much like how the Boxing Day Test scores get broadcast after the radio skeds, during the races heading South in Summer. The Good Friday Appeal has now become so widely accepted that the Telethon is broadcast into other States and the funds raised do ensure the staff can continue to provide the level of care needed to very sick children and offer support to their families at this very sad time.

There is more breeze out there now in Bass Strait and the leader, Extasea, has completed just over 50% of the race. She is SSE winds of 15 to 19 knots and doing around nine and half knots across the water. Extasea are nine miles ahead of Ninety Seven, then there's Running Wild, Chikara Outlaw and The Secretary, who are a little over 12 nautical miles astern. The latter are clearly relishing the brisker breezes, which will allow her to utilise her displacement to charge along. Her crew will be enjoying a marvellous ride.

Extasea racing at Geelong earlier this year. Pic © Steb Fisher.

Extasea are presently enjoying a clean sweep of the board, with Line Honours, IRC, AMS and PHS leads. The Secretary is close on their heels in a couple of these divisions, as well. The Bus, aka Bacardi, is second on IRC, so perhaps those conditions out there are stronger than thought, allowing the older and heavier boats to push a bit of water out of their way.

The last boat presently is Spirit of Freya. The contender for My Galley Rules has "... delayed lunch due to the conditions!" So the skipper there clearly determined to have all souls on the rail. Just one and half miles ahead of her is local Port Fairy entrant, Chikara.

To see where the boats are, please click HERE and to see the standings, click HERE.

By John Curnow