A novice at the helm!

Great experience on return leg of Port Fairy race.

“So, do you want to helm?” Well, I thought, that’s a good question. Fellow crew member Ash had been on the wheel for a while and had done a superb job. Did I want a go? YES, of course I wanted to try helming but how would it go?

Debrief of the 2012 Port Fairy Yacht Race

UPDATE: Port Fairy Race debrief is booked out.  Click here for update website article.

The ORCV will be holding a debrief of the 2012 Port Fairy race on Thursday the 19 April 2012 at the Royal Brighton Yacht Club at 19:00 in the Bay View room. The purpose of the session is to allow competitors to share their experiences and to learn from others how we can make our sport of sailing safer.

Craig Longmuir from Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and Sergeant Lachlan Holding of Victorian Police Marine Co-ordination Centre who were on duty at the time of the incident will give us their perspectives. We will have other speakers who were involved in the event, which will be an open forum.

All sailors are welcome, anyone wishing to attend must register below, registration is free.

As of 3:00pm on Wednesday 18 April, 2012, this event is full and we are not allowing for any more registrations at this time. We do apologise for this, but would like to offer you to be added to our Waiting List, please click on the Full button and fill out the online form, then if someone cancels their registration, or if we can increase the number of participants, you will be notified and given the opportunity to become an official registrant. 

Click here to read an information sheet on recognising the effects of stress

Update on Inception crew

Further to our previous website article update which mentioned that, as a precaution the six Inception crew (Jeff Dusting, Ken Dusting, Doug Abbott, Chris Morris, Glenn Armistead and Greg Cameron) were admitted to Warrnambool Base Hospital on Saturday morning for routine observation. 

None of the crew members suffered serious injuries but were recovering from their exposure to the extremely cold conditions. 

After being discharged, later Saturday afternoon, it was great to see some of the Inception crew at the Port Fairy Yacht Club with other competitors.

The ORCV has received many messages from the yachting fraternity congratulating everyone involved in the successful rescue of the Inception crew and commiserations to Jeff on the loss of his boat, Inception.

In times of crisis, leadership is imperative and we wanted to share some comments we have received from the Inception crew, other competitors, our Incident Response Team, and Search & Rescue authorities:

• Jeff Dusting's leadership was outstanding.  He was very calm, decisive and a constant source of motivation;
• The way in which Grant Dunoon (Skipper of Trybooking.com) and his crew Peter Fetch, Ross Fisher and Kim Walker, manoeuvred Trybooking.com in those seas was exceptional.  They started the search using the Personal Locator Beacon positions provided by AMSA to radio operator, Peter Clancy, at Ocean Racing Melbourne.  Peter provided these position updates to Trybooking.com via HF radio, who then began a grid search of the area and located the crew using their knowledge of the estimated drift and hence the likely postions of the crew in the prevaling conditions.  The Trybooking.com  crew managed to hear the whistles of the Inception crew and first saw them using their spotlight;
• Peter Clancy (Ocean Racing Melbourne) and Ray Shaw (Race Director) did a fantastic job coordinating the search and rescue.

Exceptional weather conditions blast Port Fairy race!

The race started out in ideal conditions and all boats and crew were prepared for a strong southwest wind change which was predicted to hit the fleet around 19:00hrs on Friday night. However, once the fleet was around Cape Otway the wind hung in the northwest corner and intensified to storm conditions - only swinging to the west later. Sustained storm force winds and wild seas continued to hammer the fleet in the second half of the race. In these conditions crews were hanging on and making little progress in the strong headwinds.  The predicted shift to the southwest never eventuated and would have enabled boats to ease the sheets, reducing  the pressure on crew and gear, giving a more stable angle to steer the boats in the mounting seas. 

Trybooking.com sailing into the storm

This 65 nautical mile leg of the race from Cape Otway to Port Fairy crosses the boundary between Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean.  Here the big swells from the deeper southern ocean meet the shallower waters of Bass Strait and can create very treacherous seas in strong winds

As the wind picked up many boats were forced to retire with gear failure and turned back to Port Phillip Bay or preceded under jury rig or motor to the nearest safe port.

Don Fraser, skipper of Dry White reports winds of 40 to 50 knots with wind gusts up to 70 knots for over four hours. They managed to keep inching towards Port Fairy and took out winning places in all four categories as the only finishing boat. Don explained “this was exceptional weather conditions!  Dry White was in survival mode where completing the race became incidental to getting the crew and boat safely to port”.  Crew member Sally Williams from The Secretary, which was forced to retire, said “at 35 knots we were managing but came unstuck at 57 knots and already under jury rig due to hydraulic problems with the backstay. The boat had limited steerage and was only making half a knot so the skipper decided to turn back to the “Heads”.    The Secretary was down to 3 reefs in the main and had the headsail furled when the hydraulic backstay failed. This put enormous pressure on the mast and rig and then when the batten cars jammed in the main track, as they were further reducing sail, they were forced to cut the main free with a knife and ditch it in the heaving sea.  There was a tense moment when they struggled to release the huge flogging main which was still held by the wire outhaul, until fellow crew member, Rosie Colahan, eventually cut it free with a hacksaw.

Dry White, Slinky Malinky, Bandit, Alien and Trybooking.com, are now safely tied up in the Port Fairy river. Magazan is tied up in Apollo Bay harbour.  Another ORCV member boat called Young Ones, who was not an official race entrant, and had intended to have a leisurely cruise in company with the race fleet, is also safely tied up in Port Fairy.  Yoko retired earlier in the race and along with Spirit of Downunder, The Secretary and Dekadence are all back inside Port Phillip Bay.

The six crew of Inception, having been plucked from the water by the crew of Trybooking.com, are pleased to be ashore and are being well cared for by the members of the Port Fairy Yacht Club.    During the storm last night Inception took-on water and sank about 7 nautical miles west of the aptly named Ship Wreck Coast; approximately halfway between Cape Otway and Warnambool.  A big salute to the crew of Trybooking.com who responded heroically to the time honoured lore of the sea -  to assist anyone in distress.