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 Tangaroa Blue Foundation whose focus is treating symptoms and preventing pollution in our marine environment.

You can support this campaign by using this link.https://www.chuffed.org/project/plastic-out-of-the-ocean

If you love the ocean, consider how you can contribute to running a more sustainable boat. Here are 5 starting tips:

1. Use reusable water bottles over 1x plastic bottles
2. Take food in reusable containers or use reusable silicone ziplock bags (if it needs heating)
3. Use the boat cutlery/plates over disposable.
4. Consider what food you take onboard.
5. Recycle post-race.

What other ideas can you share?

2018 Apollo Bay Race Wrap Up

Congratulations to all podium place getters for last weekend's Apollo Bay race. This category 3 race bookends the ocean racing season and is always well attended. This year was no different with 22+ entrants putting their hands up for the race. In the event there were a couple of drop outs before the gun but all who were able lined up at 0330 on 19/05 2018 for the start.

The weather was kind to the participants. A stalled high (still stalled at the time of writing) made conditions fairly predictable with a general WSW airflow over the race area ranging from 15-20 in the morning to 20-25 in the afternoon.

This of course led to an interesting problem for navigators. It was a beat all the way to Apollo Bay but do you go inshore or offshore. Inshore the wind was lighter and the water was flatter while further offshore the wind was heavier as was the sea state. Either way, to add to the excitement there was a strong current flowing down the coast against the fleet. This was especially noticeable around Cape Patton as several boats found to their cost.

The challenge was to balance all these factors out which some boats managed very well and some less so. In the end, Jason Close's new yacht Patriot managed the balance better than others to walk away with all the major prizes (IRC, AMS & PHS). Daniel Edward's White Noise also did well snaring 2nd in the same categories. Third places were shared between Extasea (IRC, PHS) and Alien (AMS). Extasea also grabbed line honours. The Double Handed division was taken out by Halycon and Multi-Hull Line honours went to Peccadillo. Congratulations to these boats.

There were a few casualties along the way. Cavallo had an early exit due to power issues and "something bad up front". Sagred lost their furler which was needed to tack due to there rig set up. Jinot lost a spreader in their rig but saved the mast and motored into Apollo Bay. Commiserations to these.

Some radios left a bit to be desired with Under Capricorn leading the way. Fallback arrangements worked well with some yachts submitting position reports via SMS to the race director's phone. However, your VHF radio is an essential communication device during ocean races and to have so many go on the blink is not good. This will be an area of focus next time around.

Another area we have to get right is the passage through the Heads, outbound and inbound.

The Heads is a high traffic area through a narrow, dangerous stretch of water and there is no getting away from this. Large ships and yachts share this stretch of water and pass in relatively close proximity to each other.

All this traffic is overseen by VTS at Point Lonsdale and in Melbourne. They know what the ships are doing and, for the safety of all, they need to know what the yachts are doing and thinking at the same time. There are rules and conventions to ensure we don't interfere with each other and we need to make sure we follow them. Remember, yachts will always end up second best if there is a collision.

We have mostly got race starts sorted with the exclusion zone agreed with the harbourmaster keeping us clear of shipping until well outside. There is still room for error as was demonstrated by a yacht sailing under the bow of a ship near the pilot pick up area shortly after the race start. Yachts must keep an active watch and take early action to not only avoid but keep well clear of them.

Yachts returning can also cause VTS to become anxious. They have ships transiting the Heads and there you are. You might be well outside the channels but they don't know what you are going to do next. Do you know about the ship coming? What channel are you going to use etc. etc.

When transiting the Heads, it is good practice to call Lonsdale Light VTS on VHF 12 and let them know who you are, your expected time of arrival at the Heads, what channel you plan to use and to request information on any expected traffic. Then monitor VHF 12 until you are through and past Shortland Bluff.

Once again, well done to all competitors and congratulations to all podium finishers ( pictures shown below). 

                                                      ALIEN                                                                                                              EXTASEA

                                                      HALCYON                                                                                                             PATRIOT          

                                                    PECADILLO                                                                                                              WHITE NOISE

2018 Apollo Bay Race Friday Weather update

The weather for this year’s Apollo Bay race will favor the upwind boats. It looks like pleasant conditions with 10 15 knot winds and a 2 to 3 total wave height. As the current runs up and down the coast it could get a bit bumpy when the current runs against the waves. So crews I would keep of the grog tonight.

Good Luck and happy racing

Apollo Bay 2018 Update from Race Director Nic McGuigan

We look like we are in for an excellent weekend's sailing with the well subscribed Apollo Bay race. The wind looks as if it will show up, even if it is on the nose, and coming back will be a breeze, so to speak.

 Please read Justin Brenan's update post prior to this one (link below). It contains some words of advice about entering the Apollo Bay harbour should you choose to do so. There have been some difficulties getting this dredged lately so we can't recommend going in at this time. The harbour master concurs with this view.

 http://www.orcv.org.au/index.php/apollo-bay-blog/4820-apollo-bay-race

 As an alternative, Justin has organised a gathering at QCYC. Your humble race director will endeavour to join you there for an announcement of results and presentation of prizes, courtesy of Chirping Bird Wines. Weather this is Saturday evening or Sunday morning will depend on eventual finishing times at Apollo Bay and whether I can get to the infamous bridge before it closes at 1900.

 Talking of finishing times, Simon Dryden contributed a routing scenario from Predict Wind to the aforementioned article. I have updated this based on today's (Thu, 17th May) weather forecasts. First the routing map. This is based on the polars for a 40ft Beneteau First.

Blue means lighter, orange is heavier winds. As usual, two sets of initial conditions and four models to play with giving us:

 So depending on the model, such a boat would expect to finish between 1200 and 1430, all other things being equal. Other boats could be faster or slower.

 So what about the weather? That High that has been trying to come across us for a bit now is still stalled in the Bight and doesn't look like moving for a while. This is giving us a generally westerly flow over the race area which looks set to continue for a while yet. During the race period, we can expect this to be between west and southwest at around 15 to 25 knots.

As I am sure you are aware, this is a VHF radio race. We will be using the VHF 82 repeater on Arthur's Seat, which is marked on the map above. This usually gives us good coverage of the race area but there have been some issues reported when close into the coast beyond Lorne. If boats are unable to report their position on VHF 82 after reaching Lorne, there are two things to try:

• Try to reach us on VHF 73, the finishing frequency. This will probably work better after rounding Cape Patton.
• Report your position by SMS to the Race Director's phone. Don't forget to include your boat name in the message.

I wish you all the best for the race and hope to see you all in QCYC afterwards.