A little less "Primitive" and a little more "Cool"!
The race to King Island in March each year is something we all look forward to, like so many of our ORCV friends. Relatively (or sometimes extremely) warm weather, often calm and tranquil conditions in Bass Strait, and if that wasn't enough, the lure of the friendly hospitality of the King Island Boat Club, has us thinking about unpacking our wet weather gear and ocean safety equipment that went in to storage after Hobart. Did someone mention Steak Sandwiches?
On Primitive Cool, the lead up for this race had us even more exited than previous years.
We were excited to have the opportunity to once again sail John's new boat, the Reichel Pugh 51, in the environment that is was designed for, and as the week came around and the forecast firmed, we were aware that we had an opportunity to do something special.
We invited the ORCV Commodore, Simon Dryden, to join us for the race, and at our pre-race crew dinner he told us the story of when he raced to King Island on Cadibarra VIII with Nigel Jones back in 2002, the year they set what had stood as the race record for 12 years.
Simon mentioned that the weather conditions in that year were similar to what we were looking at in this year's forecast, so the stage was set for us.
Given the prospect of a short race, we made the decision to run with only two watches (instead of three for longer ocean races), which were split between an active watch that would drive the boat, and an inactive watch that would rest on the rail, and be on hand to assist, if necessary.
We left RMYS at 8:30pm on Friday night and most people took the opportunity to grab a bunk or a soft sail and put their heads down as we made our way down to Queenscliff.
With a SE breeze blowing, we made good time down the bay and we were at the starting area at around midnight.
The delay to the start by one hour allowed all of the crew to get a little more rest, as they knew that they would not see a bunk until after the race.
By 2:00am we were all on deck, kitted up, pre-race crew briefing completed, mainsail re-hoisted, in eager anticipation of another exciting night race start off Queenscliff.
Pre-race Shipping advice completed, race start sequence started at the amended time, headsail up...."What's wrong?" "It is tight in the track and wont go up easily". The last thing you want to hear in the start sequence, in the dark! Eventually we were able to get the J3 up the forestay track and go racing, but not before we gave up nearly 5 minutes to the fleet (and to Cadibarra VIII - 2002).
After the excitement of exiting the Heads with an extra inbound ship or too than anticipated, we settled quickly into our rhythm, and with the true wind angle at 60 degrees, the RP51 found her legs and we were soon out in front of the fleet, as we should have been.
Whilst disappointed with our poor start, we did not let it interfere with our race plan and our helmsmen did an excellent job of staying focused and keeping the boat up to target speed, and whilst it was too early to get excited about any records, we were aware of the "red line in the pool", and knew early that we had our "outstretched arms" ahead of it.
At the 0605 Sked, we learned that all of the fleet were making good time and making the most of the fresh SE breeze, and we were conscious that we may not have the chance for handicap podium results, so we then turned all of our attention to chasing the record.
As we approached Bold Head and the prospect of a 50 degree bare away and a short spinnaker run to the finish, the wind started to ease, and so did our boat speed. With a quick shake of the reef that we had put in before daylight to flatten out the boat, we were back up to targets, and the "red line" was back at our "shoulders"!
Finally with the A2 Spinnaker up, we were able to have a last lunge at the finish line (and the record), however, we still had a J3 headsail up that refused to drop, so following our short-lived spinnaker run, we gybed the headsail and sailed through the finish line at 12:20:21pm, with a race time of 09:50:21, breaking Cadibarra VIII's record by more than 17 minutes.
The hard work and focus that we put in delivered better results than we could have expected, with handicap wins in IRC and PHS also coming our way.
After a few quiet beers, several of those world famous steak sandwiches and the official presentation, we made ready and slipped out of Grassy Harbour at about 2100. The crew have all had some decent rest and we are preparing a hot meal for lunch, before slipping back up the bay.
We are all pleased with our efforts, and thankful for the opportunity to be part of a great team.
Matt Fahey.
