Last night the wind eased further as predicted which meant the bulk of the fleet dribbled in overnight.
This morning all the crew are ashore enjoying the hospitality of the King Island Boat Club which has been fantastic. The steak sandwiches have kept coming as the many King Island Boat Club volunteers have put in some long hours to look after all the crew.
The first three boats have finished and they are all in the “big” boat class. Light winds combined with long waterline lengths has favoured the “big” boats in the fleet over the other competitors. First over the line was Calm at 1953hrs, followed by Scarlet Runner at 2018.20hrs and then Goldfinger crossed in third place at 2047hrs.
Reports just in from Simon Dryden, skipper of Dry White, is that his crews' faces have gone from green to white - and now back to pink again - as the wind starts to increase to ten to eleven knots with the occasional patch of four to five knots. This is holding the boats steadier and the crews are starting to feel better in the rough and quite lumpy seaway. The day is also warming up as the sun is trying to poke its way through the cloud cover. So things are looking up for the crew – if they can hold their breakfast down.
Simon says ”It's like pulling teeth out here trying to get distance with the wind coming straight out of Grassy". The fastest boats are now making about five to six knots towards Grassy.
Crew member Neisje, now enjoying the more settled sea conditions onboard Dry White
Looking at the Yellowbrick tracker the boats are now bunched up together like a mad women’s knitting as they come abeam of Cape Otway. They are all positioned west of the rhumb line with the two earlier “coast huggers,” Gusto and Cadibarra 8, tacking out to join the rest of the fleet - so no clear tactics to date.
Mirrabooka is positioned east of the fleet and may be going out wider to take advantage of the stronger winds predicted further east. They are currently sitting in 20th position overall.
There has been no change in the makeup of the lead group of Calm, Scarlet Runner and Goldfinger. They have all increased their speed slightly as the wind freshens with less than 2.15 nm separating first from third. Interestingly all three of these boats are in the lead position in a different category. Calm is first in line honours and IRC. Scarlett Runner is leading in the AMS category and Goldfinger is leading the PHS category.
Click here to view Yacht Tracker.
Regular updates are also being posted on the ORCV FaceBook page http://www.facebook.com/OceanRacingClub.
Dry White after arriving at Stanley in 2011 (Photo courtesy of John Curnow)
The wind and swell was, as predicted, from the SW as boats went over the start line off Queenscliff early this morning. While the majority of the fleet are heading west tracking out into Bass Strait, Gusto and Cadibuura 8 have adopted a different strategy and are hugging the shoreline in the early stages of the race.
Of the 24 boats in the race 20 are still making their way south. The Secretary, despite having seven batteries onboard, experienced power failure and did not start the race. They were forced to pull into Blairgowrie in the dark in the wee small hours of the morning. This will be disappointing for George Shaw, skipper of The Secretary and past ORCV Commodore who is a regular competitor in this race.
Slinky Malinky and Fantasy of Man - two of the three boats who are racing shorthanded with only 2 crew onboard - have retired around 0900hrs with sea sickness in the sloppy conditions. Cadibarra 8 is also doublehanding and is still in the race.
At 0915 the lead group of boats included Calm, Goldfinger, Scarlet Runner and Gusto.
Calm is in the lead position for line honours and is nearly 3 nautical miles ahead of Scarlett Runner, closely followed by Goldfinger.
The battle between the two forty foot Beneteau’s, Dry White and Halcyon, is pretty much on a par.
Calm has 69.8 nautical miles to go and is doing 6.6 knots so at this stage of the race it will be around ten hours before they will be expected to reach the finish line.
1100hr update: Given the very light winds and sloppy seas, Dark and Stormy determined that they will not have enough time to finish and have decided to retire from the race . So now there are 20 boats en route to Grassy.
This is a picture of Calm flying along with a huge white spinaker in the SYC Open Day this year. One thing for sure - they won't have their kite up in the current conditions.
Click here to view Yacht Tracker.
Regular updates are also being posted on the ORCV FaceBook page http://www.facebook.com/OceanRacingClub.
All boats in this years Melbourne to King Island race have a dedicated GPS tracker onboard so everyone can follow their progress on our website as they make their way across Bass Strait.
Whether it is day or night, blowing a gale, or light breezes and sunshine, everyone can now check-out the progress of individual boats or the whole race fleet by clicking on the Yellowbrick Tacker page on our website.
Yellowbrick is a global tracking system which links a dedicated GPS beacon onboard each yacht to a King Island Race tracker page that can be viewed on our website. Click here to check out the race.
As part of the ORCV's ongoing improvements, yacht trackers from Yellowbrick are being used for all major events.
The Yellowbrick trackers will transmit every 30 minutes and the maps will be automatically updated whenever the new information is received.
Regular updates will also be posted on the ORCV FaceBook page http://www.facebook.com/OceanRacingClub . Become a friend so you don't miss out on any updates. We also welcome your comments and feedback via our Facebook page.
3 Aquatic Drive, Albert Park VIC 3206 Ph. 0493 102 744 E. orcv@orcv.org.au