Melbourne Latitude Series - Slugs in the Channel

by John Curnow on 21 Nov 2009
Melbourne Latitude Series. At 04:15am there was renewed optimism aboard 'Ocean Racing Club of Victoria Mobile', as the wind built outside, even though the weather forecast was for extremely light conditions. It was short lived however, as the wind then died, just as quickly as it had sprung up!

Neville ‘Nifty’ Rose's multpile alarms started sounding at 04:30, which increased the excitement inside ORCV Mobile even further for Gillian Kearns and Annie Schaefer, who are assisting him with race management. Then at 04:35, the Crew Changes sked was conducted.

The Pre-Race Sign On Sked started at 05:35, with extra reminders from the Sailing Instructions concerning keeping clear of commercial shipping in Port Phillip, particularly while transiting the Heads, together with the latest weather forecast, as issued by the BOM at 05:15. The fleet was sent to Latitude Set No.3.

All entrants confirmed they were starters by 06:35, however, ‘Spirit of Freya’ could not initially be heard by Ocean Racing Mobile, as they were in the Queenscliff cut, thereby restricting the line of site to the ORCV Race Control van, which is positioned at Chapman’s Point, Arthur’s Seat.
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Apparently it has been a nearly unanimous (remember there is only three of them in there) decision that stress balls be purchased for ORCV Mobile, in order to be able to offer an alternative to the irritating pen clicking by the radio operator. Right Oh! Remember kids, it is only a small place inside there, best you all get along now!!!

Nifty initially delayed the start by 20 minutes based on information from Lonsdale VTS (who govern Port Phillip Heads) regarding shipping traffic. You see there was a ship coming in and with the very light breeze that was present, they wanted to ensure there were no yachts around the area, tacking through the various channels, as they made their way out the Heads. The navigable part of the Rip between the Heads is just 0.6nm wide, by the way.

The inbound ship was the ‘Empress Pheonix’, which was described to Lonsdale VTS by the Port Phillip Sea Pilot onboard as '…a bit of a Slug' - a direct quote from the airwaves. Accordingly, the start was delayed by a further 10 minutes to 07:00, so as to allow the inbound ‘Slug’ to meander its way in. If a Phoenix is indeed a mythical fast lying firebird, then I think we have a case for ACCC of false advertising...

Refreshing the Lonsdale Web Cam every few minutes did not result in much movement of the yachts. Quelle surprise there! By 8am there was, in fact, more progress on the Arthurs Seat Road from the cycling race than there was from the fleet towards their turning latitudes in Bass Strait.

At the 08:35 Routine radio sked, Code Flag Sierra was 'hoisted' over the radio by Race Director to Shorten Course from Latitude Set 3 to Latitude Set 2. Apparently two entrants receive 'tone' from Race Director over their skeds.

Having gone to the trouble of shortening the course, the breeze has now kicked in a little from the NE and the first of the fleet are looking to be back at the Heads around 11:30. Excellent, but around an hour too early (for slack water)!!! No problems in these mild conditions and the first boats are just about to cross the line off Portsea Pier on the delightful Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.