Ocean Race Around Australia - 38 weeks to start

by Di Pearson on 23 Oct 2013 There are just 38 weeks until the start of the longest and the toughest coastal yacht race on the planet – the inaugural 'Ocean Race Around Australia – 2014.

'People are busy at the 'Ocean Race Around Australia' headquarters preparing for the inaugural event due to start in Fremantle in first week of August in 2014,' said event chairman, Bob Williams, from Perth today.

There are four ports from which boats, monohull and multihulls, can start and finish the event; Fremantle, Port Lincoln, Melbourne and Sydney. International entrants can choose either Fremantle or Sydney as their 'home port' in the race.

Other race stopover ports are Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays, Darwin in the Northern Territory, Dampier in the Pilbara of Western Australia and Esperance in the Goldfields of WA.

The race is for monohull and multihull boats, Category 1, with a minimum length overall of 10 metres. There is no upper limit. There is also division for double-handed monohull entries.

Prizes will be awarded for every Leg of the race (there are eight legs in all) for both monohull and multihull divisions.

Legs of the race vary from 1,500 nautical miles (Airlie Beach to Darwin via the Torres Strait) down to 575nm (Fremantle to Esperance rounding Cape Leeuwin). The leg across the Great Australia Bight, from Esperance to Port Lincoln, is 745nm.

The race will resurrect the 'Melbourne to Sydney Race' that ran for 25 years and was won by some of the most famous of Australia's offshore sailors. The recently restored original race trophy will be the perpetual trophy for this leg.

The time commitment for boat owners is around 57 days, with opportunity to change crew at seven ports. Crew commitment can be the whole eight legs, or one or multiple legs. Legs are, on average, one week in duration.

Stopover port festivities are being planned, with regional ports intent on making the fleet stopovers something to be remembered. International entries are welcomed. For further information go to: Event website

Our international media distributor has just attended the 'Sportel 2013' media convention in Monaco, France (where media content distributors meet with international broadcasters looking for sports media content) and has already garnered interest from major broadcasters.

Our distributor will return to Perth in late October, at which time we will get a full report on his activities and information on broadcasters keen to broadcast our media content program.

We are working in collaboration with the City of Fremantle, Fremantle Chamber of Commerce, Fremantle Sailing Club, Fremantle Foundation and Pirate88, to have a boat entered in the 2014 ORAA event under the banner 'Spirit of Fremantle'. The opportunity will exist for local citizens to apply, train and be selected to join the boat as 'citizen crew' for all or part of the race.

For the successful applicants, It will be a life-changing adventure, and has significant community benefits. It is also a great platform for introducing people to, and promoting our sport of ocean racing, along with the benefits of health and fitness as a way of life.

The same concept is being promoted to other ports around Australia and offering their local citizens a similar life-changing adventure.

We enjoy the support of the Department of Sport and Recreation here in WA and are working with them to promote our event to all regional ports of WA and to potential entrants from countries in Asia.

Already an Asian syndicate is working on campaigning a big multihull and enquiries are coming in from double-handed monohull owners.

A major national company is considering taking up title sponsorship of the 'Ocean Race Around Australia' and we hope to conclude negotiations before the end of this year.

Individual Leg sponsorship is still available, as is the opportunity to sponsor Leg trophies and race Leg prizes. For information please contact admin@ayc.net.au

For all information, please contact Bob Williams +61 (0) 413 057 559, admin@ayc.net.au. Event website

All information: Event website or Facebook