Sail-World.com : 211 Entrants and growing - offshore yachting event organisers dream
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211 Entrants and growing - offshore yachting event organisers dream |
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'The Port city of Esperance in Western Australia Stop-Over Port for Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally'
Bob Williams
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It’s not often that a yachting event organiser is dealing with a potential fleet in the several hundreds rather than tens of entrants – and many months before entries close.
Such is the case with the ‘2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and the ‘2011 Around Australia Ocean Rally’. Two major circumnavigations of Australia events overlapping.
A key feature of both events is that participants can Start and Finish their participation in the event from a principle port of choice which may be their home port or a port nearby. Crew changes are permitted at stop-over ports.
These features are responsible for the rapid take up of Race and Rally event Slot Reservations. As of 22 November 2009 combined Slot Reservations sit at 211.
Race entrants are catching up with Rally entrants and are expected to be equal and above 100 in each event when entries close late in 2010 and early 2011. The number of multihull participants is growing, 50 to date, and will add a new dimension to long distance offshore ocean racing and cruising.
Race and Rally entrants from New Zealand, the USA, and Asia, can choose their port of choice on the east coast of Australia to start and finish their participation. Entrants from Europe, South Africa, and the Middle East can chose Perth and Esperance as their start and finish port.
The 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race event spans over five months. The span of time for individual yachts participating in the Race will be around 110 days. The first Race yachts will start from Perth in late June 2011.
The 2011 Around Australia Ocean Rally event spans over 12 months. The first Rally yachts will start from Perth in late January 2011.
Both the Race and Rally fleet will come together in October 2011 when the yachts arrive in Perth for a 'Perth Race Week’ 10 day stop-over.
This week Ocean Events – the Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally organisers - added the Western Australian port of Esperance as a stop-over port for both the Race and the Rally.
From Ocean Events CEO Bob Williams –'Appointing Esperance as a Race stop-over port allows us to create a 550 nm race from Perth to Esperance that will follow immediately after our Perth Race Week regatta that will take place in Perth in early October 2011 as part of the Race and Rally events. This will be followed by the Esperance to Adelaide Race, an 850 nm mile sprint across the Great Australia Bight. Two new races on the Australian racing calendar taking in some spectacular coastline and an island archipelago amongst the best in Australia.
Esperance has a strong French history connection further enhanced by a sister city relationship with Saint Martin de Re France which is close to La Rochelle and one of Frances major yachting ports. We hope we can build on this connection to entice French sailors to come down-under and join our Race or Rally event'.
General Update
Web Site – our updated event web site is now live providing a facility for crew looking for a yacht and for skippers looking for crew. Also a new media centre to allow media organisations to register and access media data 24x7. www.sailaroundaustralia.com.au
Latest Rally event entry from the USA with resident artist aboard. We are delighted to report that our latest Rally entrant from the USA is Maamalini owned by Suzan Nettelfold and Michael Bell and now in Hobart. Since Maamalni left its home port of Seattle in 2007, Michael has been painting its adventures. Many of the paintings are of Australia and of her magnificent sights. Michael has been asked to exhibit his work at the beautiful Meadowbank Estate Gallery in Hobart. The show will run or a month, 6 November to 9 December 2009. If you will be in the Hobart area make a side trip to the Gallery. If you cannot visit the gallery but would like to see the artwork, it can be viewed on Michael's website www.ArtByBell.com.
Growing interest from multihull owners in both the 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and the 2011 Around Australia Ocean Rally. We now have a total of 50 multihull owners, including from Darwin and New Zealand, and Korea, that have taken up a Slot Reservation and we expect that there will be many more between now and when Rally entries close in December 2010 and Race entries close in April 2011.
Australia’s Seawind Catamarans said to be the largest sailboat builder in Australia is well represented with several of their catamarans entered and reports that many more of their existing customers are planning to participate in either the Race or the Rally with new customers making enquiries about the most suitable multihull for the task. www.seawindcats.com
And it doesn’t stop at sailing yachts. We have two Nordhavn full displacement passagemaker motor yacht owners that have taken up a Slot Reservation. These long range pleasure ships have a 3,500nm range and can make up to 600 gallons of water per day to ensure the ice cube supply remains constant!
These vessels add a different dimension to the Around Australia Ocean Rally. We are delighted to have them involved and are currently working with the owners to arrive at a mutually agreeable set of rules under which they will participate. We understand more motor yacht owners are planning to join in. www.nordhavn.com
Fremantle Race Week becomes Perth Race Week. We had a bit of a dilemma with the name we chose for a week long regatta we are incorporating into the Race and Rally program that will take place in Perth in October 2011 at the time the Race and Rally fleet will be in Perth at the same time. Maybe 300 yachts visiting Perth in October 2011. Fortunately ‘Perth Race Week’ name was available so we grabbed it and now have a name that favours only Perth and Perth’s magnificent Indian Ocean coastline.
The race week ‘arena’ we are planning extends from Hillarys Yacht Club to the north of Fremantle, Rockingham to the south, and Rottnest Island to the west. There will be no shortage of excellent race course options. We are working closely with Perth yachting identity Chris Kelly, Chairman of Yachting Western Australia Offshore Committee, to involve the Perth racing and cruising fleet not participating in the Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally to participate in the Perth Race Week regatta which is set to rival Victoria Race Week in terms of participating yachts and sailors.
October weather on the west coast. Competitors in the 2009 Redink Homes 41st Geraldton Offshore Classic 220 nm race from Fremantle to Geraldton and return had return race weather that many skippers would prefer to forget. On the other hand a delivery skipper reported that a week later they had a magnificent run from North West Cape to Fremantle. We hope October 2011 presents the latter!
2010 event development program. During the first half of 2010 we will be visiting Start/Finish ports and stop-over ports around Australia and holding information seminars for our Slot Reservation holders and to invite new participants for both the Race and the Rally. A schedule of dates and locations will be posted on our web site in January 2010.
The Australia Yacht Club Inc. is at the tail end of a long process to gain affiliation with Yachting Western Australia and by the end of this month should be the newest affiliated yacht club in Australia.
Events Sponsors. We are receiving an ever growing number of enquiries from corporations interested to participate in the 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and the 2011 Around Australia Ocean Rally event across a wide range of services and products. These enquiries are of course very welcome. We have our antenna up for naming rights sponsors for both the Race and Rally events.
Radio Relay Discussions. We are in discussions with the highly respected Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania's marine radio station 'Tascoast Radio' regarding a role with the 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally. Tascoast Radio is a main support station for the Radio Relay Vessel in the annual Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race and in recent years has conducted radio skeds for the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria (Vanuatu to Mackay Race) and Sandringham Yacht Club (Melbourne to Osaka Race- Double Handed Yacht Race).
Yachting Australia Regulations Category 1 – Hull Construction Standards and Stability Requirements / Resistance to Capsize. We are receiving many enquiries on this subject from owners of older yachts and owners who for whatever reasons do not have access to designer or boat builder certification as to design and construction conformity. We believe we have a practical solution for our Race and Rally entrants and will be reporting further on this subject over the next few weeks.
Musto Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally clothing. Our event clothing partner Musto has prepared for us a range of event clothing which is very smart indeed. For more information please contact us at info@sailaroundaustralia.com.au
Thank you. We thank everybody for the tremendous interest we are receiving for the 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and the 2011 Around Australia Ocean Rally. We know of many people around the world thinking about participating. If you cannot make for the 2011 event we plan to be running both events every two years.
For enquiries please contact info@sailaroundaustralia.com.au
+61 (0) 413 057 59
www.sailaroundaustralia.com.au
by Ocean Events Media
5:51 AM Sun 22 Nov 2009 GMT
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