Asadori home after completing Melbourne Osaka race

by Di Pearson on 3 May 2007 The weather battered Japanese crew on the Iain Murray 13.1m Asadori finally reached their Osaka destination in the 2007 Melbourne Osaka double handed yacht race this afternoon, one day after the 58th birthday of co-skipper Kyojun Fujita.

Arriving at 14 hours 54m 51s AEST on May 2 (04h 51m 59s UTC) in the elapsed time of 38 days 01h 54m 51s, following the finishes of Southern Light and Hullabaloo, which arrived two hours ahead of the Japanese boat, yesterday will be a birthday Fujita will long remember. Apart from the gale force winds they encountered yesterday, he and skipper Shinsuke Nishi appeared to have ‘found’ more storms than any of the other nine finishers in the race.

'The weather was so rough I didn’t do anything to celebrate my birthday, but I got emails from my son and daughter. I felt that they at least thought about me,' Fujita said ashore tonight.

Both Nishi and Fujita were happy to be in home waters. 'We had a feeling of coming home when we looked at the greenery. It is different from Australia and the Solomon Islands. The color of Japanese green contains different colours such as yellow and orange.

The Japanese pair, did very well in the race, having only once raced together before, in the Toba Peal Race in the double handed division and went well.

And although the two found the race difficult, Nishi says: 'but we would think about doing the next challenge!'

The best part of the race, according to Fujita was: 'We had nothing bad happen and that was a good sign. The worst part of the race was the squalls. We encountered squalls for five consecutive days in the Northern Hemisphere - only during my watch! I changed my clothes for watch, out on deck, squall. Watch off and changed clothes, out on deck, again squall!! I had heaps of wet clothes in the cabin!'

Nishi: 'Let me see what was the best part - I had gout, but it got better with medication! Worst part? Squalls. The wind rises suddenly from zero to 20–30 knots and we made a fuss and found the squall was over. We couldn’t sleep.'

Did they enjoy the race? Fujita: 'Yes, but I wanted to have more time to enjoy Happy Hour, as we took the easterly route which means we had earlier sunsets. Also we didn’t have many fine evenings as we had a lot of cloudy or rainy days.'

Nishi: 'We saved some alcohol in order to enjoy it in the latter half of the journey, but you know we had terrible weather in the last part – so we have a lot of booze left!'

Both say they had a great welcome by families and supporters.

From Gokasho Bay in Nagoya, Nishi and his co-skipper who lives in Ichinomiya City, close to Nagoya, arrived to a resounding cheer from their Japanese countrymen and competitors in this their maiden entry in the 5,500 nautical mile race.

The 49 year old skipper had long wanted to compete in the race, having been a member of the supporting team when the race was first conducted in 1987 and is looking forward to receiving the same hospitality and support he gave finishers that year.

A sailor for 26 years, the nature lover mostly enjoys sailing in home waters, particularly those near his hometown.

Like his skipper, Fujita, who has been sailing for 29 years has also been a support team member of the race since its inception and was hoping to contest the 2003 race, but it was not to be. The most important thing, Fujita prior to the start of this race, was to start and to finish the 2007 Melbourne Osaka. That wish was granted this afternoon.

At the 4.00pm AEST sked, married couple David James and Rosie (Ingenue) were positioned abeam and to the west of the Japanese Bonin Islands with 315 miles to sail.

The Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 40 had edged 35 miles ahead of Shozi Yoneda and Jun Kanda aboard Wild Boar, the smallest yacht in the fleet. Campbell Reynolds and David Best (Esoterica) were 189 behind the Japanese boat, south of the Volcano Islands.

From David James earlier today: 'All going well, should be in Osaka Friday afternoon, as we have only 350 miles to go. We're on our last bottle of white wine - will start putting the champers on ice now, ready for our arrival!

'The weather is great, grey and overcast - typical Melbourne day. I’m getting around topless at this stage!

'We're using up our food supplies - tuna pasta and sprouted beans with fresh bread last night. The fridge is going well, although it didn't like the warmer weather earlier.

'We had to gybe last night around 7pm – a strange feeling, and no we didn't forget how to.

Wind is at 10-12 knots from the north-west, we are doing 7-7.5 knots boat speed under full main and No.1 headsail on a slight but calm sea.'

Last evening Jun Kanda reported from Wild Boar: 'Weather is good with sou-sou-easterly winds. We are running under full main and poled out jib.'

Weather from Roger Badham:

070502 0520Z
Winds are average winds at 10m – no gust.

GALES
SATURDAY 05-SUNDAY 06
S-SW winds of 30-40 kts expected ahead of a front to cross the rhumb line north of 29N and clearing to the east from late SAT 05 and east of the rhumb line SUNDAY 06 night.

W/15-25 following the front and then W-SW/20-30

Argos tracker positions at UTC 06.00.00 (4pm AEST & 3pm JPN Wednesday May 2):

Alex (Jock and son Hamish MacAdie) FINISHED 07H 12m 02s (AEST) April 27
COCORIN (Itaru Matsunaga/John Bankart) FINISHED 14H 51m 22s (AEST) April 27
Gusto (Brian Pattinson) FINISHED 03H 52m 13s (AEST) April 28
RYU-JIN (Murray Bucknall/Jon Sayer) FINISHED 17H 58m 44s (AEST) April 29
Dekadence (Phil Coombs/Peter Walsh) FINISHED 09H 56m 03s (AEST) April 30
Tamagomalu (Makoto Hisamatsu/Jimmi Doherty) FINISHED 16H 16m 12s (AEST) April 30
Southern Light (Tom Crabb/Trent Justice) FINISHED 01H 43m 41s (AEST) May 2
Hullabaloo (Jim and son Joe O’Keeffe) FINISHED 12H 51m 59s (AEST) May 2
Asadori (Shinsuke Nishi/Kyojun Fujita) FINISHED 14H 54m 51s (AEST) May 2

Ingenue (David James and wife Rosie Colahan), Wild Boar (Shozi Yoneda/Jun Kanda), Esoterica (Campbell Reynolds/David Best), Cadi (John and son David Netherton, retired), Wasabi (Ken Down/Shane Gaddes – retired), Runaway (James Ryssenbeek/Andrew McCole – retired), Pippin (Roger Sayers/Anthony Bown – retired).