Heemskirk Consolidated Melbourne to Hobart - Cold War

by John Curnow on 29 Dec 2009
In a classic East versus West scenario, the two fleets in the Heemskirk Consolidated Melbourne to Hobart also do battle for the bragging rights of being the first home between the two events.

The race-within-a-race environment adds even more colour to the already highly competitive nature of the sport. For sure the winner receives a special trophy, in addition to the one for their own race, but far more prized are the bottles of red that form so many of the side bets. This heckling was evident back at the Skippers’ Briefing at Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron, before the start.

As Day Two draws out and the boats are still a fair way from home, in completely different weather too, it’s time to take a look at who’s where and why. Early on, the Eastcoaster fleet got away well and was making ground directly to their waypoint at Flinders Island. Once around, they have all slowed and been facing very vague and variable winds, which has continued to make them slow.

However, over with the Westcoaster fleet, things were very different. They had to tack straight into the wind and made very little progress in a straight line towards King Island and the top of Tasmania. This made sure the fleet was very closely grouped and to a certain extent, still is. Whilst the Westcoaster fleet had covered only 20% of their course yesterday, the Eastcoasters were out at 40% or double the ground covered. A fair old differential, indeed.

As of now, the leader of the Eastcoaster is the Rodgers 46, ‘Ocean Skins’. She has covered 70% of their 460 nautical mile course, while the leader over in the Westcoaster is ‘Icefire’. She has done 60% of their 440nm. This means ‘Ocean Skins’ has another 138nm to go and Icefire another 176nm to go, approximately. The 10% differential means that there is just an effective gap of just 44nm, which is quite recoverable, when you look at the speed of the Westcoasters today and the variable nature of the conditions over the entire race so far. Or is it?

Both fleets look to be beset by very soft breezes right on the nose, before the Eastcoasters get some breeze late in the morning and a heap by lunchtime. That’s all fantastic, but you still have Storm Bay and the Derwent River to go. The time of day you get to either of those can have a dramatic effect on the final result. All racers to Hobart have seen or been involved in times where boats have been slow and watched others coming in on seabreezes behind them. You would think the Eastcoasters would come in from lunchtime Wednesday and the Westcoasters from dinnertime. That’s a theory; let’s see how it pans out.

www.orcv.org.au





By John Curnow