Heemskirk Melbourne to Hobart (s), wind or no wind, East vs West

by Jennifer McGuigan ORCV on 29 Dec 2009 Have a look at a weather forecast map or wind predictor for Tasmania today and you may start to understand why the boats that are heading down the east and west coasts are working so hard.

Particularly on the east coast your progress depends on which pocket you are in at the time. Anything from 5 - 20 knots and coming from all directions. The foredeckies are working hard with the sail changes, the navigators and tacticians are trying to predict the wind, the currents and what their fellow competitors are doing. The key being to keep the boat moving no matter what.

Rik Head from Biddy Hu II is currently sitting in a windless hole about 20 miles off Ansons Bay on the north east coast. Rik reported 'we went off shore to chase current, 'cos the wind situation is not working out too well.' Most of the crews are taking advantage of the sunshine to work on their tans and dry their wet weather gear.

Tony Fowler will be happy that he is leading the pack in Ocean Skins but just may regret that he is not on the opposite coast as those weather conditions would suit him very nicely. He is heading towards Bicheno about 5 nms ahead of Ray Shaw on XLR8 with another 5nms to Phil Simpfendorfer on Veloce.

This type of race tends to favour the smaller boats in the fleet and certainly the handicap predictor has Phil Bedlington on Under Capricorn and Tom Fowler on the little 31 footer Godzilla both looking strong on handicap.

Across on the west the breezes are more consistent and the fleet will want to take advantage before a predicted drop out tonight. Reporting 10 -15 knot west south westerlies that are more solid than on the east.

Peter Cox continues to lead the pack in the Mummery 45, Icefire with a gap of just 6nms from Jazz Player. Andrew Lawrence is playing the weather perfectly at the moment to put this Bakewell-White Z39 approximately 6nms ahead of Spirit of Downunder and Tevake II.

Icefire is also looking good in the handicap stakes with about an hour between Jazz Player and Audacious on corrected time.

Whilst there is currently a Gale Wind warning for the South West Cape, this weather is expected to have moved before the fleet enter that section. It could leave them with a confused seaway to deal with as they round the bottom corner.

ORCV race control are not expecting a finish before tomorrow.