Melbourne to Hobart - Audacious onboard report and race update

by John Curnow/Jennifer McGuigan on 30 Dec 2009
Heemskirk Consolidated Melbourne to Hobart West Coaster. The report below is straight from Greg Clinnick onboard 'Audacious'.

Ocean racing has got to be the most frustrating sport known to man. You can do all the preparation, accumulate all the skill and strategic information, but in the end you are in the hands of Huey the wind god.

Last night, the wind god felt like being a bit unfriendly and gave us a rounding of the South West Cape I would rather forget. As the moon set, we were faced with 10 to 23 knots of breeze, a wind that faded and spiked depending on how close to land you were, a swell from the west with waves from the south east and a wind direction that couldn't be worse for where we were going. So it was reef in reef out, change headsail, change it back, wet, boat standing up right then heeling over hard. Nicky at one stage flew across the cabin and would no doubt have hurt herself if she hadn't hurt Kevin instead. Mike reckons the wind coming out of Crusty sounded like a hurricane as Nick's shoulder went into his stomach.

Then once we finally got around the bottom of Tassie, Huey turned the wind off and left us drifting for the next 8 hours, going nowhere fast. Johnny has a flight booked for home at 10am on the 31st of December and at this stage he is unlikely to make it.

A weak sea breeze has kicked in and we are underway again. It's only light and its not in a good direction, but we are learning that Huey isn't being nice, so what can you do? We are doing the only thing we can and sailing on as hard and as fast as we can. There is a chance the lead boats will get parked up in the notorious Derwent and we may be able to catch up some of the ground we have lost.

So its back to the grind. After 72.5 hours of racing we are all getting a bit weary (understatement). The spectacular scenery and wildlife do offset some of the frustration. We have just watched a large pod of dolphins corral a school of fish for their dinner. Quite special.

Greg Clinnick

Latest Update:

Meanwhile Tony Fowler skipper of Ocean Skins has taken Line Honours in the East Coast version of the Melbourne to Hobart race. He and his crew have showered eaten and are happily partaking of Hobart’s outstanding hospitality.

Andrew Lawrence skippering Jazz Player can only wish for this and continue to endure in the frustratingly light and variable conditions as he leads the west coast fleet home. At the time of this report he is at North Bruny and agonisingly close to the mouth of the Derwent. Lawrence has managed to, at last, put a gap between himself and the second placed boat Icefire with a gap of approximately seven nautical miles.

Another ten miles back Tevake II and Spirit of Downunder are still tussling as they reported positions next to each other. Lawrence does at this time look to be well positioned to take both the Line and major handicap honours.

As we approach the evening the concern is that the Derwent River will ‘close down’ as it is want to do at this time of the year.

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