Ocean Race start time 0130

by Rob Kothe on 5 Nov 2007 Almost anywhere in the world, if you read that an Ocean race start time was 0130, you’d laugh and figure the dumb race organizers meant 1130 or 1330.

However that is not the case in Melbourne Australia. Last Saturday morning at 0130, when all sensible sailors are either still at the bar drinking rum and boasting of race tales tall and true, or tucked up in bed, the 45 ocean racers in the Melbourne to Stanley race crossed the startline.

The annual race, 156 nautical mile race south across Bass Strait starts off Queenscliff near the Bay exit.

While the 0130 start time for non-Melbourne sailors is a shock to the system, the reason is pretty simple.

Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay has large tidal flows which mean that sailing through the notorious ‘Rip’ out into Bass Strait can be a problem. Lives have been lost, dating back into the 1840’s as sailing vessels negotiated the racing tide in windy conditions.

The Ocean Racing Club of Victoria, the major offshore racing club in Victoria, recognises the importance of sailors approaching the 'Rip' with caution. They conduct 'Rip Tours', not quite a tourism ‘famil’ but along the same lines, to make sure potential offshore sailors understand the dangers of the 'Rip' and how it can be safely crossed.

Race Director Guy Dwyer explains, ‘Slack tide is safest, there is around a two hour window, but by starting our race 30 minutes before slack tide we provide the best and safest conditions for our fleet... hence the 0130 start this year.

As most of the fleet sails down from Melbourne 30 miles to the north after work finishes on Friday it’s not such a crazy start time really. We are used to it.’
We actually have a start time window, based on the tidal conditions and shipping traffic, we don’t want our fleet arriving at the Rip at the same time as a container vessel.

The Stanley Race is a qualifier for the Rolex Sydney to Hobart race as well as the Heemskirk Melbourne to Hobart, which this year will sail down the East Coast of Tasmania after passing through the finish line of the Melbourne to Launceston race off Low Head as part of the Centenary Rudder Cup.

On Saturday morning the fleet set off in 10 knot breezes, hardly the conditions that might threaten the race record, however as the day progressed a frontal system hit the fleet and mid evening southerly winds of 35-45 knots blasted the fleet.

There had been an early retirement soon after the start, apparently due to gear problems, the newest Chutzpah,a Reichel-Pugh 40, owned by veteran Melbourne yachtsman Bruce Taylor.

Grant Wharington’s 30 metre (98 footer) super maxi Skandia finished in 17 hours and 28 minutes, nearly three hours outside the 2002 record for the race.

The Farr 53 Georgia, a new purchase for Sandringham Yacht Club members John Williams and Graeme Ainley, who had campaigned Bacardi for 20+ years, was the only other boat to finish before Saturday midnight.

Third to finish, in the early hours of Sunday, was Cougar II, Alan Whiteley’s TP52.

As the storm front in Bass Strait battered the fleet five yachts retired and several took shelter at Grassy, King Island.

The IRC handicap winner was Paul Buchholz’s DK46 eXtasea from Royal Geelong Yacht Club. eXtasea won from Skandia and Georgia.

David Stephenson’s’ Matangi, the sole Tasmanian yacht in the Stanley race, won the PHD division on corrected time from Slice of Heaven, Anthony Weeks’ Sayer 44 from Royal Brighton Yacht Club and eXtasea.

eXtasea won under AMS handicap from Alien, a Lidgard 36 skippered by Mark Welsh from Sandringham Yacht Club. Third place went to the smallest boat in the fleet, Godzilla, Tom Fowler’s Hick 31 from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria.

Dockside Buckholtz commented ‘Bass Strait lives up to her reputation, good practice ahead of the southern races at Christmas.’

eXtasea and most other boats in the fleet are expected to compete in the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s Centenary Rudder Cup which is open to yachts in both the Melbourne to Hobart and Melbourne to Launceston Races which start from Port Phillip on 27 December.

The Melbourne to Hobart race is called the 'West Coaster' because that has always been its routing south to Hobart. However this year for the first time ever, it will sail down the East Coast of Tasmania after passing through a gate at the finish line of the Melbourne to Launceston race off Low Head at the mouth of the River Tamar.

The Melbourne Hobart bound fleet will then head south round Tasman Island across Storm Bay and up the river to Hobart, at the same time as the Sydney to Hobart fleet.