Melbourne Latitude Series – A great day for a yachting Escapade

by John Curnow on 20 Nov 2010 Escapade has won the Bass Strait component of the 2010 Melbourne Latitude Series.

This crew are very good at celebrating their wins in a high-spirited fashion, but ultimately, that may mean their performance will be a little down for the Pursuit Race component of the series which begins on Sunday morning.... We'll have to wait and see.

Eleven boats carrying 79 competitors got away at 0730hrs from 2nm inside Port Phillip Heads. The series is designed to allow novice skippers to gain experience in charge and also blood-in new crew. A number of racing vessels have also used the Melbourne Latitude Series to work on crew skills and check new sails and configurations.

Traditionally, the fleet goes out on slack water going to ebb, but this year the time frames just would not work out, so the incoming flood tide was always going to be a feature of the equation. Thankfully, dead flat seas prevailed and despite dire predictions of no wind, the got away very well into a genuine 5kn from the East'sou'east under a beaming blue sky. That certainly sounds like a marvelous day to be out there enjoying a small yachting escapade.

Originally the fleet was destined to go to turning latitude set #3, which had the fastest boat looking like doing around 27nm in total for the journey out and back. However, the 0835 sked revealed to the race management team sitting in the van, high aloft on Arthurs Seat on the Mornington Peninsula, just how far the fleet had progressed. So much so that Race Director, Neville Rose, immediately revised this to set #6, which would see the smallest boat, an S&S30 named Deliverance do 24nm and the largest boat out there, Gusto, do 46nm.

This was very prudent, for there was a significant amount of shipping traffic at about 1030hrs, for an hour, so having the yachts far away from them as they gathered near the Heads was a sensational idea. With the breeze staying in most of the time and coming from the Eastern quadrant, there was not much requirement for tacks and gybes and the more open sailing angles meant they made the best possible times in the very mild conditions.
Gusto certainly led early, but just five nautical miles separated the fleet as the headed South. Ninety Seven, Chikara Outlaw and Beyond Outrageous all stayed at the top of the list as they aimed to turn first and head back North to Port Phillip Heads and thence on to the Portsea Pier finishing mark.

There were a few holes out in Bass Strait, but it managed to be from 3 to 8knots ENE early and filled in to a more usable 10-15knots from the Sou’east as the last boats got in. This was fantastic, for it was not going to be speedy going at the Heads by the time 4pm rolled along and a significant 3.8knot current was going to be barging out through The Rip.

Escapade turned first at 1032hrs, with Tilting at Windmills second to do so and both Ninety Seven and Beyond Outrageous held third place conjointly. Escapade won the Australian Measurement System Division in the recent Melbourne to Stanley race, so they had the taste of victory very much still in their mouth, which seemed to have kept them very motivated.

The bulk of the fleet had turned within the half hour to eleven o’clock for the drag race back in, but there were a few anxious moments for the race management team as the breeze went off for a short period whilst the prevailing conditions determined at what point the land would heat enough to offer a real seabreeze.

For Addiction, the waiting game appeared to have gone very badly, for in the morning they were within yelling distance of near sistership, Beyond Outrageous, but as midday approached they were languishing well to the rear.

Clearly, some differing strategies on dealing with the fickle conditions were coming in to play. By 1140hrs the last boat had turned. Reports back from Magazan 53 about the prevailing conditions simply stated, ‘Not a lot, at all!’ It was at this point that Neville Rose appeared to have a moment of buyers’ shock, like when you put the cash down after making your decision to buy a car or whatever. 'Hoping we didn't send them too far? Observations are currently all over the shop, but we still some breeze at Point Lonsdale, Cape Otway and South Channel, however.' What would have been playing on his mind was that 4knot maximum tidal stream in the middle of the afternoon. Thankfully, at about 1300hrs, there was around 10+knots from ESE and the fleet was doing well.

Ultimately, the first six boats were done inside 13 minutes of each other, which also meant Race Management got the turning latitudes pretty much bang on. It's also a pretty good effort after seven hours of racing in trying conditions. In second place was Tilting at Windmills, which Neville Rose really struggled all day to get correct and more often than not went with ‘Tinting of Windows...’

In third place was Déjà Vu, who are partaking in the very new Cruising Rally that is attached to this year's Melbourne to Launceston event.

The fleet’s finishing times are:
14:01:31 - Escapade
14:03:50 - Titling At Windmills
14:08:43 - Déjà Vu
14:09:49 - Chikara Outlaw
14:13:05 - Ninety Seven
14:14:34 - Beyond Outrageous
14:22:58 - Yoko
14:27:39 - Addiction
14:47:30 - Magazan 53
14:48:59 - Deliverance
15:29:29 - Gusto

At 1500hrs it was a good 10-15knot Sou'easter. What is interesting with these results is that Gusto may well have turned in eighth place, but has finished last, having also travelled the furthest - some 46.17nm. Also worth considering is that the finisher immediately in front of them is Deliverance, who as the smallest boat out there had the shortest distance to travel, which was 24.47nm. No doubt there’ll be a lot of bar stories to be had when they park for the night at our friends, the Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron.

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