ORCV's “Return to Racing Celebration” Race - A Magic Bullet for what was Paradise in Melbourne
by ORCV 1 Nov 2021 03:59 PDT
30 October 2021
And they're off and racing - Return to Racing Celebration Race © Dave Hewison
Melbourne turned on the perfect weather for the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria's (ORCV) "Return to Racing Celebration" race with Leo Cantwell's Cavalier 350 Sl, Magic Bullet taking 1st place on AMS, and the overall win.
A fleet of 21 yachts from six Port Phillip Bay clubs sailing in perfect conditions participated in the race.
I've been lucky enough to be out on my boat in the past few weeks but "I'm not great at just cruising, it's just not the same as racing, where there's a bit of a challenge" explained Cantwell. "We made some mistakes gybing the symmetrical and things didn't go so well so we lost some minutes sorting ourselves out." Cantwell finished off with "We're just so happy to get out in the fresh air and shake off the cobwebs".
It was the smallest boat in the fleet, Elan 310 Wild Child skippered by Marg Neeson who led the fleet across the start line in 10 knots of breeze from the West.
Through the first gate, Peter Davison's Archambault 40, Arcadia set a cracking pace and was the first to hoist a kite on the 2nd leg of a 20nm course in hot pursuit of the Damien King's Frers 61, MRV and Tony Walton's Reichel/Pugh 46, Hartbreaker.
With fifteen nautical miles sailed, the wind built and shifted to SW, creating the perfect conditions for the chase of Arcadia with Sal Balharrie's Sydney 38 No Man's Land and Chris Gendala's Elliot 15.50 Tourer, Stampede all finishing within twenty seconds of each other.
John Kint, skipper of the Adams Radford, Bundaberg who travelled from Royal Geelong Yacht Club to join the race said "with new sails and only an opportunity to train for the past month, I saw this race as my first chance in a competitive fleet to test and try the sails and crew. We need more practice but we thoroughly enjoyed the race" with Bundaberg claiming PHS 1st place.
"We'd normally see fleets of at least 40 plus boats join us" said ORCV Commodore Grant Dunoon and "many of our members taking today to test and train rather than race on the first day of allowed racing." Dunoon went on to say "For those who chose to race, it was smiles all around with sunshine and the perfect amount of wind."
With many crews now rushing to prepare for a season of Offshore Racing, Damien King skipper of MRV, added "it was great to have had an opportunity to test out a few of the new improvements we've added. We're not quite ready but I'm super lucky to have an outstanding crew of Olympians, National and World Champions on the crew and pleased to take 1st on ORCc, the first win since purchasing the boat recently."
Having suffered through another 112 days with lockdown six, we're back racing on what felt like "Paradise in Melbourne."
Results:
AMS 1st: Magic Bullet, 2nd Onyx, 3rd Arcadia
ORCc 1st: MRV, 2nd Foggy Dew 3rd 2Up
PHS 1st: Bundaberg 2nd Hartbreaker 3rd Magic Bullet
Line Honours: Hartbreaker
Full results here
Entries are open for the first ocean race of the season on November 27th West Offshore Products Coastal Sprint more here www.orcv.org.au.