2004 Melbourne to King Island Yacht Race
http://www.orcv.org.au/Events/Grassy/Grassy.php
Tuesday, 9th March, 2004.

The 0300 start on Saturday of the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria's
Melbourne to King Island Race saw 20 boats from all round the Port
Phillip Bay clubs cross the starting line under spinnaker in a light
east to south easterly. Coming out of the Heads, the wind increased
to around 16kts and most of the fleet headed west of the rhumb line
for the predicted SW change expected late in the morning.

The first sked (http://www.orcv.org.au/Events/Grassy...ace__sked1.jpg)
at sunrise saw the leaders 30nm out with the wind dying off
completely. The next few hours were frustrating for the fleet with
each yacht desperately chasing down the slightest breeze. This led to
the fleet being drawn off course to the west of the rhumb line, until
a rain band came in from the SE, carrying 15-25kts which left the lead
boats struggling to lay King Island on port tack.

Just after the second sked
(http://www.orcv.org.au/Events/Grassy...ace__sked2.jpg),
the lead boats made landfall west of Cape Wickham, at the northern tip
of King Island, site of the tallest lighthouse in the southern
hemisphere.

"We made a tactical error at this point", said Noel May, Helsal II's
navigator and the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria's Rear Commodore. "We
tacked about 10 miles out but we should have anticipated the timing of
the south westerly change and gone right in to Cape Wickham".

Cadibarra, the Don Jones-designed 42 footer skippered by Nigel Jones,
made the most of the 20-25 knot SW when it arrived and crossed the
finish line just before 9 pm on Saturday, almost 8 hours outside their
own record set 2 years ago, with the pocket maxi Helsal ll over an
hour and a half behind.

The 2135 sked (http://www.orcv.org.au/Events/Grassy...e__sked3 .jpg)
saw the remainder of the fleet tacking the 30 miles down the east
coast of King Island, heading for Grassy, King Island's deep water
container port. Lumpy seas with wind over current made the beat down
the coast hard on the crews with many boats having crew members
involuntarily jettisoning excess weight. Navigators were expecting a
forecast northerly to kick in but in never happened.

The fleet steadily trickled in during the night - the last boat to
cross the finish line was Magic, Phillip Spry-Bailey's S&S 39,
skippered for this race by Rob Eason, at 0945 for an elapsed time of
over 30 hours - an exercise in perseverance.

Boats arriving at Grassy were welcomed by the King Island Boat Club's
usual fantastic hospitality, with food, grog and hot showers, in no
particular order, throughout the night.

Bacardi (John Williams) followed up last year's clean sweep of Line
and Handicap Honours with a third across the line and wins in both AMS
and IRC Divisions, The Bookmaker (John Garner) from Royal Geelong
Yacht Club took out Performance Handicap Division.

Tevake, Angus Fletcher's modified Adams 11.9, was second in both AMS
and PHD and Cadibarra was second in IRC.

Notable newcomer was Elektra, Michael Hiatt's Beneteau 47.7 in her
first Bass Strait race, finishing close behind Bacardi and taking a
4th place in IRC Division.

The full set of results and the complete fleet list are available from
the ORCV's website at the following links:
ORCV's website - http://www.orcv.org.au/
Results - http://www.orcv.org.au/Events/Grassy...sults_2004.pdf
Fleet Guide - http://www.orcv.org.au/cgi-bin/Fleet...sland_2004.php

ENDS

For further information please contact Bob Tanner on +61 3 9689 1622,
email or visit our website at http://www.orcv.org.au.