7:19 AM Sun 18 Jan 2009 GMT
 | | 'Underway off Pt Lonsdale - C Terri Dodds - M2H East'
John Curnow
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It was certainly an interesting time for weather, yet again, during the running of the recent ORCV summer races. Wind magically appeared just before the start of both the Cock of the Bay and combined M2L/M2H off Portsea.
Lots of wind was certainly present for the start of the King of the Derwent, but just as magically as in Melbourne, it disappeared this time, leaving a lot of boats literally stranded on the course. I guess some would say this is better than the alternatives and having been involved in one of the two years where the Race Director did not start M2H until the 28th, I think it might just be so.
All East boats were slow across paddock and it became pretty clear that this was the West's year fairly early on. Some might even say on the 22nd, but it is so variable at this time of year you just never want to be too sure and too vocal. Naturally there are a lot of people claiming amazing foresight now, but hindsight is 20/20.
 | Winners are definitely grinners - awesome effort to get to start line let alone finish line - M2H East - John Curnow |
The M2H East fleet also then parked for the best part of a day down around Maria Island in typical Tasmanian East coast vagaries. 'Shamrock' got a break from some of its rivals early and in different weather conditions may well have taken the 'Who's first to Hobart' prize from the TP52 'Shortwave'. What a good result it is too for the boat that was written off and only just made it back in time for racing. As a reward, 'Shamrock' collected both IRC and PHS for the M2H East
Only just behind the leader, there was some very tight racing all the way with 'Helsal II', 'Ocean Skins' (who collected the PHS prize for the King of the Derwent) and 'Extasea', then 'Chikara Outlaw', 'Geomatic Joker' and 'Icefire' making up their own little sub-group. As 'Icefire' marched forward, 'Chikara Outlaw' and 'Geomatic Joker' slipped further back, however.
Interestingly, Grant Chipperfield in his new-to-him Lyons39, 'Geomatic Joker', won IRC for the Cock of Bay and more importantly, the Salamanca Series. This is a great effort from the former trailer-sailer owner/driver and crew. He also gets the Race Director's Sportsmanship Award for indicating that his AMS rating was too low for the ten-year-old boat.
Alien won AMS for the M2H East with her new owner from RVYC, Justin Brenan. The Series definitely had the 'Under Capricorn' stamp however, with the Borresen 12m taking AMS in the cock of the Bay and AMS and IRC for the King of the Derwent. Such consistent results saw them take AMS and PHS for the Salamanca Series.
 | Great all round effort... - ORCV - John Curnow |
'Pretty Woman' the Beneteau from Brighton in her first year of ocean racing won PHS for the Cock of the Bay and was the last competitor home for M2H East, vowing to come back again, which is great. It was also very pleasing to have Helsal II with her new owners over from SA for all of the racing too.
Who knows what there will be at the end of this year, but judging by the smiles, I think we can say at the very least there will be even more entrants and no doubt even more intrigue with the weather.
by John Curnow
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