Festival of Sails - Day 2

Morticia resurrects race to take line honours in Melbourne to Geelong

The featherweight trimaran Morticia fought above its weight to claim a surprise victory against much bigger and more powerful rivals in the Festival of Sails' Melbourne to Geelong passage race today, Friday 24th January, 2014.

Weighing in at just 900 kilos the pure carbon 30-foot racer was built by Formula 1 car manufacturers in Europe, and it performed like one once the southerly change revved-up the 230-strong fleet across the 34 nautical mile course.

Morticia's skipper Chris Williams said they were in fifth place with about 15 nautical miles to go when a sloppy 8 knot sou'easterly breeze finally clocked around to the south, building to near 20 knots.

The Sydneysiders clawed back competitors, including the then race leader Ichi Ban which is double the size at 60-feet, before sailing to a line honours victory off Royal Geelong Yacht Club in a time of 4 hours, 7 minutes and 54 seconds. The race record is 1 hour 40 minutes 17 seconds.

"We virtually doubled our speed, going from about 8 knots to 16 plus in a matter of minutes," Williams said. "We went up on one hull, reduced our drag and used our righting moment to just take off."

Fellow multihull Malice, skippered by Mal Richardson also edged ahead of Ichi Ban in the dying miles to finish second across the line, two minutes behind Morticia.

Ichi Ban crossed the line in third place and as the first monohull to reach Geelong skipper Matt Allen will pick up one of two Telstra line honours trophies, a decoration that will also be awarded to Morticia.

From the outset Allen predicted it would be a small boat race. And that's just how it played out.

"It was pretty slow, and at times frustrating," Allen said. "We did more sail changes in this race than we did the entire way in the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

"But once we got that 50 degree shift to the south it was much better, only by that time the light stuff had cost us too much and it was impossible to win [on handicap]."

Flying the flag for the locals was Victorian yacht Veloce skippered by Phil Simpfendorfer, whose Sandringham Yacht Club crew claimed the Lou Abrahams Trophy for the overall IRC win.

It was one of those rare moments when a wrong makes an oh so sweet right.

Simpfendorfer jumped the start and was recalled, but that only served to ignite the fire in his belly and drive the 44-foot yacht to victory.

"I'm a pretty competitive beast, so it fired me up more,'' Simpfendorfer said. "We just kept calm, went back over the line, popped the code zero, that's our get out of jail free card, and worked our way back."

Racing will resume on Geelong's Corio Bay tomorrow morning where more than three hundred yachts and 4,500 sailors will compete across 14 classes.

Local boat Beats Workin skippered by Denis Collins is expected to round out the fleet and cross the finish line before 1900 AEDT.

Natives hungry for the Melges 24 Australian title (by Lisa Ratcliff / Festival of Sails media)

Gill Melges 24 Australian Open Nationals day 2 - photo © Teri Dodds

Australia's Nathan Wilmot made a decent impression on the scorecard on day two of the 2014 Gill Melges 24 Australian Open National Championship on Geelong's Corio Bay.

The Olympic gold medallist and his crew of wife Shona, Chris Links and Heath Walters and his 15 year-old son Harley Walters, played the Ace card at the class' national title. They scored two bullets and a sixth, which has secured Wilmot's Melges – Asia Kaito second overall, 10 points off the leading boat, Star.

It was a better day for the natives with Wilmot and Australian Melges 24 class president, Warwick Rooklyn and Bandit, both now in the top five from a starting list of 23, including multiple world and national champions in various sailors.

"We got lucky up the first beat, got ahead and just tried to stay there," said Wilmot back at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club this afternoon. "The last race we had a few issues, with battens flying out of the jib."

On his prospects for next week's Gill Melges 24 World Championship Wilmot added, "We are hoping to get better than two worlds ago when we got second after blowing it on the last race. We wouldn't be here if we weren't trying to win."

Rooklyn was happy as a kid in a lolly shop in today's heavier air. "Heavy air suits me personally, and are we are coming together as a crew. The first time we raced together as a group was yesterday," he reminded.

On the level of competition he reckons, "We have the best guys in the world here. At the front it's really close, you make one mistake and you are spat out.

"Having the nationals at the Festival of Sails ahead of the worlds is terrific for us because we are a new team. We are seeing the potential and coming together as a group."

Harry Melges, the class' namesake and supremo so far, and his Star crew (USA) are showing their counterparts how it's done with consistent top three finishes. Today it was a third, second and a first, yesterday it was two firsts. Star leads with eight points.

Third on the pointscore at the half-way mark in the 10 race series is Flavio Favini's Blue Moon (SUI) on 22 points.

The Melges 24 fleet was delayed getting the green light from the class PRO Hank Stuart as the lunchtime breeze shuffled around the compass. The anticipated southerly change came in early afternoon and the race committee let the fleet go in 12 knots.

As the afternoon wore on the breeze built to 16 knots then higher, to an average 20 knots, and Corio Bay whipped up correspondingly.

With all crews packed aft on the windward rail the sports boats lit up downwind, Race Officer Greg Sinclair reporting "smokin' rides" and Rooklyn recording 18 knots of boat speed with the breeze behind.

A top mark for the Melges 24s adjacent to the channel where the 230-strong fleet was chewing through the closing miles of the Melbourne to Geelong passage race made for brilliant spectating.

Not far away the Sydney 38s had commenced their Morris Finance Australian Championship and next to them there was yahooing heard from the Maui Jim Sports Boat division, the crew of the lightweight bullets revelling in the stronger breezes.

Tomorrow the Melges 24s have another three races scheduled, starting at 1230hrs, and Sunday is D-Day.

Full results can be found here.