Phoenix49 rises but How Bizarre wins the 2026 Melbourne to King Island Ocean Yacht Race
by ORCV Media 8 Mar 05:48 GMT
The crew of How Bizarre celebrating the best prize of all King Island crayfish - 2026 Melbourne to King Island Ocean Yacht Race © Rachel McGuigan
How Bizarre has roared up the charts to win the 2026 Ocean Racing Club of Victoria's (ORCV) Melbourne to King Island Yacht Race with the lightweight racer/cruiser dominating the podium in this year's race.
How Bizarre, a Seaquest RP36 skippered by Scott Robinson from the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, had a brilliant race, winning overall on AMS and ORC handicaps, and placing second to Cadibarra on PHS.
Phoenix49, the Marten 49 co-skippered by Jennifer and Brenton Carnell from the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, has continued their meteoric rise in sailing, with a satisfying win on line honours.
How Bizarre is no stranger to winning, with the boat taking home the silverware in the 2024 Melbourne to Devonport Rudder Cup, proving that a quick boat designed to take advantage of light-air, along with a light crew weight, is up for the challenge of ocean racing.
Reflecting on the race after the prize-giving presentation, Robinson was in awe of his boat and the crew.
"How good are they?
"Everyone was fantastic.
"Sometimes I think that races where there is no wind are actually harder than races with wind because they require so much concentration on positioning, they can be quite draining... but then the wind kicks in, you get a bit of a belting, and before you know it you are on King Island, and then you understand the real reason for sailing in this race," said Robinson.
ORCV KISS program graduate, Rachel McGuigan, was onboard How Bizarre and was thrilled to further develop her offshore skills in this year's race, with some pundits wondering whether she was the key to the win.
"This is the third time I have been on the podium, but it feels absolutely fantastic to have won today, and the sailors on How Bizarre are phenomenal.
"While I wasn't a novice doing the KISS program, I know I needed to get all the knowledge I could to prepare for offshore racing, and that's what you have with the KISS program, everything you need to know is put together neatly in a nutshell," said McGuigan.
Joining Robinson and McGuigan onboard How Bizarre were Peter Amarant, Glenn Bailey and John Rea.
In what was a race of contrasts, the 22-strong fleet started the race in a 13-knot southerly breeze as they geared up for the 114 nautical mile race across the western end of Bass Strait to King Island.
Phoenix49 and race newcomer Belle, the IY60 skippered by Richard Taylor and Kylie Balharrie from Sandringham Yacht Club, were in a tight battle for line honours from the get-go, with little separating them as they rounded the ORCV 1 virtual mark.
Phoenix49 pulled away from Belle as they passed the ORCV 2 mark, but it was Cadibarra, a Sydney 41 skippered by ORCV Vice Commodore, Paul Roberts, that became the big threat for line honours with the crew placing their faith in the routing software and going west of the rhumbline, while the rest of the fleet searched for wind to the east.
Taylor was thrilled with his team's performance onboard Belle and was brimming with excitement about his first Category 2 ocean race in the boat.
"It was fun and our first proper ocean race, we were quite happy with that.
"Last night until midnight we had such glamour conditions, it was so flat, we had good wind, we were fast, then the moon came up, and you could see the huge swells like mountains rolling through.
"I was expecting that Phoenix would pull away from us if we got really quiet conditions, they are a much lighter boat," said Taylor.
A forecast light patch during the night brought the fleet to a standstill, forcing the boats to search for any wind advantage they could, but ultimately, the fleet bunched up and the expectation that this would become a small boat race became a reality.
After hours becalmed, a southerly breeze strengthened in the middle of the day, literally putting wind in the sails of the fleet and buoying some flagging spirits and the race for line honours intensified with only one nautical mile separating the leaders.
While Cadibarra made some serious gains from their more westerly track, the weather and then fortunes changed as the leaders sailed down the east coast of King Island.
Phoenix49 and The Jackal were well-positioned to take advantage of the freshening south easterly breeze and the extra couple of knots proved enough to see them finish in first and second respectively while Cadibarra finished in third place across the line, just 12 minutes behind The Jackal.
For Phoenix49, the line honours win exemplifies the mythological symbolism of their namesake, with inner strength and determination and hope driving the skippers and their crew on towards a resounding line honours win in their first offshore race as the new owners of the boat (previously Carrera S owned by Gerry Cantwell).
Jennifer Carnell was exhausted but excited to be the first boat into Grassy Harbour and to soak up the warm welcome and hospitality of the dedicated volunteers of the King Island Boat Club, with the crew of Ben Ramage, Bob Nelson, Dustin Popp, Mick Doherty, Patrick De Koster, Peter Halloran, Simon Gunner and Tony McKenzie keen to get their hands on the island's legendary steak sandwiches.
"We can't believe we won line honours, it's just awesome in the first ocean race on our boat.
"It was a long race, slow overnight, we had no wind at all and were just flopping about out there, it was quite painful over the night and during the day with no wind at all.
"We still maintained some momentum and the breeze picked up and then off we went and kept in the lead all the way.
"We weren't confident at all that we would win on line honours or beat Cadibarra.
"It was basically who got the wind first, and who picked the breeze," said Jennifer Carnell.
Brenton Carnell was surprised to be in such a close contest with Cadibarra for line honours.
"We didn't even know they [Cadibarra] were there; they took the inside lane and we were covering and trying to protect the east, it was a bit of a coin toss as to which way we went but we were lucky to have made the right call," said Brenton.
Phoenix49 won on line honours with an elapsed time of 1 day, 6 minutes and 27 seconds, just under one hour ahead of The Jackal, the Ker 11.3 skippered by Matt Setton from the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron.
Godzilla, the Hick 31 skippered by Joel Matthews from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, is new to Category 2 racing, and what a race for the newcomers, finishing in second place on AMS and ORC handicaps.
The team on Godzilla are keen racers, sailing all year round, including both the summer and winter series run on Port Phillip Bay with the boat's motto, "If the going gets tough, Go Sailing"!
Overnight and this morning, the King Island Boat Club was absolutely humming with sailors sharing stories, laughs and building that special camaraderie that only comes from finishing an ocean yacht race.
This year's race saw new boats, new sailors, and a growing younger group of offshore racers engage in a close and tactical battle across Bass Strait and down the coast of the ruggedly beautiful and remote King Island.
But the Melbourne to King Island is more than a race, it is a testing ground for sailors new to ocean racing, and it is an opportunity to build friendships within the fleet and with the community of King Island, and visit one of the most beautiful islands of Australia.
Overall Results: (top three)
AMS
1st Overall Winner, How Bizarre (S13) skippered by Scott Robinson
2nd Godzilla (R111) skippered by Joel Matthews
3rd Voodoo Child (G6222) skippered by Jason Farnell
ORC
1st How Bizarre
2nd Godzilla
3rd Cadibarra (SM615) skippered by Paul Roberts
PHS
1st Cadibarra
2nd How Bizarre
3rd Faster Forward (R6155) skippered by Matt Fahey
1st Double Handed - Foggy Dew (SM1808) skippered by Robert Darcy & Janet Wilks
Line Honours Phoenix 49 (AUS49005) Skippered by Brenton and Jennifer Carnell
Full results available here.