Melbourne to King Island (M2KI) - Keeping up with the Jones'

9:48 AM Tue 3 Feb 2009 GMT

'The last of the Cadibarras - Jones42 record holder M2KI - Melbourne to King Island (M2KI)' John Curnow

In 2002 the Jones' set the race record of ten hours, eight minutes and four seconds in 'Cadibarra' (VIII) for this 114nm dash. Owner/Skipper and Father Don ('Skandia Wild Thing' designer), son Nigel (Helmsman) and crew that comprised of John the Painter Petkovsek, Rob Banks, Michael Kelly (former RGYC Commodore), Barry Pollock, James 'Cyclone' Bacon, Greg Patten, Bill Sloley, the hilarious Matt Burton and the ORCV's Simon 'Slim' Dryden flew across, two-sail reaching all the way for their 11.2 knot average!

Nigel recalls that the sail itself, 'Started off as a close reach with around 20kt from ESE, with the wind slowly backing around more easterly as the race continued. We followed the course determined by our weather router, which said to go 10 - 15? below the rhumbline, heading for Cape Wickham at the top of King Island. This allowed for us to be lifted up onto course as the race continued. The rest of the fleet, went on or higher than rhumbline. As we approached K.I, the wind did as predicted by the computer and we were lifted up to course and we skirted down the K.I coast inside Councillor Island with a favourable tide. We set a gennaker for the last couple of miles to the finish, which we did a great job wrapping around the forestay after we finished delaying our arrival into Grassy harbour!' So just remind yourself that all of us are human after all.

Interestingly, yet another Jones, the old 'Cadibarra VII', now renamed 'Kontrol' by her new owner, Peter Blake, and with an additional 3 foot false bow added by Mal Hart, was just 6 minutes behind. Peter and his son Simon took this boat on the 2003 Melbourne to Osaka race. Another Father and Son team, Jock and Hamish MacAdie won the same event in 2007 in the very same boat, now called 'Isuzu Marine Team Alex', by the way.

So King Island is famous for beef and dairy. I've always wondered just how many cows live there though. I mean it is not as if it is the size of Victoria after all and there is one heck of a lot of beef and cheese that originates from there. Anyway, all of it's yummy and the steak sandwiches at the King Island Boat Club are reputedly worth making the crossing for alone! Even full-bore vegos have been known to make the weekend conversion for these.

The ORCV has moved this race from June to a much warmer March timeframe and the super-hospitable KIBC will have fresh steak sandwiches, sausages and cold beer ready for you no matter what time you arrive. Keep an eager eye out for the hot soup too. Line up quickly - there's every chance it will be laden with abalone!

The KIBC - look out for that soup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Melbourne to King Island (M2KI) - John Curnow

A lot of people would just prefer if you flew the food over to the mainland, like the legendary crays that land at Tooradin, but that would be missing the point. For sure, this race is a drag race, but it is also has a sub-plot of intrigue, skill and no doubt luck. How you reach Grassy Harbour can dictate where you finish in the fleet! Like all of Bass Strait, there are significant tidal and wind issues to look out for, only in this case they can be more profound than other areas of 'The Paddock'.

We saw earlier that tactics played a crucial role in how Cadibarra got the record. You will also need to look at prevailing wind of the day, the West to East current of Bass Strait, which is made all the more difficult by strong Sou-westerlies and finally the North/South current that runs up and down K.I itself. A quick refresher of these is available inside the current ORCV yearbook and is well worth the investigation, I assure you. Also, as you approach K.I, it provides some land effects, which are reinforced by the Northern Tasmanian landmass. This will affect both speed and direction of K.I's wind as opposed to that which you may have begun in, back over at Queenscliff. This is what Cadibarra banked on and what helped them come back up onto course so far. In strong wind conditions, the hilly nature of K.I will provide plenty of lulls and gusts for those who have ventured in close to shore, but the advantage of this inshore manoeuvre is that you are out of the swell.

Some navigators come all the way West past Lorne before making the dash over and in a full Southerly this can be a blessing.

Provided you miss Frog Rock just outside the entrance, Grassy Harbour is a safe anchorage, which you may well need given King Island's location - bang smack in the middle of dear old Bass Strait. This very location has made K.I completely infamous in its own right. Back in the square-rigger days, many a ship plundered into her Western coast having mistaken the new Cape Wickham light for that of Cape Otway, 60nm away to the North on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. At the time, this passage was known as 'the eye of the needle'. Regrettably, it seems the news of the new light took an awfully long time to get back to dear old Mother England and it is a real shame that having made it all the way from Southampton via Cape Town, you ended up hitting the bricks here. The more fortunate ones made it around the bottom of K.I and the truly unfortunate slammed into the aptly named Cape Grim on Tasmania - so much for dead reckoning (also very aptly named indeed) - Ouch! That really hurt.

Cape Wickham - I see the light and I feel for those in pre-GPS days - Melbourne to King Island (M2KI) - John Curnow

Importantly and thankfully, K.I does not rely entirely on cows or sailors for its living, even after the 1988 race, where 'Yoko' and 'Bacardi' were the only finishers and drank more than the crews from the 12 boats who finished the year before! It also has a thriving Kelp drying industry, which for the train-spotters amongst us is the base ingredient in pharmaceutical pill casings.

Tip #573 - As a general rule on K.I and no matter how little blood is in your alcohol system, if the locals are outside, then you can be too. If they move inside, follow quickly - you're about to get dumped on. Big time!

Last year's Line Honours winner, the Farr53 'Georgia', will be sadly missed this year, as she now resides permanently in that other Jones' Locker. Rumour has it though, that G.A and Willow may well be out in something else.

M2G applications close 12noon, Wednesday February 18, 2009. So get onto it, as the race is on March 7.