6:48 AM Fri 26 Jun 2009 GMT
Sailing around Australia is one of those things every sailor wants to do during their life. Australia is the largest island continent to sail around. Surprisingly, it's only a small band of yachtsmen and yachtswomen that have done it.
The last fleet race around Australia took place 21 years ago as part of the bicentennial celebrations. Why not a regular race or rally around Australia since?
 | Map of Australia - 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally for Cruisers |
Western Australian company Ocean Events is on a mission to do something about this. Welcome to the 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally.
Ocean Events is promoting the event with a team of Australian yachting people including Denis Thompson Australia's most experienced yacht race manager, and the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria and other yacht clubs and prominent yacht owners contributing to the event logistics.
Bob Williams, Director of Ocean Events- 'Sailing around Australia is one of the world's great adventures. Why is there not a regular race or rally? We think the tyranny of distance. A conventional approach is to set one major port as the start and finish port. Wherever the location it will be too distant from home and discourage many potential participants. Large fleet numbers are necessary for viability'.
'We explored an event that provided for yachts to start and finish from several ports around Australia. To discover what other yachtsmen and yachtswomen thought of the idea we conducted a global on-line survey'.
'Five hundred and fifty (550) responses later Australian and overseas sailors resoundingly voted for a race or rally around Australia allowing starting and finishing at their home port with stop over ports in between. We happily designed an event giving yachting people what they want.'
The race event incorporates 10 stop-over ports around Australia. Distance overall is around 7500 nautical miles with distance between ports ranging from 350 nautical miles to 1400 nm. Australian participants choose one of the 10 ports that suit them as their start and finish port. Overseas participants are welcomed and can choose a port that suits them best. Yachts starting from Fremantle start first
The race event timing aligns with the iconic Audi Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week, and the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week allowing participation in these very popular events. During a 10 day stopover in Fremantle, a Fremantle Race Week regatta will be held.
 | Optimum Months to Cruise the Australian Coastline - 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally for Cruisers |
Ocean Events will appoint 'Leg Captains' selected from sailors with extensive local knowledge that will be involved in pre leg briefings for both the racing and rally fleets. More information in the race event detail at the botom of this newsletter.
The cruising fleet is likely to be bigger again and will visit many more places. Yachts cruising in the region are likely to defer a year and sail around Australia. But there are stringent safety requirements. More information in the rally event detail at the bottom of this newsletter.
But it's not only Williams and his team that are enthusiastic about the event. Some of Australia's leading yachtsman and yachtswomen have this to say -
Matt Allen Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the organising Club for the Sydney to Hobart race and owner of Ichi Ban, the modified Volvo 70 which raced in the last Volvo Round the World Race.
 | Skandia - 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally for Cruisers Andrea Francolini© |
'This event ticks all the boxes. Sure yachts will have different weather systems, the early starters from Western Australia, versus the Sydney starters, but you know in the Sydney to Hobart race, people are sailing in different weather systems depending if they are in the front of the fleet or the back and the time they arrive in the Derwent, it just makes it all the more challenging. I want to be in the 2011 fleet '
Grant Wharington, owner skipper of the supermaxi Skandia. 'We are up for it!! It will be a glamour. The fact that it fits in with Sydney to Southport and Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island Race Weeks is really great.
'We thought about doing it on our own non stop, but being able to stop and have some time to look around, play tourist and have crew fly in for legs is really good.
'Sailing around Australia is one of those things every sailor wants to do before they die and the reality it's only going to happen in an organised Round Australia event.'
 | Quantum Racing - 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally for Cruisers Andrea Francolini© |
Ray Roberts, Quantum Racing, one of the leading yacht campaigners in the Asia Pacific. 'A superb concept. I've sailed all around Asia and the Australian east coast, but to sail around all of Australia has always been a dream. One of the things I've always wanted to do in my life. 'We will have lots of sailors wanting to put their hand up to do legs of this race. I will be on the 2011 start-line in Sydney and I believe sailors from around the world will be joining us.'
This afternoon Bob Williams was smiling broadly. He commented 'We are very pleased with the speed in which Event Slot Reservations are coming in for both the Race and Rally - about neck and neck in event preferences at this stage.
'We've hit 30 already, in just over 24 hours, that is a lot considering our limit of 100 participants for the Race and 200 participants for the Rally.
'It's very gratifying to see such interest in the event. It's plain that the event has such national and international appeal with Event Slot Reservations coming in from England, the USA, and New Zealand already.
'There are not many race or rally venues as attractive as sailing Around Australia. For many sailing around Australia is up there with sailing around Cape Horn only a bit easier and warmer.
'Having a plaque saying that you participated in '2011 Around Australia Race and Rally' mounted in your boat or elsewhere will be a nice thing to have.
'In 1988 there was a fleet race around Australia, the one and only so far, to commemorate Australia's bicentenary.
'That event was won by Sir Peter Blake on Steinlager One. Also in that event was Dr Gavin LeSuer and his partner now Mrs Catherine LeSuer sailing together on the 40 foot catamaran 'John West'.
'We are delighted to announce that Dr LeSuer has made his Slot Reservation for the 2011 Rally and after a 21 year gap waiting for the next event is going around again. Welcome Gavin.
'We now have the wonderful problem of managing a very major fleet race and rally around Australia. We intend it to be the best. Please keep the Slot Reservations coming.'
World Cruising circumnavigator Nancy Knudsen, has her finger on the pulse of the cruising community. She is the highly regarded editor of Sail-World Cruising, the world's largest online cruising publication.
'It was excellent to see the organisers of the event go to the cruising sailors themselves to ask what they wanted - this is unusual, and spells well for the success of the venture.
 | Buccaneer Archipelago Kimberly Region WA North West - 2011 Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally for Cruisers |
'I think that the whole project sounds thrilling. To organise a sailing journey round Australia is no easy task, and, with the remoteness of some of the stretches, a rally is just the thing to make the adventure more enjoyable but less daunting.
'I can't think of anything better than sailing inside the Barrier Reef to the Tip, then across the Top End and to the staggeringly beautiful areas of the North West Coast.
'Cruisers will experience every kind of conditions, from sailing in the tropics to the temperate zones, and the wide spread of Australian culture, from dozens of true-blue Ozzie coastal towns to the glitz of every single capital city except Canberra.
'Then it will be the local sailing and navigating knowledge brought together by the organisers that will ensure that the rally becomes an adventure of a life time for the lucky participants. I say, Go for it!'
And from Jon Sanders, who has sailed around the world a total of seven times solo, around Australia he's lost count, although he has racked up more than 40 crossings of the Great Australian Bight. 'I think many of the racing sailors will wish they'd joined the cruising rally fleet. There is just so much to see. 'What is my favourite place on the Australian coast? It would have to be King Sound near Derby in north Western Australia. I look forward to being in the 2011 rally fleet.
Ocean Events have posted a Provisional Notice of Race on the event web site www.sailaroundaustralia.com.auwith an Event Slot Reservation Formready to be completed.
More about the Race - the 2011 Race event is for monohull and multihull yachts (Category 1). The event format is designed to allow yachts from all around Australia, and overseas, to compete.
In a nutshell:
There are 10 start and finish ports including Fremantle, Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney, Gold Coast, in the Whitsunday's and on the far north coast of Queensland, Darwin, and Broome. Yachts choose the port they start/finish from. Yachts from Fremantle start first in July 2011 racing anticlockwise. Yachts from the next port start with the yachts that have arrived from the preceding port. Eventually all yachts will be racing together. Every yacht visits every port. Every yacht covers the same distance (+/- 7,500 nm). The event is completed by early November. Crew changes at stop-over ports are permissible.
The Race event timing coincides with the Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, Airlie Beach Race Week, and Hamilton Island Race Week. Our draft event plan allows for alignment with the timing of these events so that participants in our event may take in these very popular events following a stop-over in Sydney and during a stop-over in Queensland. We have included a 'Fremantle Race Week' regatta to take place during the 10 day Fremantle stop-over.
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The IRC handicap winner will not be known until the shortest elapsed circumnavigation times are decided. See below or more detail and visit our Provisional NOR and Event Slot Reservation Form.
Race event rules fine tuning is by collaboration with entrants and in consultation with Australia's most experienced long distance racing sailors, meteorologists, events consultants, advertising and media people, and associated yachting organisations. The final choice of stop-over ports and venues involves collaboration with State and private providers in each State of Australia to confirm facilities, access draft and other important features. Stop-over ports will be confirmed as formalities are signed off.
There will be a strong commitment from the event to ensure it delivers maximum media coverage and in maximising media opportunities for all the yachts. This is vital in ensuring yacht sponsors receive the best value possible.
The first step is to be part of creating a regular race around Australia is by reserving your slot in the 2011 event. Enter now and help us determine the numbers wishing to compete.
The Provisional NOR sets out the key features of the event. As we receive completed Event Slot Reservation Formsthe collaboration process begins.
More Race event features:
. Yachts choose their start/finish 'home' port (10 ports to choose from).
. The event starts in July 2011. The course is counter clockwise 'Australia to port' and around 7,500 nm.
. Fremantle yachts start first .Each yacht determines its start time within a given window.
. As yachts reach a stop-over port they are joined by yachts starting from that port. There will be a minimum stop-over period.
. The fleet builds progressively. Yachts from WA, SA, Victoria, Tasmania, NSW, and Queensland arrive at a port on the north coast of Queensland. As a fleet they sail over the top and stop-over in Darwin. Yachts from Darwin join at this point. Asian yachts may choose to start on the Queensland Coast or in Darwin. New Zealand boats in Sydney or Brisbane.
. From Darwin the fleet makes west to stop-over in ports along the coast of Western Australia.
. Immediately the west coast yachts are home they have completed their circumnavigation establishing the benchmark cumulative elapsed time (or points) for the rest of the fleet to beat.
. As each yacht in the fleet enters its 'home' port and crosses the finish line in that port they complete the event. Ports to port elapsed times are recorded for each yacht. The yacht with the least cumulative elapsed time/points, home port to home port, wins.
. Crew changes are permissible.
. Participants from outside of Australia can choose a 'home' port of convenience.
. The race event will run separately to the rally event. Separate rules will apply.
. Divisions for yacht classes and sizes will evolve as participant response is analysed and by consultation with owners.
. A race 'Leg Captain' will be appointed for each leg selected from sailors with extensive knowledge of that leg.
. The duration of the race will be +/- 50 days in port, +/- 40 days at sea.
Full information on the Rally is on the event site.
Bob Williams
Director
Ocean Events Pty Ltd
+61 413 057 559
Skype: robertw6651
info@aroundaustralia.com.au
www.aroundaustralia.com.au
by Event Media
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