Osaka race is on again as cyclone fury eases

YACHTS competing in the Melbourne to Osaka ocean race that were forced to shelter in Queensland ports from Cyclone Iris early this week have restarted their 5500-nautical mile voyage to Japan.

They headed out to sea from Southport, Brisbane, Bundaberg and Gladstone for a designated restart from their suspended racing latitude, irrespective of longitude.

The Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s race director Simon Dryden announced the restart plans “after careful review of the weather situation, and the conditions relating to safe exit from refuges”.

The club issued a safety warning and exclusion zone for the fleet early this week as the reformed cyclone bore down on the Queensland coast.

As the fleet set sail again yesterday morning, the little Tasmanian yacht Morning Star continued to extend her commanding lead over the 19boat fleet northwards in the Pacific Ocean. Sailed by Jo Breen and Peter Brooks from Launceston’s Tamar Yacht Club, the 34-foot Morning Star was one of three yachts cleared by the ORCV as outside the cyclone’s “critical area” and able to continue racing.

Morning Star, the oldest and smallest boat in the fleet, was first away from Melbourne’s Port Phillip Bay on March 15 and is now north of Bougainville, almost 2400 nautical miles from the finish.

Powering northwards and taking advantage of fresh to strong winds on the edge of the now tropical storm, the biggest and fastest yacht in the fleet, Sydney to Hobart racer Chinese Whisper is now in hot pursuit of the 34-foot Morning Mist.

Chinese Whisper is almost twice as big at 62-feet LOA and is the latest concept in ocean racing design.

Her crew of Sydney yachtsmen Rupert Henry and Greg O’Shea reported hitting 17 knots yesterday as she sailed to fifth place in the fleet after being last to start, last Sunday.

The second Tasmanian yacht in the race, Force Eleven, sailed by Tristan Gourlay and Jamie Cooper, also from the Tamar Yacht Club, sought shelter in Southport on the eve of the start of Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

Relaxing after a rough and wet “four hundred miles on the nose’’ sail up the New South Wales Coast, the two Tasmanians agreed that the ORCV had made the right decision in advising yachts to head for port as Cyclone Iris powered down the Queensland coast.