And the Marlay Point Over Night Race is almost upon us again...

For those of you who are new around here, the Marlay Point Over Night Yacht Race - MPONR, is an absurd concept involving setting sail from the Lake Wellington Yacht Club...clicky here for map...at somewhere between beer o'clock and dinner time and racing through the night, arriving at Paynesville any time between the early hours of the morning and midday, depending upon your boat and the wind...


I did the race last year on a mate's boat and i'm lining up on the same boat again this year. Hopefully, one day i'll get my act together and get my boat down there...


Here's my thoughts and recollections of last years race...

Write up number 1 from last year - written up on the Sunday night, after racing all night and on 1 hours sleep... 

Write up number 2 - written up a couple of days later, after consulting with my rested memory and my GPS...

If you really can't be bothered clicking the links and reading the stories...firstly, let me say i'm very disappointed in you...but don't worry, here's a quick version of events...


Pre-race briefing from RAAF weather expert...Melbourne is getting smashed by storms, we should be OK...hmmm..that sounds ominous...
Set sail from yacht club just before start time and starts to absolutely piss down and blow about 20-25??? knots...Start delayed...
Almost start time...wind dies to not a friggin zephyr!!
Drift aimlessly in the direction we should be heading...
Find entrance to channel...BOTH SIDES!!!
Drift along channel...
Hooray wind...well, not so much...wind blows directly on our nose in 50 m wide channel for 15 minutes...fairly intense tacking session at 4am...
Finally exit the channel at 6am, just as the wind picks up to about 8-10kts...fairly good sailing for the next three hours...
Then...WIND STOPS...again...!!!
Drift aimlessly for another couple of hours...skipper finally decides to pull the pin as we appear to be getting further from the finish...
Oh, and i forgot to mention that massive electrical storms were surrounding us all night...but on the upside, we could generally always see...


Writing that now, it doesn't really seem that much fun. Each year, most sailors, say that they'll never do it again...well...until next year that is!!


Let's see what this year throws up...




Happy Sailing...