Long slog up the coast

An update from the two handed Melbourne-Osaka

Now five days into the 5,500nm doublehanded Melbourne Osaka race, the morning sked shows RYU-JIN – fgi (Qld) leading the race, positioned north of Newcastle, but Gusto (Vic) is on her tail, sailing closer to the coast, having taken a little dig in yesterday.

Patrick Giudice and Brian Pattinson’s big Open 60 has halved the distance between them and Bucknall/Sayer to 17 nautical miles since the sked at 4.00pm yesterday and should pull more miles out with the updated south-westerly having hit the fleet.

Meanwhile a very disappointed Ken Down and Shane Gaddes reported from Mooloolaba entry Wasabi: "All is okAY with us and we will be tying up at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron for a day or two while the boat is assessed. Basically we had to retire from the race because of a rudder bearing failure that resulted in the boat taking on water.

"The situation wasn't life threatening, however we could not stem the flow, so it was considered prudent that we retire. We are both obviously very disappointed particularly given that we were leading the race."

Cadi father and son duo John and David Netherton, also from Mooloolaba, have also retired from the race, telling Race Director Kevin Wilson that in light of the safety issue, following their fuel tank splitting and pouring 100 litres of diesel into the boat, they felt it wise to withdraw from the race. The two may call into Sydney before heading home.

Better news for Noosa Heads sailors Roger Sayers/Anthony Brown ( Pippin) which yesterday pulled into Eden: "Steering problem not a recurrence of Refuge Cove problem. New problem resolved and vessel now seaworthy. We left confines of Eden Harbour at 0800am this morning to continue racing. We note the gale predicted for the area and we will stay well inshore and attempt to reach Montague Island as soon as possible. All is well on board."

Tom Crabb/Trent Justice on the South Australian entry Southern Light reported to Kevin Wilson today they were suffering rudder gudgeon problems and sailing under headsail only to Bermagui to preserve the rudder. Once fixed, they will re-join the race.

All but Runaway, Ingenue, Esoterica and Wild Boar, sailing close to the coast, are on a more easterly course in the Tasman Sea.

Phil Coombs/Peter ‘Peewee’ Walsh are sailing Dekadence in a comfortable fourth place, on a course between RYU-JIN and Gusto. Coombs, a well known ocean racer, reported from the yacht on yesterday’s happenings.

Like the rest of the fleet, he is hoping for some downwind sailing: "A bit of a tough day out on the water today - plenty of wind and waves to contend with as a frontal system went over, not to mention all the rain that came with it.

"All of a sudden we were without an engine, but after a lot of examining, the issue was eventually resolved. Problem? A wire had come off a solenoid. End result was we lost approximately three hours today and are feeling somewhat buggered, and a little grumpy! Looking at the weather map, hopefully we’ll get some running conditions and a little relief to get some serious miles under the belt...."

Coombs and the rest have their wish, as Andrew McCole reported from Runaway at midday AEST: "Well... what a difference a few hours makes! Our long awaited change of wind direction arrived and for the last five hours we have been surfing waves along a solid moonbeam on the ocean.

"We are averaging 15 knots on some great waves. Spectacular stuff; it’s an excellent reminder at a poignant time about why we're out here. It's easy to lose sight of the big picture when it's all getting too hard...but then one good ride and all's well again!"

James Ryssenbeek reported at 2.30pm: "We are off Cronulla and sailing fast under spinnaker in gusty 17-24 knot south-westerlies. We’re just having a Toblerone and tossing up whether to have vegemite and cheese sandwiches or cheese and vegemite sandwiches later on." Like RYU-JIN and Gusto, Runaway only has the bare necessities, and that does not include a fridge.

Meanwhile, Asadori, co-skippered by Shinsuke Nishi/Kyojun Fujita, has lost her ‘last on line label’, now up in front of Esoterica and Wild Boar.

UPDATE - James Ryssenbeek reported they had a broken spinnaker pole fitting and would be calling into Sydney to make repairs, but would resume the race as quickly as they could. They were north of Cronulla when the incident occurred.

Weather from Roger Badham:
070329_1955Z
GALES
An area of gale force winds is expected across eastern Bass St and the SW Tasman Sea on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st.
FRI 30
W-SW/35-45 south of 37S and west of 153E
SAT 31
SW/25-35 south of 35S and west of 158E with conditions moderating from the west during the day
No other gales are presently anticipated over the next 7 days.

Leaderboard of positions from the ARGOS tracker on 29.03.07 at UTC 0.6.00.00 (4.00pm AEST & 3.00pm JPN):

RYU-JIN (Murray Bucknall/Jon Sayer)
Gusto (Patrick Giudice/Brian Pattinson)
Alex (Jock and son Hamish MacAdie)
Dekadence (Phil Coombs/Peter Walsh)
Runaway (James Ryssenbeek/Andrew McCole – heading to Sydney for repairs)
COCORIN interland (Itaru Matsunaga/John Bankart)
Hullabaloo (Jim and son Joe O’Keeffe)
Tamagomalu (Makoto Hisamatsu/Jimmi Doherty)
Ingenue (David James and wife Rosie Colahan)
Asadori (Shinsuke Nishi/Kyojun Fujita)
Esoterica (Campbell Reynolds/David Best)
Wild Boar (Shozi Yuneda/Jun Kanda)
Pippin (Roger Sayers/Anthony Brown – back in race, left Eden at 8.00am this morning), Southern Light (Tom Crabb/Trent Justice – heading Bermagui for repairs), Cadi (John and son David Netherton, retired - in Eden)
Wasabi (Ken Down/Shane Gaddes – retired - in Sydney)