Marlay point overnight race.

[SWN Y MOR]

So, How many members took part in this year's race? We (my wife,son and I ) took our ts16,SWN y MOR and entered the famous race.Drove down on the Friday afternoon,parked in the carpark with the other boats.The wind had been blowing from the east all week.Anything from dead calm to 10knts.Race day we woke to dead calm and heavy fog.By Midday the sky had cleared,the sun was out and the easterly had picked up leaving the water very choppy.Was very shallo for 50 metres out.Many of the yachts had to anchor.By time of start.8.05PM for div !(us)The wind was dropping fast and,by night fall nearly non existant.Sailing in a light breeze in the dark was not easy.The Straits were just as bad,however a very strong current dragged us through,many boats left with no steerage had to put up with spinning 360's as they went for the ride.We saw sunrise just as we left the straits.The wind later in the day swung around to the west and allowed us to reach paynesville at 1.15pm.We were last across the line but came 70 out of 78 in our division after handicap.

[Mob]

We were there. First time for our boat and I've agreed to do next years as well. My crew was my neighbour (a complete novice) and a friend of a friend who really knows her stuff. My neighbour and I launched at Sale on the Friday and overnighted near the mouth of the Latrobe river and had a most confusing sail/motor to Marlay Point on the Saturday morning in the fog. We laughed most of the race and had a ball really. 53rd over the line in A division and 61st on handicap which was disappointing until I saw the photo of our finish - fantastic! We're the TS21 on the left of the picture sail number 39.

Most of those boats in the picture passed us in the last 100 metres or so as they stole our wind.