Racy Alex Takes Melbourne Osaka Line Honours

What it lacked in numbers, the 2007 Melbourne Osaka Cup double-handed yacht race certainly made up for in the dramas and incredible comebacks by some competitors.

Several boats could have taken line honours, but in a long drawn-out saga the Jones/Hart 14m Alex, co-skippered by Victorian father and son Jock and Hamish MacAdie, was the victor.

Taking entrants through autumn, summer and spring, and through many weather patterns, 16 yachts started this unique 5500nm race, the longest to leave Australian waters and 12 finished. Entries represented co-host cities Melbourne and Osaka in Japan, as well as Qld, NSW and SA.

Yachts ranged from brand new to old, to racing yachts, cruisers and a schooner, ranging in size from the 18.28m Open 60 Gusto down to 10.76m MDS 102, Wild Boar.

Competitors spent many months, some years, in preparing themselves and their yachts. A race of this magnitude requires careful planning and yachts were designed or reconfigured to suit.

Prior to the 1pm start off Williamstown on March 25, all but two, Alex and Tamagomalu (Japan) were berthed at Waterfront City, Docklands, on display to the public.

Meticulous to a fault, the MacAdies were still putting the finishing touches to Alex.  They were late to the start because of newly installed fouled halyards. Tamagomalu had been dismasted on the sail to Melbourne. Makoto Hisamatsu (skipper) and his Queensland crew Jimmi Doherty spent until the morning of the start finding and installing a second-hand mast.

A confident fleet set sail on a beautiful Melbourne autumn day in light airs.  Line honours favourites were two new Jon Sayer 12m designs, Wasabi and RYU-JIN–FGI from Qld, the Open 60 Gusto from Melbourne and the Elliott 16m schooner, COCORIN interland from Japan.

Once through the rip, the initial stages of the race were predictably unpleasant - strong headwinds and confused seas, typical of Bass Strait and its surrounds.

As expected, the two new Sayer 12m yachts from Queensland, Wasabi (Ken Down and Shane Gaddes) and RYU-JIN–FGI (Murray Bucknall and the yacht's designer-builder Jon Sayer) took an early lead after the latter broke the start, but it made little difference to the quick boat's performance. Gusto (Patrick Guidice and Brian Pattinson) was right behind them.

Wasabi and RYU-JIN-FGI swapped the lead several times but on the evening of March 28, off Jervis Bay on NSW's south coast while leading the race, Down reported to race director Kevin Wilson: "We have rudder damage and are heading to Sydney for a look." RYU-JIN-FGI took the lead and two days later, a disappointed Down retired.

That same evening, Qld father and son team John and David Netherton, reported their Jones 13m Cadi had a split fuel tank, leaking diesel into the bilge. They subsequently retired, leaving 14 still racing.

On March 29, Roger Sayers and Anthony Bown aboard Pippin, a Farr 37 from Noosa Heads, reported steering problems but overcame them.

The damage continued. On March 30, friends James Ryssenbeek and Andrew McCole reported a broken spinnaker pole on their Melbourne entry Runaway, a Sayer 11 on which Jon Sayer had scored a class win in the 2003 event. A quick repair job had them back on track next morning.

Tom Crabb and Trent Justice (Southern Light, SA) sustained rudder damage the same day, returning to the race on April 2. The two did an amazing job in catching the fleet from over 1000nm behind to finish seventh on line.

The next day, Esoterica (Campbell Reynolds and David Best, Qld) reported sail damage which they repaired in Southport, Qld. The cruiser returned to the course and finished last behind cruising yachts Ingenue (David James and Rosie Colahan, Vic) and Wild Boar (Shozi Yoneda and Jun Kanda, Japan).

Still leading the fleet on April 2, Sayer reported rudder damage to RYU-JIN-FGI. Alex, second on line, suffered a broken boom and Runaway lost its keel – and meteorologist Roger Badham warned of the repercussions of a tsunami in the Solomon Islands, which fortunately had no effect on the fleet.

All three yachts made for Bundaberg. COCORIN interland (Itaru Matsunaga and John Bankart) took the lead and Gusto gave chase, with Tamagomalu, Dekadence (Phil Coombs and Peter Walsh, Vic) and Hullabaloo (father and son Jim and Joe O'Keeffe, NSW) in the next group at the northern tip of Qld.

Runaway's forced retirement left her crew shattered. Alex re-emerged three days later, caught good weather patterns, and despite losing the bottom section of the rudder some days later, overtook the fleet, including leader COCORIN interland on their last night at sea. Alex took line honours on April 27, the schooner finishing nearly three hours later after losing its main halyard in the final stages.

"I thought it was over when the boom broke," said Jock MacAdie.

"The repair was rough but it did the job. Little by little we clawed our way back into the race.

"Luckily, we got a fairly good run through the doldrums. We had two days of no wind and after that we chased every storm cloud.

"It was almost wipe-out conditions on the last three days. The wind was going around the dial causing confused seas; the seaway was awful. I thought the boat would break. We tried to make the best of every current and every bit of wind," he said.

Until then, COCORIN interland had maintained a solid lead, only threatened by Alex and Gusto; the latter had stolen the lead a couple of times, but did not maintain.

That same day, Pippin retired citing generator problems and the following day, Gusto's crew reported a broken gooseneck and headed to Honiara for repair on April 8. It transpired three days later that Patrick Guidice had left the boat and Brian Pattinson was sailing single handed.  The Victorian did a great job in finishing third on line. Pattinson pointed out: "I am not that competitive, I just wanted to finish the race safely."

Sayer in the meantime, forced to build a new rudder, re-entered the race on April 7. The lead boats were in the Solomon Islands, RYU-JIN-FGI's quest for a top position looked impossible. However, Bucknall and Sayer finished an incredible fourth on line.

The weather was a mixture of hard windward sailing, a lot of reaching, the doldrums, gales and trade winds. Strong adverse currents off Japan made the going tough. Southern Light, Hullabaloo and Asadori (Shinsuke Nishi and Kyojun Fujita, Japan) faced gale conditions in the last two days of their race.

Grant Wharington and Scott Gilbert's 1995 race record of 26 days, 20h, 47m and 6 seconds remained intact. Alex finished in 32 days, 18h, 12m and 2 seconds in weather conditions described by previous competitors as ‘very unusual'.

ABOUT THE RACE
Staged every four years, the Organising Authority for the Melbourne-Osaka Yacht Race is made up of the City of Melbourne, City of Osaka Promotional Council, Osaka Hokko Yacht Club, Sandringham Yacht Club and in association with Yachting Australia.

The event was first held in 1987 to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the opening of the Port of Osaka and celebrates the sister city relationship between Melbourne and Osaka.

For full reports and Argos tracking positions, visit  www.osakacup.com