Those who looked at the forecast for the Marmion Reef Ocean Race knew that the rather gentle nor-westerly at the start would eventually give way to a 20-knot sea breeze. The ocean race is the first of an eight-race series that takes yachts south to the Centaur cardinal mark before a reach marks off Ocean Reef, dodging cray pot lines and the mast of the recently sunk yacht Serenity. Fortunately, most yachts made it to the cardinal mark before the breeze really kicked in and enjoyed a reach north with some popping a kite despite the shallow reef on the starboard side.

Rounding the most northerly mark off Mullaloo, yachts were faced with the long beat back in a very strong breeze to marks south of HYC (Marina and Anchor) before a run home to the finish line.

In division one, Whispering Jack (Bruce Bradford) returned to the fleet to set the fastest time; however, Circa (Martin Eyer) was not far behind and was first on handicap ahead of Sophia and Perle. Whispering Jack had a consolation win on ORC by 34 seconds over Sophia, amazingly sailing with just two onboard.

Ray Murphy’s Pinta revelled in the stronger breeze to record an emphatic win in division two over Show Me (Tim Tucker) and Helga (Mark Taylor). Covert Operation (Bart Brouwer) was the fastest and first on ORC ahead of Show Me and Volant (Frank Hagemann, Emille Janssen, John Ball and Kevin Meta).

Another yacht to enjoy the robust conditions was Kind of Blue (Boyd Timler), taking first place in division three, with Hard Evidence (Peter Hibberd, also sailing two-up) second and Stelfred (Laraine Brindle) third. Wayne Picher’s J122 Lithium was fastest in division three and quickest overall in 3:21:36.

On hand to make presentations of the Alan Carter Marmion Reef Race shield to the winning skippers and crews were Sue Carter and her daughter Ruth McLaughlin.

Thank you to Hugh Burton for some stunning photos of yachts rounding the Beach mark.

John Bird