Melbourne to Rye cruise

Hope you can sail upwind well

Huge undertaking but a great goal. Northerlies do create some serious swell at times from Frankston to Rye. I agree a westerly may be easier. Perhaps trial some trips half way.

Most I've done is Mornington to Mt.martha then up to Frankston and back to Mornington. This was in a SE offshore breeze on a formula board tho so the water was quite flat. Back was getting a little achy but fairly comfortable.

I reckon it's a great idea. Pretty easy too under the right conditions. If it's a comfortable reach it could be a pretty lazy exercise really. Several have talked about this before and the consensus was that a backup boat would be a good idea. I've had too many booms break without warning to be comfortable unless I could paddle/limp back to land. Alternatively an EPIRB and a mobile phone might be good. Doing it with several others is also a very good idea. If I didn't have kids would throw caution to the wind and do it any old way, but being a father of two changes things.

Has anyone seen that documentary from the 80's about the trio that sailboarded around Tasmania? It pops up after midnight sometimes and is a good laugh. And does anyone recall the stories of Nick Maloney (the fella who crossed Bass Strait on a Mistral One Design, sailed solo round the world, etc) sailing back and forth to Falkner Beacon several times in the moonlight?

Maybe there should be an annual Port Phillip Bay sailboard expedition. A good long slog to make you feel alive. Or we could just do long coast hugging downwinders like the kiteboarders...

Ending the alcohol induced ramble now.

But has anyone done it before?

I plan to stick pretty close to shore all along the way. Dependant on how we are doing pit-stop in Frankston and decide to continue or not.

Its not a race, its a cruise. So I am not planning on cutting straight accross the bay or anything or breaking any speed records along the way.

iphone with GPS and waterproof case I have. Also have the ability to track the phone from shore using instamapper software, pin pointing my location in the bay at ant point in time. The phone sends co-ords every 5 sec's to a website and plots it in googlemaps. Almost as good as a eperb?

Hydration pack I will need to get, perhaps a better PFD with compartments for flare, whistle, etc..

Anything else.

I honestly cant believe that no one has done it.

I would love it if more people get on board, and we could make a ragatta out of it. Imagine 50 sails on the way down the bay to Rye, it would be brilliant!

howdy,
we've done sorrento to mt martha, but like Leman it was on a SE not a NW.
Back in the old longboard days, a mate and I set off at about 10am and ran a downwinder with a rule that we stay no more than 500 metres offshore.
It was great fun, but definately a test....there's a lot of deep dark water out there (particularly off Mt Martha!)
We did the "downhill" run in a few hours but then (stupidly) decided to turn around and head back....the breeze stiffenned and we slogged for hours and hours against a sharp chop and wind between 5-30 knots. At one point my mate was ready to throw it in but we were under the cliffs past Mt Martha...and I didn't particularly want to retrieve gear from a cliff face. Eventually we made it back after dark...absolutely rooted!

Jermaldan, its a great idea and awesome challenge, but I agree with some of the comments.
There should be a bit of planning particulary with the way you intend to have support (ie boat, land based etc). It's a serious distance to try to take on, particularly if all you have experienced in the Bay previously is a short blast session in the arvo, or the flat water of Sandringham Harbour.

The other thing that you could try is sail the route in segments first, so you know what to expect. Being a local down that way, I reckon Leman would be a good bloke to chat to about what to look out for around Mornington/ Mt Martha, so maybe a session out there would be a good idea. The last thing you want is to come unstuck, so I'd suggest you build up to the full distance.
Good luck with it and we'll fly the flag for you as you pass Edithvale beach!
Mick

I'd be looking at a NW wind on a colder day rather than a N (NE) on a hot day. The Northerly winds don't fill in as much down the southern end of the bay, you may run into sub planing conditions anywhere from Frankston onwards.

NW isn't effected by the heat and blows nice and strong in the Carrum Bight (Rickets to Frankston)

You might be able to organise different sailors along the way to join you in stints like a relay as you come through their local spots especially if you are trackable via the web.

Back in 1983/84 there was the Dava Marathon. Mentone Beach to Mt Martha Beach.
It was about 35km, took the faster sailors about 1 1/2 hours. All on the same port tack until we got close to shore. Wind was NNE about 15-18knots.

About 200 people participated on everything from Wally's to Waylers on to Mistral Pan-Am's and a few other raceboards, heaps of people abandoned the race and sailed into shore all along the coast causing a major headache for organisers, who did have some rescue boats and a lead boat for the sailors out in front to follow as you pretty much couldn't see Mt Martha all that well when we left Mentone.

I completed it on a Mistral Pan-Am with a 6.8m2 sail, came equal 4th with Phil Lynch (Mistral Pan-Am), not sure who won, Mike Englisch was second (Mistral Pan-Am).

35km all on one tack is pretty tiring on the body, none of the lead bunch even paused for a rest.

Your idea is doable, better on a race board or even a Formula board, where you can point high to the wind and sail deep off the wind if need be.

On a northerly the bay doesn't get that rough as you head down along the coast, but if you ran into problems/broke gear the it would be Port Philip Heads here you come.

On the otherhand a southerly might be safer, but the bay conditions would get pretty rough and slow you down, tire you out faster.

I'd prefer an accompanying boat for safety.
Anyhow just my 2 cents worth...

I get knackered sailing from williamstown to kerferd road - I couldn't imagine doing the whole bay (unless I was spotty).

Before giving it a crack I reckon maybe trying the following:

Buy yourself a Navi Gt-31 and an aquapack or similar - there should be guys on the GPS forum to help you out where to buy.
Go down to sandy point when the tides low during the day and its 20+, park your car up the dune so it doesnt float away on the high tide, chuck on the gps and sail for 8 hours straight back and forth.
see how you feel then multiply x3 because it will be rougher and you will be sailing much broader.
Checkout how far you sailed.
If that feels ok then maybe its a goer.

Jermaldan

Wise words from our master Kato. The Japanese have a saying "many SMALL steps"
You are obviously keen to challenege yourself. Do the cruise in small stages and once you have achieved that, increase the legs to bigger distances and so on and so on.

I would have to agree with Kato and Old Salty.

Has anyone done the maths on this?
Its 80km from StKilda to Rye by car along the coastline.
If you where doing it sailing on a broad reach, that is say 5kms out and 5kms back to the coastline, you would only have covered 5kms.
That 80kms now becomes 160kms.
If you go out on a 15 to 20 knots of wind, you could do speeds of up to 20km per hours? - meaning that it will take 8 hours to complete! Thats if you are lucky, if the wind varies, which it will over that distance and time you are looking at a very long day.
Do it in winter gives more chance of a constant wind, but colder waters (11 to 13 degrees), if something goes wrong it doesnt take long for hyperthermia to set in.
I'm not saying its impossible, but you would have to be a very fit and competent sailor and know the bay very well.