Rudder Cup: After Sydney to Hobart cancelled, the Melbourne to Devonport race is back in the limelight

After being overshadowed by its glitzy Sydney-based rival for three quarters of a century, Australia’s oldest ocean yacht race ­finally had its day in the limelight.

Crews hammer out of Port Phillip Bay in blustery conditions on Sunday at the start of the Melbourne to Devonport Rudder Cup ocean classic. Picture: Steb Fisher

After being overshadowed by its glitzy Sydney-based rival for three quarters of a century, Australia’s oldest ocean yacht race ­finally had its day in the limelight.

A crowd of about 300 well-rugged-up spectators lined Victoria’s historic timber Portsea Pier on Sunday and stood — beers in hand — on the lawns of the Portsea Hotel in blustery conditions to watch the start of the Melbourne to Devonport race, known as the Rudder Cup.

Usually the launch has been overshadowed by the thousands who gather at Nielsen Park and Sydney Heads — champagne in hand — on Boxing Day to watch a fleet of supermaxis take off in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

But after a last-minute cancellation due to Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak and virtual elimination of the virus in Melbourne, the Rudder Cup is the only interstate yacht race taking place this holiday season. Race director Jeremy Walton said volunteers had banded together to organise the Melbourne to ­Devonport race across Bass Strait in just one month — whereas it usually takes three or four — after the Ocean Racing Victoria Club had earlier thought that Victoria’s second COVID-19 wave had obliterated any hope of holding the race.

Jade Cole and Barney Walker on the fleet’s smallest yacht. Picture: David Geraghty

“In Victoria, things were pretty grim for a while so when we got things under control we all started running around like maniacs to get (Australia’s) only interstate ocean race this year going,” Mr Walton said. “We have all been working like mad … it was a madhouse but it all fell into place with the help of a lot of volunteer work in the background.”

The Rudder Cup — a 195 nautical mile race which has been run since 1907 — is dwarfed every year by the Sydney to Hobart event, first held in 1945, which at 630 nautical miles is more than three times as long. 

“I have got a real passion for this race and I think it’s really ­underrated,” Mr Walton said.

“It’s a race that is run by yachties for yachties … I think the Sydney race is always about line honours, where our race is always about how everybody is doing on ­handicap.”

Mr Walton said the biggest yacht “by far” to enter this year was Extasea at 50 feet (15m). He expected it would arrive in Tasmania at about 4am on Monday.

Yachts get off to a flying start in high winds at Portsea. Picture: David Geraghty

Extasea is set to take line honours and smash the ­previous race record of 19 hours and 32 minutes by four to six hours with the help of a big southwesterly that is forecast to whisk the fleet of 19 yachts across Bass Strait.

Jade Cole, the only female skipper in the race, said it was “exciting” to be a part of the fleet on her brand new yacht, the smallest to compete at 33 feet (10m). “It will be a real test for us and the yacht … we chose the Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 because she is a French- built boat and one of the six contenders to be the keelboat used by all competitors at the Paris Olympics,” the 35-year-old said.

“It’s great to be doing her first race in the Melbourne to Devonport Rudder Cup. It is Australia’s oldest yacht race — one of the classics — and I think it should suit us and the boat too,” she said.

Ms Cole plans to race the yacht, called the RMS Cole Walker, with her co-skipper ­Barney Walker, 57, in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

“Because of COVID, this is our first serious ocean race in her … the tough conditions with the strong southwest change coming through will test her but that’s what this sort of ocean ­racing and our bid for the Paris Olympics is all about,” she said

The 19 contenders with more than 100 crew set out in choppy conditions in the morning on Sunday, with northerly 25 knot winds recorded at about 9am ahead of the 11am start time.

The fleet had to navigate rough conditions out of Port Phillip Bay known as “The Rip” — a treacherous 3km stretch of water between Point Nepean and Point Lonsdale.

The last of the yachts is expected to reach the Mersey Yacht Club in Devonport at about 4pm on ­Monday.

A yacht heads out of Portsea on the way to Devonport. Picture: Steb Fisher