Antarctica Cup Ocean Race and the Great Australia Ocean Race
Bob Williams, from Perth in Western Australia, is the architect of both the Antarctica Cup Ocean Race and the Great Australia Ocean Race.
Bob has a history in offshore yacht racing in Western Australia, having skippered his 45 foot fibreglass yacht Parmelia in the Fremantle to Albany yacht race in 1978, the 1979 Fastnet Race (the race hit by the worst storm in yacht racing history claiming 15 lives), and the 11,750 nautical mile Parmelia Race – Plymouth to Fremantle - in 1979. Following Parmelia, Bob built and skippered a 62 foot aluminium racing yacht named Freight Train. Freight Train competed in three Sydney-Hobart Races, winning A Division in 1995, the Pan-Am Clipper Cup in Hawaii, and still holds elapsed time records for a race from Esperance to Fremantle and Fremantle to Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
Creating and promoting both the Antarctica Cup Ocean Race (ACOR) and the Great Australia Race (GAOR) fulfils an ambition Bob nurtured over many years to establish international yacht racing events permanently based in Western Australia.
The Antarctica Cup Ocean Race
The ACOR is a non-stop race around Antarctica, raced on the Antarctica Cup Racetrack – a three lane racetrack circling Antarctica, complete with Ocean Zones, Sectors, and Gates, starting and finishing in Albany. Gates are named after famous Antarctic expedition leaders and famous yachtsmen and yachtswomen.
Fedor Konyukhov entered the ACOR and his yacht Trading Network Alye Parusa, an 86 foot long aluminium high performance racing yacht, was the first to complete in the ACOR, sailing his huge yacht solo without stops. His amazing voyage of 16,356 nautical miles started in King George Sound on Australia Day, 26th January 2008, and finished at the entrance of King George Sound on 7th May 2008, taking 102 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes and 50 seconds. The majority of the voyage was spent above and below Latitude 50 South and above and below the Polar Convergence and within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current - the harshest sailing conditions on planet Earth.
Fedor sighted icebergs in the South Pacific close to Cape Horn. Although the Antarctica Cup Racetrack is dotted with thousands of icebergs in the South Atlantic Zone of the Racetrack, including icebergs 47 kilometres long by 14 kilometres wide, Fedor saw no icebergs in this Sector.
The World Sailing Speed Record Council has recognised skipper Fedor Konyukhov and his yacht Trading Network Alye Parusa as holder of the inaugural Antarctica Cup Racetrack record for a single-handed vessel.
Representatives of the Russian Embassy in Canberra and the Russian Ambassador to Australia were in Albany to congratulate Fedor soon after he crossed the finish line, as were Russian television people. The event attracted substantial media coverage around the world.
Please refer to an extract of Fedor’s log for an appreciation of his experiences completing the first Antarctica Cup Ocean Race event.
The Great Australia Ocean Race
The Great Australia Ocean Race is a race around the vast and varied coastline of Australia. Similar to the Antarctica Cup Racetrack the GAOR is held on the Great Australia Racetrack. The Racetrack consists of three lanes 50 nautical miles wide, Start and Finish Gates in King George Sound, 15 Gates, 16 Sectors, and five Ocean Zones. The distance around the Racetrack is 6,750 nautical miles. Landmarks on the GA Racetrack are tropical Cape York at Latitude 10°S, Cape Leeuwin at Latitude 34°S, and South-East Cape, the southernmost point of Tasmania and Australia at 43.7 S.
High performance maxi multihull yachts are expected to complete a circuit of the GA Racetrack inside 20 days. High performance crewed monohulls averaging 7.5 knots per hour are expected to complete a circuit within 40 days.
A unique feature of the Great Australia Racetrack is the system used for naming the 15 Gates which are located around the Racetrack. Whereas with the Antarctica Cup Racetrack the Gates are located at selected meridians of Longitude radiating out from the South Pole, in the case of the Great Australia Racetrack the centre point is Alice Springs. From this point a line is taken through every capital city in Australia, territory cities, and coastal resort towns to locate Gates named after each location.
The first Great Australia Ocean Race will start on Anzac Day – 25th April 2009. The event will provide competition between the states and territories of Australia as well as Australian boats racing against international entrants for honours.
Albany, Western Australia - home to these two great ocean races
Albany, Western Australia, was selected as the home of the Antarctica Cup Ocean Race and the Great Australia Ocean Race after investigating other ports in Australia. Albany is situated on King George Sound and Princess Royal Harbour. King George Sound is considered by Antarctica Cup Management Pty Ltd as the finest yachting venue in the world. Albany will build a boat marina in 2009 which will allow yachts of up to six metres draft to berth in the marina. No other marina in Australia will accommodate such deep draft boats.
For the Antarctica Cup Ocean Race Albany presents direct access to the Southern Ocean and a direct route to the Antarctica Cup Racetrack. For the Great Australia Ocean Race competitors leaving King George Sound, heading west to east around Australia, face the first three Sectors of the event crossing the Great Australia Bight and plunging as deep south as Latitude 45 south to avoid the treacherous coastline of southern Tasmania. This ‘baptism of fire’ will test boats and crews and define the boats most likely to succeed in the event, whilst building public interest across Australia and across the world.