The Club Marine Series, Day Five - the winner is seabreeze

2:56 AM Sat 20 Feb 2010 GMT

'Seabreeze.com.au had been saying it for days - here it is. - Club Marine Series' John Curnow

That's seabreeze the site, not the natural event. From a few days out, they predicted that Melbourne's Port Phillip would have 20-25 knots out of the North for the morning and then coming back into the teens for the afternoon.

Other sites have since modified their theories to match this, as well. The actual observations from Fawkner Beacon, which sits out in the middle of the top part of the Bay, show that seabreeze was right on the money.

The morning Division Zero race of Day Five of the Club Marine Series saw the expected 20 to 25 knots and a little bit of chop, too, as you would expect with breezes that strong. By the time it was all over at 1300hrs, it was back in to 17 knots and varying between 14 to 20 knots, all from due North.

The Farr 55, Living Doll, lead the smaller than usual fleet to the top mark for the first time, but by the time they were rounding the bottom mark after two runs, it was the TP52, Cougar II, that had the lead by some 20 to 30 seconds.

Cougar impressed all present with her downhill speed. - Club Marine Series - John Curnow Click Here to view large photo

All observers out on the course were mesmerised by Cougar's speed off the breeze and she really was flying. 'We're thrilled with the line honours result! These are great conditions for us, with 23-29 knots out of the North and relatively flat water as a result.

'A huge amount of fun', was how her owner, Alan Whiteley, finished off.

The second run also took some other casualties, with Veloce blowing a kite to pieces in the brisk breeze.

Veloce blew a spinnaker apart, tape to tape, during the second run this morning. - Club Marine Series - John Curnow Click Here to view large photo

We trust they have another onboard, as the afternoon looks set to be a classic, good breeze and flat water race, as well, which is entirely suited to the modern planning hulls.