2025 Riley Marlay Point Overnight Race at Gippsland Lakes Sailing Club
by Ron Parker 12 Mar 06:22 GMT
Completed with plenty of 'Marlay Magic'
Hundreds of sailors competed in this year's classic overnight yacht race on the Gippsland Lakes jointly hosted by Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club and Lake Wellington Yacht Club. Light winds and balmy temperatures provided very safe conditions and over 100 yachts finished on Sunday between the early hours of the morning and mid afternoon.
Trailable yachts had travelled from all over Australia to this iconic sailing event. This year boats came from New South Wales, South Australia, the ACT, and one team from Western Australia. Unfortunately two boats from Queensland that intended to sail had to abandon their travel plans with the threat of Cyclone Alfred forcing them to stay home to look after property.
The age range of participants was rewarded with prizes for the youngest participant of nine years of age to the oldest of eighty-one years of age. Some boats even had three generations of family making the overnight passage a real family affair.
Saturday was International Women's Day and this year and there were a significant number of female participants and one all-female crew from Melbourne that were recipients of the first All-Female Crew trophy.
Marlay Point Overnight Race (MPONR) has been running on the Gippsland Lakes since 1969. It is the only overnight race for trailer sailors in Australia and has earned the reputation as the 'Sydney-Hobart' for smaller yachts.
The line honours winner this year was 'Rush' a Thompson 8, skippered by David Eickmeyer with a crew of three others. Another notable result for the weekend was the first placed Castle 650 class yacht 'Relentless' sailed by Russell Denholm winning Division C and beating the other twelve boats in this class. First multi hull was 'The Stig' a Farrier F9RX, sailed by Terry Obrien. Division A winner was 'Outsider' skippered by Grant Durran. He narrowly beat Peter Taylor who was competing in his thirty sixth Marlay Point Overnight Race and received a prize for the competitor with the greatest number of races completed.
Apart from the major sponsor Riley Fittings, local Gippsland businesses supported this year's event including Bairnsdale Bearings, Lightfoot Wines and Hills Marine & Leisure. Di Floyd, Event Coordinator, thanked the huge number of volunteers that supported the event in various ways. Di said, "The event went smoothly and the comments from a large number of participants confirm it was a huge success".