After 39 days 15 hours 23 minutes and 56 seconds, SS34 Morning Star was second across the finish line in the Melbourne Osaka Cup double handed race on 24 April. Skippered by Jo Breen, 27 and Peter Brooks, 39, both from Tasmania, Morning Star led the staggered start 5,500 nautical mile race until just 250 nautical miles from the finish when the 62ft Judel-Vrolijk 62, Chinese Whisper, passed her on the way to breaking the race record in 21days 12hours 41minutes and 13seconds.
Jo & Peter’s efforts in maintaining their lead right up to the very end has been a testament to their great sailing ability and a very well set up yacht. They have done a fantastic job averaging 5.6 knots and reaching a top speed of 11 knots during the race.
Morning Star was built in 1984 by Swarbricks and was purchased by Jo in 2016. She is a mark 2 hull and has undergone a complete refit including having a new keel stepped tall rig fitted and changing the wheel steering to a tiller. Careful sail selection has given her an IRC rating of 0.913.
Many of us have been following Morning Star’s progress on the Blue Water Tracks website where progress of all the yachts in the race can be viewed. The race still continues with a large part of the fleet having been delayed by tropical cyclone Iris off Australia’s Queensland coast early in April. A link to the tracker can be found below.
https://race.bluewatertracks.com/2018-osaka-race
The Melbourne to Osaka website is http://melbourneosaka.com/en/home/
