The Australian OffShore Challenge - one of the last great adventures

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December 15, 2005 Bass Strait will rate on any list of the most treacherous places on earth – separating the world’s largest island (Australia) from one of the world’s largest and most pristine wilderness regions, Tasmania, it claimed its first recorded shipwreck in 1422 and has been claiming lives at an alarming rate ever since, including the infamous 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht race in which six souls were lost. Already it plays host to one of the world’s great boating adventures, in the form of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, it will be joined by a second great competition next year - the Australian OffShore Challenge. Run in the form of a navigational rally, the OffShore Challenge will run annually from June 2006 and enable competitors from all over the planet to bring their own boat or hire one and safely sail, much less compete on a stretch of water of such renown. Travelling Bass Strait can be very dangerous and would not normally be recommended so the event offers the unique proposition of travelling in an organised event with charts, organization, air support and the company of other boats through some of the most spectacular, dangerous and remote scenery on the planet. It begins in Hobart at Wrest Point Casino on February 22, 2006, with competitors heading south on the first morning through the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, before their first taste of open water across Storm Bay. Then it’s up the east coast of the former penal colony around Tasman Peninsula, Maria Island, Freycinet Peninsula, the Bay of Fires and on to Eddystone Lighthouse. At that point, the event enters Bass Strait, but in a series of short stages around Clarke Island, Cape Barren Island, to Flinders Island. The final part of the crossing is taken after a break , navigating a passage to the mainland state of Victoria via Deal Island, the Hogan Group, to refuel at Port Albert. Next day, the national park of Wilsons Promontory before heading west to the sheltered inlet at Inverloch, then Westernport Bay via the San Remo narrows. A final rest and preparation for the big one - through The Rip at Port Phillip Heads to Geelong. The last day is then a short sprint across the Bay to St. Kilda and then a cruise to the Docklands marina in the heart of Melbourne for the gala finish. We believe this event will become one of the great adventures on the planet as it is designed to bring small motor yachts together from all over the world for a celebration of the finest yachting has to offer in relative safety and comfort.

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