Locals steer to victory at King Island Ocean Yacht Race

The ROYAL GEELONG YACHT CLUB team has returned home from the King Island Ocean Yacht Race as major winners, with local skipper Paul Buchholz and his crew steering ‘Extasea’ to victory in two categories.

Setting off from Queenscliff on Friday evening and arriving at Grassy, King Island, just over 20 hours later, Buchholz and his crew of thirteen claimed line honours and international honours in division one and division two of the event.

Known as one of the shorter ocean races of its kind at only 114 miles (183km), the King Island Ocean Yacht Race makes up for it in difficulty, due to the currents surrounding King Island.

Against more than 30 boats, the Barwon Heads local in Buchholz said he was thrilled to steer his team through the rough waters to come out on top.

“We did very well… the race itself was a bit fluky, but we did very well,” Buchholz said.

“We were stoked, it was a pretty tricky race… going through the Heads was not too bad, and till around 10pm the breeze stayed in and then it petered out.

“We kept going South and plenty of others headed East and fell in a hole, but we did the same and were going around in circles a couple of hours later.

“Once the wind kicked South West it gave us a bit of an advantage and we had about a 25 to 30-mile lead on the other boats.”

Taking part in his fifth King Island Ocean Yacht Race, Mr Buchholz said it was fantastic that predominantly all his crew were fellow Royal Geelong Yacht Club members, making it all the more special.

He also mentioned that fellow Geelong local Stuart Richardson (Solera) got second in the IRC international division and third in the AMS division, adding to the region’s success in the event.

For full results, head to orcv.org.au/sailing/races/king-island