A new annual trophy gives offshore crews a reason to keep their boats in Tasmania after the Melbourne to Devonport Rudder Cup.
The Bass Strait Cup, launched by the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria and Port Dalrymple Yacht Club, combines the historic Rudder Cup with Tasmania's Three Hummock Island Yacht Race. The winner is decided by aggregate ORCc results across both events.
The campaign opens on 30 October with the Rudder Cup start at Queenscliff. One week later, on 6 November, competing boats line up again at Beauty Point on the Tamar River for the 211 nautical mile island race.
Between the two starts sits a coastal passage from Devonport, time for boat jobs, and the prospect of exploring northern Tasmania.
The combined distance of published race courses totals 406 nautical miles, with both legs requiring Australian Sailing Category 2 preparation. Skippers in the Three Hummock Island race face a tactical choice: round the island clockwise or anticlockwise, weighing forecast against expected arrival time.
Six boats appear on both entry lists, including Scott Lovell's Farr 51 Just Farr Love, 2024 Sydney Hobart PHS winner and 2025 PHS overall runner-up, and the South Australian pilothouse cruiser Penelope, making its racing debut. Nick McElwee, whose Hick 35 Honey Pot is also entered in both races, told ORCV that the Cup provided an incentive to maintain Category 2 readiness.
The Rudder Cup itself traces back to 1907, when American magazine editor Thomas Day proposed a Bass Strait race and backed it with a trophy worth 60 guineas. Annual Queenscliff to Devonport racing began in 1946, and ORCV identifies it as Australia's oldest ocean race.
For crews looking beyond November, the Melbourne to Hobart Westcoaster starts on 27 December 2026. It takes boats across Bass Strait, down Tasmania’s exposed west coast and around its southern coastline before finishing in Hobart.
The Westcoaster does not count towards the Bass Strait Cup. It does, however, give crews another reason to build on their Category 2 preparation. The October crossing and November island race offer valuable time offshore before the longer passage to Hobart.
