HKODA National & Open Champs 2016 – day 3, finals. We have a winner!

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 11 Oct 2016 Today the fleet was divided into Gold and Silver divisions on the basis of the six qualifying races over the first two days.

Once again, the day started with bright sunshine and a healthy 6-8 kts of breeze that saw the first race away on time at 1030hrs, and once again Duncan Gregor led the fleet around the first mark and ten all the way round the rest of the course for a convincing win. Behind him in second place, Hong Kong sailor Faolan Whyte recorded his best race of the series, and then it was the young Australian sailors Ryan Littlechild and Fletcher Walters.

Keen to keep things moving, RO Charlie Manzoni had the second race away and running as soon as possible, and this time it was an Aussie-dominated race with the antipodeans taking the top four places and Gregor recording his lowest score for the series, a fifth place. Anyone who has raced in one-design fleets knows very well that that is a substantial achievement whether you are sailing an Etchells or an Optimist.

The Aussie sailors are used to a little more breeze on the racecourse, so found soft air in Hong Kong particularly challenging, but distinguished themselves with a string of single-digit finishes that kept them near the top of the leaderboard.

The third race ended up as a fizzer. In ever-lightening breeze Gregor picked his way up the beat in 22 tacks, taking a few inches off the opposition every time to lead round the top by 36 seconds. By the time the fleet rounded the leeward gate the wind had swung nearly 180 degrees and dropped out almost completely, and the Silver fleet race following behind had already been abandoned before the first mark.

Having run down to the gate, the few boats in the Gold fleet that had escaped were now running back up the course – very slowly – towards the finish, but the majority of the boats were left bunched around the gate and going nowhere. Race abandoned – and the RO called everyone back to the start area for another try at the last race of the series. Well, that just wasn’t going to happen. One of the overseas teams had a plane to catch and decided that a timely departure was in order, and shortly after that several more boats took the view that one more race was not going to change their final positions a great deal, and started to head home.

After a respectable pause, the A flags were added to the N flags on the signal and finish boats, and everyone headed back to the RHKYC base at Middle Island under tow. Eight races had been completed out of a max nine-race series, so all was in good order.

This morning the launch teams and the Beachmaster had all boats in the water just 16 minutes after the ‘launch’ signal: it didn’t take them much longer to retrieve, either! And then after a couple of protests (quickly solved by artibration) it was time to hand out the chocolates – in some cases, literally! The President of the HKODA, Elberti Uiterwaal-Postma, thanked the small army of volunteers and race management staff for their time and efforts over the last three days, and prizes were duly awarded to the National, Open and Boys’ Champion, the winners in the Silver fleet, the Girls’ Overall Champion, and the Under 12 and Under 10 winners. And yes, chocolate was consumed!

The HKODA National and Open Championship has become as a very major regional event for young sailors. This year’s fleet included entries from Thailand, Singapore, Taipei, India, China, Macau, and - for the first time – Australia. “This has been a hugely enjoyable event, and great for our young sailors. We were very happy to fill seven out of the top ten places and the ” said Rob Brewer, Australian Team Manager. “We’ll be back.”

Top Ten Overall (Discard*):
1. Duncan Gregor (HKG) 1,1,2,1,1,1,1,5* (8) National, Open, and Boys’ Champion
2. Ryan Littlechild (AUS) 3,1,5,8*,4,1,3,2 (19)
3. Fletcher Walters (AUS) 7*,5,1,1,4,5,4,1 (21)
4. Axel Fleet (AUS) 7,2,1,4,6,2,18*, 3 (25)
5. Jack Ferguson (AUS) 2,2,3,8*,2,2,7,6 (26)
6. Daniel Links (AUS) 11*, 5,5,2,2,6,8,8 (36)
7. Jamie Bougher (AUS) 12,15*,2,9,5,8,5,4 (45)
8. Quinn Auricht (AUS) 5,3,6,3,13*,12,10,7 (46)
9. Jasmine Scholer (HKG) 17, 3,13,5,3,4,6,19* (51)
10. Jania Ang (SIN) 1,10,9,7,5,8,31,13 (53)

Winner: Girls Overall
Jasmine Scholer (HKG)

Winner: Boys 12 and Under
Daniel Links (AUS)

Winner: Girls 12 and Under
Jania Ang (SIN)

Winner: 10 and Under
Juliet Clot (HKG)