Volvo China Coast Regatta 2016 – patience, and shuffle the cards
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 23 Oct 2016
IRC 0 start. You don't want to be to leeward of this. Volvo China Coast Regatta 2016. Guy Nowell / RHKYC
The definition of a slow start to the day begins with an AP on shore, continues with multiple breakfasts, and moves on to a quick bit of racing with RC boats (just in case there isn’t any other racing). Meanwhile, RO Inge Strompf-Jepsen had been out on the water since 0800h, and finally called down the AP shortly after 1100h. We’ve never seen a Le Mans start in yachting before, but this was the closest thing, with the upper terrace at RHKYC Middle Island emptying in a mater of minutes as crews went afloat in double-quick time and headed out to the CCR’s old stamping ground on the Lamma Patch.
IRC 0 got their first start at 1300h in 6-8 kts from 075 degrees and – briefly – sunshine. The start sequence suffered a short hiatus when a fishing boat pulling up nets ambled straight into the IRC 2 fleet with about 30 seconds to the start. All divisions got a 3-sausage windward-leeward race (“This I can control,” said the RO. “Anything that goes further away, I can’t.” Fair enough).
Old Hong Kong campaigners know that the rule is “Go left at Lamma”, meaning head for the left side of the course when the breeze is in its normal (ie N, NE, E) configuration on The Patch. Sam Chan and the Free Fire boys gave themselves a cracking start mid line, but soon found themselves being overhauled by Jelik (76ft) and Scallywag (100ft) to windward, so baled out to the right. “It didn’t do us any harm,” said Chan, “maybe even it made us work a little harder. Three laps was just the right length for the race, and the breeze was steady if not strong.” Free Fire finished in 1:32:19, second on the water behind Scallywag, collected the bullet, and now sits at the top of the IRC 0 points table.
Mandrake III (Nick Burns/Fed Kinmonth) stepped up to the plate in IRC 1, with a winning performance that Kinmonth described as “steady. The crew work was good, the tactics worked, and the boat is going very nicely thank you in the 8-10kts breeze department. A special mention for our very patient RO who made all the right calls today under very trying conditions.” Mandrake won today, but for Steve Manning/Anthony Root’s Black Baza a third place was good enough to hold on to top spot in the division overall. “Patience pays,” said Root, who is also CCR Chairman. “I am extremely pleased that we got a race in today, so thank you very much to the Race Officer.”
Tiffany Koo’s Hero Racing Team led the IRC 2 division round the track from start to finish, but beating Sea Wolf (William Liu) on the water by 1m 15s was not enough the deny the mainland Chinese entry a win today. “On flat water and in light breeze we concentrated on keeping the boat steady and moving,” said Koo. “It was really a day for not making unforced errors – there was nothing ‘tough’ about the racing, it was just a question of sailing clean and keeping the boatspeed up.”
Simon Wong helmed Dexter (Lowell Chang) to another win today I IRC 3, making three from four races. The jolly crew on Whiskey Jack (Nick Southward) may have been a little jaded this morning, following the long cruise home from yesterday’s finish line. “I didn’t even know there was a bottle of rum on the boat,” said Southward. (There isn’t any longer). Whiskey Jack still holds on to second place in the division in front of Andiamo (John Woo) in third place.
Moonblue 2 (Peter Churchouse) was ‘travelling light’ today with only 19 crew. Lighthorse (Shawn Keng) took the honours in the IRC Premier division with a third bullet in a row, as did Kiasu (Herman Wong/Yves Milot) in the HKPN class after a short finish in softening breeze.
And that was that. With the wind starting to gasp its last from 1430h onwards, the RO raised AP over A and sent everyone home after the one race. Many competitors complimented Inge Strompf-Jepsen on making “the right calls, both at the start of the day and at the end”. By then, the sunshine had surrendered to the standard Hong Kong autumnal haze murk, and the boxes of cold Peroni on the hardstanding were beckoning.
Tomorrow’s racing starts at Middle Island and is scheduled to wind up with an islands race that leads the boats to a finish back towards RHKYC ‘HQ’ at Kellett Island where the Volvo China Coast Regatta fleet can look forward to a poolside dinner and prizegiving party.
Provisional results to date are available online at http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/VCCR16ProvisionalResults.aspx
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