Audi Hong Kong Kettle – 9 to 12 October 2014 - starts tomorrow

by RHKYC Media on 8 Oct 2014 Entries have closed for Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club’s flagship Audi China Coast Regatta and inaugural Audi Hong Kong Kettle. The latter will begin tomorrow Thursday 9 October with a long islands course starting at 1030hrs in front of RHKYC’s Kellett Island Clubhouse in the heart of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour.

Four teams, each consisting of two boats from the IRC Racer 1 and 2 divisions will battle it out for the Kettle, at the same time competing with a further 32 boats for division honours in the Audi China Coast Regatta.

Mills 41 Ambush is paired with Ker 40 Signal 8, while EFG Bank Mandrake 2 (Mills 40) will team up with EFG Bank Mandrake 3 (Sydney GTS43). There will be two cross-divisional teams, with Farr 40 Ramrod and J/109 Whiskey Jack pooling their talents and HuaAn (MC38) and Andiamo (Archambault 35) rounding out the entry list.

The Kettle boats will be joined on the start line of their long Islands course by Sam Chan’s Freefire and Karl Kwok’s Team Beau Geste. While neither of the TP52’s are eligible for the Kettle, both are keen to have a warm up in Hong Kong waters before their IRC Racer 0 division takes to the water on Friday for the three day Audi China Coast Regatta, which will take place out of RHKYC’s Middle Island sailing centre. They will be joined for the regatta by last year’s Racer 0 winner, Ray Roberts, on TP52 OneSails Racing and Frank Pong on his favoured RP72, Jelik.

Of the 40 entries, 22 are entered in the IRC Racer Class, with nine each in IRC Racer divisions 1 and 2. These divisions will share courses and start lines in order to facilitate the Kettle teams and, given the number of former winners amongst them, promise some extremely competitive racing over the combination of windward/leeward, geometric and islands Ccourses that constitute the regatta.

IRC Premier features a healthy five entrants, while IRC Cruising has four. The Performance Handicap division, racing under HKPN, is enjoying a resurgence in popularity, with nine boats on the start line, ranging from 30’ to 52’.

Once racing is over, the overall prizegiving for both Audi Hong Kong Kettle and Audi China Coast Regatta will take place on Sunday evening back at RHKYC Kellett Island.