2017 Volvo Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, starts 18 October

by RHKYC Media on 17 Oct 2017 “The first yacht to finish the inaugural Hong Kong to Vietnam crossed the finish line at Nha Trang at first light, on the first day of the Year of the Rat in 1996. That yacht was Sam Chan’s Nelson Marek 68 FfreeFire. By all accounts the race was a wild ride, and lived up to the predictions of a downwind flyer” – so began the write-up by Race Chairman Mike Sinfield of the first Vietnam Race, 21 years ago. Sinfield is back in Hong Kong to wave the fleet off on 17 and 18 October for the start of the 2017 Volvo Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, and then fly down to meet the fleet at the finish in Nha Trang.

Well-known navigator Alan Tillyer is the only sailor to have taken part in every Hong Kong to Vietnam Race since its inception, racing onboard Antipodes, Sell Side Dream, Island Fling, Drumstick and the FfreeFire. Tillyer was navigator on board FfreeFire when she took Line Honours in that first race. He remembers, “We got the line honours but the boats behind us - Steve Ellis’ Wizard the Sequel, a Bashford 41, and Neil Pryde’s IRC 40 Hi Flyer, came down as the wind was building behind them, so they raced down with a lot of extra speed and beat us on the handicap.”

This year Tillyer is back on board as Navigator on Geoff Hill’s Santa Cruz 72, Antipodes, chartered by a consortium from Perth WA. Tillyer commented on the forecast that race management is keeping an eye on: “I have been keeping a careful eye on some disturbances forecast to form over on the northern end of the Palawan Islands in the Philippines, which were originally expected to move towards Nha Trang. Over the last few weather models, forecasters are still adamant that a pretty bullish system is going to form, but it’s going to go eastwards towards the Pacific so hopefully the race down to Nha Trang won't be affected. Then I think we will have a nice north-easterly monsoon down the west side of the South China Sea taking us to Nha Trang as we usually do. Possibly it will get a little bit lighter near the finish, but I haven't yet had time to look at the forecasts that accurately.”

Tillyer expects Antipodes to arrive in Nha Trang by Friday night, adding “The first night is going to be rough. The wind is generally quite fresh as you come out of Hong Kong, due to being funnelled down through the Taiwan Strait, and as you get further out and closer to the continental shelf, the sea state can become very quite tricky. When when you get even further out into the deeper water the waves become a lot more regular, so sailing becomes a bit easier.”

Tillyer says of the 2017 event, “This year there is a range of very nice racing boats. With Phillip Turner’s Alive being a canting keel RP 66' footer, they in all probability will take Line Honours. Then Antipodes, Sam Chan’s TP52 FreeFire and Wang Bin’s Ubox and Matteo Savelli’s Mascalzone Latino (both Cookson 50s) all rate roughly the same, so it'll be a good tussle between these boats to get in to Nha Trang second.”