Omega Asian Yachting Circuit title still wide open in China Sea Race

by Lindsay Lyons RHKYC on 9 Apr 2004 At 0800hrs this morning, Frank Pong's 'Jelik' had made the most of the overnight breeze to build up a commanding 40-mile lead ahead of Sam Chan's 'Ffree Fire'.

20-22 knot winds overnight also seemed to suit Brian Petersen's 'Maverick II' and Neil Pryde's 'Hi Fidelity', both keeping up the chase 7 miles and 20 miles further back respectively.

Current ETA for 'Jelik' is 1120hrs tomorrow, which would just bring her in ahead of Karl Kwok's record of 47h 43m 07s, also set on the Subic Bay run in 2000.

A further 20 miles back, a flotilla of 11 boats including Ant Day's 'Siren', Peter Churchouse's ' Moonbue II, Jon Wardill's 'Australian Maid', Judes Echauz's 'Standard Insurance Centennial' and Fred Kinmonth's 'Stella Minter Ellison' were all within 20 miles of each other, making the final standings on corrected time very difficult to predict.

'Moonblue II' were reported to be having a great sail, running at 9.5-10 knots, although perhaps a rather expensive one ... she's down to her last spinnaker (a code zero, not ideal for the final approach to Subic Bay!) having blown one at the start and a second shortly into the race and she's also carrying some patches on the mainsail from another slight altercation!

At the back of the fleet, although only 20 miles out of touch with the racing fleet, WONG Sum's Beneteau 47.3, 'Dolphin Six' was performing best of the six HKPN entrants, not far ahead of Glenn Smith's 'Bewitched' and John Blay's 'Windseeker'.

Sandra Stonham's Tayana 47 'Tui Tai’ was bringing up the rear for the monohulls, however reported '20-22 knots breeze overnight, dropping to 16-18 knots this morning and the sea swell has calmed.

The kite halyard failed during the first hour of the race and the vang broke during the night when it was overloaded, however (the vang) has been jury-rigged and the crew are having a great time'.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for all the competitors. Ray Ordoveza's Andrews 53, 'Clariden Karakoa', and Ben Barnes' 'Lady Luck' both retired due to rudder problems during Thursday evening and are now safely back in Hong Kong.

Ray reported that 'at 1930hrs, one of the crew went down and found a lot of water in the boat and on investigation found that the upper rudder bearing had given way and the rudder was unstable. There was concern that if it ripped off, it would damage the back of the boat.

Brought the sails down and did damage control by jury-rigging the rudder to make sure we didn't lose it. Conditions at the time were 10-foot seas and gusting 30 knots... rough and wet.

We had planned to stay North of the Rhumb line, a tactic which won the '94 and '96 China Sea Races for Vida (Ray's previous boat) this was the first time for Karakoa, she has not done the race before, so it will have to be next time in 2006.'

Obviously disappointed to be denied the chance to triumph in the Omega Asian Yachting Circuit, Ray explained that commitments had prevented him from competing in the 2003 Raja Muda Regatta, but when he recorded such good results in the Phuket King's Cup (2nd) and Singapore Straits Regatta (1st), he just had to do the China Sea Race. 'The Sponsors, Clariden Bank, were behind us doing it and the conditions this year were perfect for Karakoa ... 15 knots plus.

In the first nine hours we were up at the front of the fleet and had a good chance of winning.'

As he considers whether Clariden Karakoa can be repaired in time for the President's Cup which starts on Wednesday, Ray will now have to watch the progress of Omega Asian Yachting Circuit rivals 'Hi Fidelity' and 'Stella Minter Ellison' to see whether or not they can produce a title winning performance.