Audi China Coast, Gold Cup, ACWS Bermuda, and where is SailRocket 2?

by Guy Nowell, Asia Editor on 6 Oct 2015 This weekend in Hong Kong – the Audi China Coast Regatta. The RHKYC’s blue riband event of the year, and, when the northeast monsoon picks up its skirts, probably the best three days’ sailing you’ll find in Asia. This year’s 40-strong fleet consists of 38 in IRC classes, three TP52s and Syd Fischer’s Rags 100 in the top division, and seven entries in the IRC 1 ‘Furious 40s’. Racing will take place in the Ninepins/Waglan/Po Toi area, and the SIs sensibly allow the RO a free hand when it comes to prescribing courses: “Scheduled races may be any combination of windward/leeward, geometric and islands courses to suit the prevailing conditions.” Sunshine, showers and up to 24kts in the gusts, north through east. Let the fun begin.

Also this weekend, the Argo Gold Cup in Bermuda. Having narrowly escaped a pasting from Hurricane Joachin, Bermuda is looking forward to a weekend of WMRT action immediately followed by the next leg of the LV America’s Cup World Series, from which Sail-World will be reporting, live. Whether it is half as much fun as the recent Extreme 40 event in Istanbul - in which Red Bull snapped a mast and then missed that day’s next seven races - remains to be seen. We’ll let you know.

There’s a rather poignant story from Paul Larsen on the recent ‘unboxing’ of SailRocket 2, which has been invited to appear at this year’s Advanced Engineering Show at the NEC in Birmingham, England. “Not one sailing magazine world-wide put ever put SailRocket 2 on the cover, and yet she appeared on the cover of several engineering publications.” Amazing. This was the boat, you will remember, that hit an eye-popping 68kts during one of her very last times runs at Walvis Bay in 2012. And now, “she’s in great shape and ready to go again. Nobody has ever broken 40kts at Weymouth Speed Week, so, just for fun, why not…?”