Volvo Hong Kong to Hainan Race – And they are off

by RHKYC Media on 3 Nov 2016 It was clear blue skies and a 6-7kt north-easterly breeze for the start of the 390nm Category one offshore Volvo Hong Kong to Hainan Race which started today at 1320hrs.

Race Officer Simon Boyde set a committee boat start line to the north of the RHKYC main clubhouse at Kellett Island with the warning signal sounding at 1310hrs. Most boats seemed to favour the pin end of the line. It was only the 100ft super maxi Scallywag that favoured the committee boat end; possibly to make sure to keep clear of the other boats.

With all boats getting away cleanly at the start, they tacked their way through Victoria Harbour. Scallywag was the first to make it through the Lei Yue Mun Gap, followed by the TP52s Standard Insurance Centennial and FreeFire. Next through the gap was the Ker Custom 42 Black Baza with Jo Aleh on board. Jo won a Gold and Silver at the London and Rio Olympics for New Zealand. Surprisingly this will be Jo’s first offshore race and she quotes “I am looking forward to sending her downwind, hopefully the forecast stays in so we get to Sanya quickly!”

The last boat to make it through the gap was the Sun Fast 3600 Ymir which is the smallest boat in the fleet, crew member Darren Catterall said “We may be the smallest boat in the fleet but the boat is built for downwind, hopefully we arrive in Sanya in one piece before the beer runs out”.

Once through Lei Yue Mun Gap, the fleet headed south-east towards Waglan Island then bore away towards the north-east tip of the Dangan Liedo Island rounding it to starboard with the rest of the Lema Islands. Once past the Lema Islands the fleet head will head south-west to Sanya on the southern tip of Hainan Island in China.

The current race record for the Volvo Hong Kong to Hainan Race is 25h 54m 33s set in 2014 by Karl Kwok's Beau Geste. Everyone, including FreeFire’s owner Sam Chan are looking to Scallywag to break the record. Says Chan, “If we can do it in 24 hours, they can do it in 12… and definitely under 18”.

Sail No.	Division	Boat Name	Owner / Person in Charge	Type	TCC
HKG 2283	IRC Racer 0	Free Fire	Sam Chan	TP52	1.368
HKG 2276	IRC Racer 0	Scallywag	Seng Huang Lee / David Witt	100ft Super Maxi	1.934
PHI 2286	IRC Racer 0	Standard Insurance Centennial	Ernesto Echauz / Stephen Tan	TP52	1.352
HKG 2296	IRC Racer 1	Black Baza	Anthony Root	Ker Custom 42	1.232
HKG 2163	IRC Racer 1	Mandrake III	Fred Kinmonth / Nick Burns	Sydney GTS 42	1.178
HKG 2282	IRC Racer 1	Straight Up	Mark Whitehead	Mills 40	1.15
HKG 2275	IRC Racer 2	Outlaw	Adrian Bell	Azuree 46	1.139
HKG 2207	IRC Racer 2	Ymir	Kjartan Furset	Sun Fast 3600	1.041