COA Mid Autumn Festival Macau Race 2005

by Cruiser Owner's Association on 26 Sep 2005 COA Mid Autumn Festival Macau Race 2005

RACE 1
With Tropical Storm Vicente hovering south of Hainan Island, and easterly winds of force five gusting six at the start, OOD Arnold Lunty sent the fleet of 29 boats (soon to be culled to 25) off for a port rounding of the windward mark and then on to Macau.

Before long, Keith Mowser (Gambit) reported a broken rudder and retired, and Rosemary followed suit with a broken tiller. Quest, one of a few boats with the nerve to hoist a spinnaker in the blowy conditions, broached heavily and while recovering had a relatively close encounter with the rocky shores of South Lamma Island. Having already experienced engine trouble before the start, Quest decided to return to Hong Kong to sort things out. Shortly thereafter, a crewmember on Stella fell and suffered a serious gash to the head and had to be evacuated by the Marine Police to Cheung Chau. And as if to prove that the gods were not smiling on Stella that day, she was struck by lightning on the way home!

Strong easterly conditions prevailed for the rest of the day, and most boats opted out of setting a spinnaker. On Slalom Glade enjoyed fast cruising at a respectable 7 knots under full main and #1 genoa with the GPS reporting speeds of up to 10 knots while surfing. The only thing that marred the day was the passing of a number of squalls which made the going very wet.

A few of the leading boats flew spinnakers, making this one of the fastest Macau races on record. Drew Taylor’s pocket rocket, Ambush (Hick 31) took Line Honours at 1331 hrs for an elapsed time of just 3 hrs 31 mins, with Drumstick (DK46) finishing 26 minutes later. Next was Tipsy Free, after a perfect spinnaker run, with a remarkable elapsed time of 4 hrs 10 mins.

All boats finished by 1630 hrs and were moored up at Clube Nautico de Macau by 1800 hrs. Participants were greeted on the dock by cold beers and a grand buffet courtesy of the Macau Tourist Office and CNdM. A decision was made to organize a mini bus to ferry people to their hotels, and this proved to be very popular as taxis were in short supply on account of the Public Holiday.

A prizegiving party for the first leg was held at the Macau Wine Museum, and everyone enjoyed the fine Portuguese wine and food. A raffle for the Treats Charity raised $3,800 - many thanks to the RHKYC for donating vouchers for the Ship Shop and the Compass Room restaurant, and to the Aberdeen Boat Club for donating a dinner voucher for the Four Peaks Restaurant. Mark Houghton also kindly donated 3 life slings, which are always a popular raffle item.

Results, Race 1
IRC A 1 Ambush, 2 Drumstick
IRC B 1 The Farr Side, 2 Bucephalus
IRC Overall 1 Ambush, 2 The Farr Side
HKPN A 1 Tipsy Free, 2 Authority
HKPN B 1 Harmony, 2 Tanja
HKPN Overall 1 Tipsy Free, 2 Harmony




RACE 2 (Return)

Although force 4 to 5 was forecast, conditions were light on Monday morning before the start. Broadblue kindly agreed to be the start boat and set a relatively long start line, with Buoy #1 to port and all boats starting together at 1035 hrs.

It looked like being a real drifter up until a few minutes before the start when the wind gradually filled in. It was still slow going for the next hour, but by 1140 hrs the wind had started to pick up from the east and the rest of the race was simply champagne sailing. A few boats went well south and had a long way to get back to the Rong Zhu Tau light, but with the tide ebbing almost all the way to the finish it was a very pleasant beat to Cheung Chau.

Boss Hogg, having passed TSS Buoy #2 to starboard, realized her mistake after seeing boats tacking around the buoy to port and turned around – smartly setting a spinnaker – to head back to the buoy for a port rounding! Sita was the first to cross the finish line at 1545 hrs, followed by Kam Loong at 1550 hrs. Stella, Ambush and Drumstick did not start in IRC A, leaving Kam Loong to win by default.

Results, Race 2
IRC A Kam Loong
IRC B Boss Hogg
IRC Overall Boss Hogg
HKPN A Authority
HKPN B Tanja
HKPN Overall Authority

Overall Result (2 races)
IRC A Kam Loong
IRC B The Farr Side
IRC Overall The Farr Side
HKPN A Authority
HKPN B Tanja
HKPN Overall Authority