Cruising Boat Breaks Taipei-Hong Kong Record

by Eric Frotier de Bagneux / Sail World Asia on 29 Jan 2007 Ellen MacArthur passed through Hong Kong in April last year, just one call on the so-called Asian Record Circuit. B&Q wandered slowly from Japan to (eventually) Singapore with stops that included Qingdao, Shanghai, Taipei and Hong Kong.

With most of the Circuit sailed at the wrong time of year, the ‘benchmark times’ set by MacArthur and her crew on board the world record breaking trimaran were laughably slow. One Hong Kong sailor noted that his last trip from Taipei to Hong Kong (in a Tayana 47) was only an hour or so longer than B&Q’s.

And B&Q still claims a ‘record’ from Hong Kong to Sanya, Hainan, while paying little more than lip service (in a footnote) to Ffree Fire’s 2005 Hainan Race record.

So we are delighted to announce that a new Asian Record Circuit time from Taipei to Hong Kong has been set by Johan II, a 1991 Sun Odyssey 47. The record has been ratified by the WSSRC.

Johan II is very familiar to Hong Kong sailors, being previously owned by ex-RHKYC Commodore John Leigh.

A crew of eight under skipper Philippe Grelon experienced a 'very rough' crossing, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 65 knots.

'We left Taiwan on Monday 18 December and crossed the starting line at 05:55:18 GMT. Weather conditions deteriorated at the entrance of the Taiwan Strait, with more than 40 knot of wind. With full main and jib, we broke the boom in a violent gybe at 0300 the first night out. We cleared the deck and secured the mainsail and the broken boom, and continued under genoa alone, which still gave us enough speed to stay in the game.
By Tuesday morning the north east monsoon was blowing a steady 55 to 60 knots in the Taiwan Strait, and we were seeing 6-10m waves.

We rigged a trysail to give more control of the boat, and Johan II was flying along at more than 10 knots all day long, surfing sometimes at up to 18 knots, which is quite respectable for a 12-ton boat!

Exhausted by 30 hours of heavy weather, Johan and her crew woke up on Wednesday in a new world: it was warm and sunny, with a beautiful sea. Perfect… except for speed!

Right up to the finish line we were sailing in challenging condition: the wind was very unstable, keeping the full crew on deck all the time. We made more than 30 sail-changes during the day, setting every shred of sail area that we could – at one point we had five sails flying!

On Wednesday morning, after an elapsed 2d 15h 40m 42s, Johan II crossed the finishing line at the entrance of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, improving Dame Ellen’s times by 1h 5m 50s.

Arriving in Hong Kong at sunrise was just fantastic. Having slept only few hours during the crossing, we were washed out, but delighted by this incredible experience' said crewmember Eric Frotier de Bagneux. 'The Taiwan Strait can be quite rude, but it’s always interesting to sail in this part of Asia. It is still difficult to organize sailing events in China or Taiwan at the moment, but I’m sure that this will change in the near future. We look forward to welcoming more 'local' competition to Hong Kong.'

Johan II will be staying in Hong Kong now. She will be moored in Sai Kung, and will be back on the start line of a local race as soon as possible.