Ffree Fire 52 takes San Fernando line honours

by Lindsay Lyons (RHKYC), Guy Nowell (Sail World Asia on 8 Apr 2007 After 49h 59m 26s of sailing, Sam Chan’s Ffree Fire 52 took line honours in the 2007 San Fernando Race, missing the record benchmark set in 2001 by only 4 minutes and 14 seconds. Although Chan is certain to receive the South China Morning Post Trophy for Line Honours for the third time, having won it in 1997 and 2005, he will have to wait a few hours to make sure that none of the chasing fleet can beat him on corrected time.

'We couldn’t have tried any harder,' said Russ Parker, skipper of Ffree Fire. 'The trip was less cold and wet than we expected, and we happily hitting 14, 15, 16 knots almost all the way. Top of the stack was Gideon Mowser’s 18 knots. We only flew a kite for a matter of hours – the rest of the time it was jib top reaching. It was all looking good until dawn this morning when the breeze died as the sun came up. We were pretty much parked for almost two hours, trying to keep moving under first a drifter, then a light no 1.'

'We crossed the finish line doing 8 knots – it seemed awfully slow to us, having sustained higher speeds all the way from Hong Kong – and at that speed 4 minutes is less than half a mile on the water. I guess we’ll just have to have another go at it next time!'

The Ffree Fire crew are no doubt relaxing with some cold San Miguel right now, but they need to keep looking over their shoulder. On paper there are four boats out there that could catch them, but everyone who has been there knows that closing the Philippine coast does not guarantee steady breeze. All it takes is a soft spot in the middle of the night to stop everyone dead in their tracks, especially those boats coming down from anywhere even marginally north of the rhumb line.

At the moment, Andrew Rickards’ Moonblue, Geoff Hill’s Strewth, Chris Meads’ Halcyon Daze and Steve Manning’s Walawala are still in the running, providing that they can maintain boat speed and make the finish line before the breeze dies at dawn tomorrow.

Meanwhile in the HKPN division, it looks as if Tim Wilson / Kent King’s Cordelia will finish just ahead of Rainer Brodmeier’s Ocean Girl on the water, but will have a battle on her hands with Fred Whitehouse’s Xiphias on corrected time.

The next Radio Reporting schedule is at 0800hrs 08 April, Hong Kong time. Armchair enthusiasts can follow the action from home, as official tracking providers Pole Star and SkyWave have provided satellite airtime, Purplefinder technology and DMR 200 units to enable tracking of the fleet at www.sanfernandorace.com