Asian Sportsboats Champs - day 2

by Steve Bourne, HK Sportsboats Assoc on 16 Nov 2007 Day 2 of the Maersk Lines-sponsored Asian International Sportsboat Championships was held in near perfect conditions with 15 kts of breeze, clear blue skies, and 25 degrees with a 2-3 m swell. The fleet started race 3 in a short chop on a triangle-sausage course set to the south of Lamma Island. Ambush got a great start heading off up to the first mark just behind the wild Kiwi Shaw 7m Custard Truck. The Magics were having a fantastic fight in the middle of the fleet until disaster struck onboard Shenanigans when the forestay parted and the mast crashed over the stern. However, a phone call to the shore meant that a new forestay was waiting on the dock for their arrival, and by the time the rest of the fleet returned she was ready for another day�s racing. Although the corrected times were tight again the flawless J80 USA 986 sailed by Jeff Brown took the top spot, followed by J80 USA962 and SB3 Vitra (who are sponsoring the regatta drinking on dock) with Ian Southworth at the helm

Race 4 started with the fleet going off to the left side of the course, while What�s the Story? went off right picking up a favourable shift to dig past the fleet after a bad start. At the top mark it was Custard Truck, Ambush and then What�s the Story? A hard fought battle saw Catch pass What�s the Story? with Merlin snapping at their heels until Merlin suffered some broken battens and a torn kite. Again it was J80 USA 986 that took the top spot, with SB3 Vitra 2nd and J80 USA962 3rd. However, it was to be the third race where Merlin and Ambush got her revenge and sailed a flawless race to push Vitra off the podium and claim 3rd and 4th spots with the Shaw 7 Custard Truck in 6th place just behind Vitra. So it�s a lay day for the fleet on Wednesday and back to it on Thursday for three more races.

Overall results to date

1 USA 986 J80 San Diego Jeff Brown
2 USA 962 J80 Newport Jeff Johnstone
3 SIN 3388 Vitra Richard Killip
4 HKG 2080 Ambush Drew Taylor
5 HKG 064 Merlin Steve Bourne
6 HKG 1382 Wild at Heart Paul Murphy
7 HKG2022 Catch Mark Phillips
8 HKG 057 Good Vibrations Mark Bennet
9 NZL T4207 Custard Truck Julian Tankard
10 HKG 2002 Tornado Y K Szeto
11 HKG 072 What�s the Story? Peter Britten
12 NZL T20 Snatch Stu Wilson
13 HKG 062 Shenanigins Heath Townsend
14 HKG 2068 Sidewinder Gareth Williams
15 SIN 73 Glasgow Kiss Wallace Cuthbertson
16 HKG 069 Ffree Fire 69 Sam Chan
17 HKG 09 Phoenix Tong Shing
18 CHN802 Longtze 2 Pierre Mas
19 CHN803 Longtze 3 Thierry Barot