Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy- China Coast, day 2

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 12 Oct 2008
You can please some of the people all of the time, but there’s never a chance of pleasing an entire fleet of sailors – not even sometimes. Many sailors think that 25 kts of breeze, air temperature of 28 deg C and water at 22 deg makes for something like idyllic racing. But not everyone.

One competitor in today’s three w/l races at the RHKYC Total Lubmarine China Coast Regatta – usually known for bemoaning lack of wind – was heard to remark that 'no, today wasn’t our conditions – too much breeze.' He was, however, in a minority. For everyone else it was a cracking day’s sailing (according to Joachim Isler), even if the sudden blast of northeasterly monsoon wind did reduce fleet numbers from 35 to a mere 24 over the course of the day.

The catalogue of errors and mishaps included all the usual items: wrapped spinnakers, spectacular broaches, broken halyards, self-detaching deck blocks and so on. Add: sails wrapped around the keel, an exploding spinnaker, a boom on the head (cas-evac, hospital, stitches, now resting comfortably), one MOB, and one good honest case of 'this is too much for us'. Highland Fling scored three bullets today, but skipper Taffy is not resting on any laurels – 'we have so many breakages, first of all we have to survive tomorrow’s two races.'

Most spectacular mishap of the day was Jelik trying to fit her 76’ waterline into a practically non-existent space between the Committee Boat and Fortis Mandrake mere moments after the start gun went, smacking a chunk out of Mandrake’s starboard quarter and snapping off her own bowsprit with a magnificent crack at the same time. Your reporter was standing on the lower back deck of the Committee Boat at the time, watching Jelik suck in hard and squeeze through mere feet away – but I had a big fat telephoto lens in my hand when what I really needed was a wide-angle… (apart from being paralysed with fright, of course).

Some sailors reported moments of sheer exhilaration, some claimed sheer exhaustion. Here are the pics to tell the tale. It was certainly a very quiet party this evening after prizegiving!

None of the division leaders have the regatta sewn up yet, although some of the performances so far give a good indication of likely winners. At the top of the leaderboard Highland Fling holds five points from four races (one dropped score), and in Div B Ambush goes one better with four from four. The theory says that Stella, currently on eight points, can upset them – but we’ve not put any money on it. Helmuth Hennig’s new A35 Men At Work (div C) also holds four points, with Lowell Chang’s X-99 Dexter following on eight. The game is not over yet, and there is more breeze promised for tomorrow.

Full results at http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/chinacoastraceweek/results08.htm