Hi Fi Line Honours - Vietnam Race 2008

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 18 Oct 2008 Neil Pryde’s Hi Fi crossed the finish line of the VinaCapital Hong Kong Vietnam Race at 2006 hrs (local time) tonight 17th October. 'We’re very happy to we here,' said Pryde to the assembled Vietnamese press who had waited patiently all day for the arrival.

Just 40 minutes later (2046 hrs) Paul Winkelman’s TP52 Island Fling crossed the line. Talking to the crews, it quickly became apparent that this had been a particularly hard-fought 650-mile race as the two boats had been within sight of each other all the way from Hong Kong to Nha Trang. Not surprisingly, both boats reported similar weather conditions. Plenty of breeze, with some very severe squalls thrown in (Fling recorded a top wind speed of 47 knots in one particularly intense squall). 'It was a sleigh ride,' said Winkelman. 'Or a roller coaster. Or maybe a bit of both.'

After a marginally disappointing performance in last week’s China Coast Regatta, Hi Fi’s performance is 'particularly satisfying' said Pryde. 'Next stop from here is Singapore, where a new rig will be installed before we start the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta.'

Next across the finish line was FfreeFire 52 at 2317 hrs. 'That was the hardest offshore race I have ever done,' said skipper Russ Parker. 'Exhausting. We were knocking off 45 to 50 miles every three-hour watch, and the boatspeed topped out at over 28 knots. We were half way to Nha Trang after only 20 hrs – the slow bits were all in the second half of the race.'

Just a few minutes later Fortis Mandrake put in an appearance, under engine. Mandrake’s forestay detatched just a few hours into the race – ‘there’s a grub screw that holds the headstay fitting to the mast, and that screw came undone,' reported owner Fred Kinmonth. 'The last turn or so of the screw pulled out and damaged the thread, so we were unable to replace the screw. It was pretty alarming – we were sailing downwind with three halyards helping to hold the mast forward, but the mast was wobbling terribly, and the Ds were wobbling like crazy. And then we hit an upwind patch about 50 miles from the finish, and we couldn’t do that, so we turned on the engine and retired.'

Race Management are on a break now, expecting the next boat (probably Full Metal Jacket) no sooner than 0500 tomorrow. Watch this space.