On board with Hong Kong, at the Rolex Commodores' Cup 2010

by Jamie McWilliam on 17 Aug 2010 Welcome to the Rolex Commodores' Cup 2010

Hi there from Cowes where the HK team have now finished preparations for the 2010 Rolex Commodores' Cup and are eagerly looking forward to the first day's racing, tomorrow Sunday 15th August - 2 Windward-Leewards.

The HK team consists of the Mills 40.5 EFG Bank Mandrake, the Mills 40 Colliers Blondie IV, and the Corby 36 Rockall III. The event is a team event with 10 teams competing, and over the next 7 days we will be competing against 9 other teams, with the winner being the team whose 3 boats combine to have the lowest aggregate score. There's no discard, so gear failure, protests, and the perennial Cowes threat of running aground are to be avoided at all costs.

It's very difficult at this stage to pick a winner, as there are a wide variety of boats here, from production cruiser/racers to custom raceboats, and each will have their own favourite conditions. The forecast is for a very variable week, with very strong tides and wind forecast to be anywhere from very light to very windy, and from all points of the compass.

We've been here for 4 days of practice, with the focus being on familiarizing ourselves again with the boats and the manoeuvres, especially the exceptionally difficult mark roundings in the RIPPING tide. This week has seen the biggest tides of the year, with it getting to the point that even in 6-8 knots it was a real struggle to get round the bottom mark...

We also have been working on establishing the range and limits of each sail in the inventory, as the courses we will be racing are not simply windward-leewards: the programme includes some of these but also a 50-mile race around the Isle of Wight, a roughly 150-mile overnight race, and some round the cans races in the Solent. We're really happy about this feature of the regatta, as it will unquestionably lead to some very interesting variations in the results as some boats will excel on reaches which might not be the best on windward-leewards.

The HK boats are all at or close to the top of their respective rating bands, which should make life a little easier in terms of getting clear after the start, but of course also has the flipside that you do tend to show the rest of the fleet where the holes are, and in the long races you'd never know if the wind will shut down and make your high rating a nightmare...

Day 1

Well, we're into it. And to quote Coldplay, 'Nobody said it was easy - but no-one ever said it would be this hard'....

Tough tough tough two races today, in a shifty as heck northerly in big tide. With wind pressure anywhere from 10kts to 20kts, it was as much a pressure game as anything, and it was pretty hard work managing a three-dimensional matrix of pressure, heading and tide in three very tight bands.

Anyway, enough with the preamble: the Irish had a glamour day - not for the first time - and HK are joint second with GBR Red. I was on Blondie, the middle boat, so have less information about the others, but I think it went something like this...

Race 1:
Class 1: Start area just east of Cowes at Norris. It was about 8kts at the start and for Class 1 there was a big pin bias and Mandrake came in on port and, deciding against the deep duck of the pack, set up on starboard below the bunch, and got away decently at the pin when the two boats that owned it were miles over. They then flipped onto port on the hip of the pack who had all bailed onto port early, but got undone by the breeze strengthening from the north, while they were further south. They got round the top mark in about fifth and then worked their tails off to mow people down but there simply wasn't enough time and they finished sixth overall. The Irish Ker 39 Antix won, with their sistership Inis Mor second.

Class 2: Blondie got a cracker about halfway down the line and were second onto port heading north for the pressure. This turned out to be a big winner as the only boat in contact was pre-event favourite Marinerscove, who flipped back to starboard about halfway up and made Blondie duck them.

We then hung on to port for a few minutes and then came back in a nice righty puff to cross Mariners and set up again on their hip on port. With a bit of extra pressure we were able to stay ahead of them for the next cross, and then caught the last right-hander to lead into the top mark. Down the run it was a pure pressure game as we worked hard to stay in the puffs against the boats with poles, and we got round the top mark just ahead of Mariners. There were a lot of boats still coming downhill and we got a bit light for a few minutes allowing Mariners to close up a bit and then we had a long port into the top mark, just avoiding a ship coming in the north channel to finally slam right in Mariners' face before the top mark and head off down the run in the lead.

After a reasonably straightforward run we rounded ahead for the beat to the finish, and Mariners gave us a bit of breathing space by losing their headsail tack shackle. But the finish came too soon and they beat us by 3 seconds. Quokka 8 the GS43 was only 3 seconds back in third.

Class 3: Rockall got a nice one and blew through below Roxy, her sistership, to lead into the top mark. But their gybe set was hindered by some trailing boats on starboard and Roxy got the jump, and in the puffy stuff their increased size symmetric kites proved a winner as they rode a nice puff down the middle to lead well at the bottom mark. From then on Rockall kept on closing in but ran out of time and had to settle for second.

So the Irish had 1,1,1, and HK had 2,2,6 for second overall.

Race 2:
The RORC Race Committee moved north-west for the second start, to get us out of the main tide channel in anticipation of the forecast fading breeze. It was still anywhere from 10-20kn, with big puffs and 20 degree shifts.

Class 1: Mandrake got a nice one in the middle of the line, but the boat above them was in serious press mode, so Mandrake's fantastic height mode was nullified for the first half of the beat, and with a late right-hander some of the boats with weaker starts who had had to bail out made a jump and Mandrake rounded in fifth, and that was where they finished. Antix won again from Inis Mor - a good day for the Kers.

Class 2: The start was full-on Groundhog Day as we had three General Recalls before finally getting away. For us in particular it was extremely stressful as we got three crackers and that's when you start thinking 'I bet when it's the actual start we have a shocker!'. But fortunately we had one more good one in the bag and came off the boat at serious pace in great shape.

When the first lefty puff came we led the pack back to the right. This beat was at least a pleasant phasing one so the next shift was a righty and we led nicely into the bottom mark ahead of Mariners and Quokka, with our sistership Tokoloshe on the South African team also in close company.

We did a bear away set but got shafted when the first puff was right downwind from the weather mark - both Quokka and Mariners caught it, taking about four lengths out of us. For the rest of the run we worked it hard down the left side and when the expected lefty (last shift into the top mark was a righty) came through we were able to gybe back and we almost got the pair of them at the bottom mark but just missed it and rounded in third.

On the next beat it got lighter and we worked our way out to the left, only to fall into a light patch and see the leaders and Tokoloshe sail round our nose, Tokoloshe just getting us at the top mark on starboard. Obviously we were in trouble now, but we had a cracking run and came round the bottom mark right with Tokoloshe, and set off up the beat with the leaders in our sights.

We worked the right middle and hung on to our last port to avoid the light spot in the left, and with one last righty puff we got into the top mark in a Lazarus-like lead. Down the run we again worked the puffs on the left and held our lead, and then on the short beat to the finish we dumped hard on Mariners but ran out of racetrack and had to settle for a fourth, as the race was won by the lowest-rating boat 'La Reponse' of GBR Red, with Mariners in second and Quokka in third. Mere seconds separated the leaders again.

Class 3: Rockall got a decent start and came into the top mark right with their sistership Roxy of Ireland, but the puffy conditions favoured the pole/symmetric configuration of Roxy who came home for their second bullet, with Rockall in fourth behind Premier Flair of GBR Red and a French A35.

So the Irish had 1,1,2, and HK had 4,4,5 for second overall.

Basically, nothing has changed: it's a long regatta and we're in the frame. It's going to be hard, but that's why it's worth doing. Tomorrow is another two Solent races in a windward-leeward format, before the long race on Tuesday and then the rest of the week in similar format.