Rolex China Sea Race - Day 3
by RHKYC Media 30 Mar 2018 05:17 PDT
30 March 2018
Alive - Rolex China Sea Race - Day 3 © Rolex / Daniel Forster
The Rolex China Sea Race monohull record holder (47h 31m 08s) Phillip Turner's Reichel/Pugh 66 Alive arrived this afternoon at 15h 08m 24s. In the early hours of the morning, it looked like they had a chance of breaking their record but once again, the Luzon hole took its toll slowing their boat speed down to 2.8kts for a time, giving them an elapsed time of 51h 48m 24s.
Skipper Duncan Hine summed up on the racing, "The start was great; it was quite exciting and we were first through Lei Yu Mun Gap in Hong Kong. After that, it was a bit of 'soldier's course' which still requires a lot of concentration. We went through all of our transitions - the crew work was stunning.
Coming into Subic Bay harbour, when the breeze started to fill in for us was great. We came into the finish with the kite up and a lot of gybes. I'm listening to the tactician and navigator cross referencing what's going to happen and that's always entertaining. This was probably one of my favourite races for the entire length!"
As the rest of the fleet converge on Subic Bay, there have been major changes on the leader board since last night with YY Yan and YF Liu Ker 42 Custom Seawolf (HKG / China) moving up the ladder to first position in IRC Overall. With a small gap on elapsed time separating the top five positions, who can keep their boat moving through the light air will be the key to coming out on top.
Following in second position is the 2014 and 2016 IRC Premier winner Antony Day's XC50 Explorer followed by Philippines entry Ernesto Echauz TP52 Standard Insurance Centennial (IRC 0) and Peter Cremers Warwick 75 Shahtoosh (IRC Premier).
Glenn Smith's Grand Soleil Blackjack continues to lead the IRC 2 fleet. Rolex China Sea Race Chairman Simon Powell's A40RC Sell Side Dream had to retire last night due to a damaged rudder. All crew are safe and they are making their way back to Hong Kong with an ETA of Sunday evening. A big thank you to Emmanuel Pitsilis and crew from Sense 50 Sea Monkey for standing by Sell Side Dream.
The next boat expected to arrive is Raphael Blot's Banuls 60 Catamaran Mach 2 followed by the rest of the IRC 0 fleet throughout the night.
Keep your eyes on the YB tracker to see how the Race develops!