Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's Spring Regatta - Overall
by RHKYC Media 20 May 2018 03:10 PDT
19-20 May 2018
Another beautiful day in Hong Kong, although a little more breeze would have been welcome for day two of the Spring Regatta; the closing regatta of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's sailing season.
There was a six to eight knot westerly breeze and to the sailors' relief not as much tide to contend with in the first race of the day - as compared to yesterday where an extremely strong tide played havoc on the race course.
Two races were sailed today for the three big boat divisions and 8 one-design classes. The fleets were sent on two windward-leewards starting in Kowloon Bay beating down the harbour, hoisting their kites after rounding the top mark off North Point and sending it back to Kowloon Bay where they rounded; eventually finishing off of Hung Hom after they completed their loops.
There was some very tight racing amongst the Etchells fleet with a few changes in the lead as they made their way around the course. In the end Nick Burns' Gunga Din came out on top of the Etchells. In the second race of the day, the tide began to build once again, challenging the fleets, particularly at the top mark. A couple of boats having the misfortune to be pushed onto the mark itself, resulting in a few penalty turns across the fleets. In IRC Big Boat Division 1 Shawn Kang's Lighthorse Alpha Plus took the win with two bullets in three races.
The Spring Regatta marks the close of the 2017-2018 sailing season, one of the biggest ever experienced by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. The season highlights a myriad of top International regatta's held by the Club. Including the Volvo China Coast Regatta and the Volvo Hong Kong to Vietnam Race, the Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championship, the Hong Kong 29er Open, the 2018 29er World Championship, Hong Kong Race Week / ASAF Youth Cup and the Rolex China Sea Race.
The RHKYC also had the pleasure to provide the on the water race management and volunteers for the Volvo Ocean Race Stopover. In addition to this, regular class racing has been held at the Club's three venues on most weekends, totalling more than 300 races since September. Thousands of sailors - both members and non-members, pro, amateur and beginners from Hong Kong and abroad, having had the opportunity to take part in this season's racing.
The Spring Regatta prizegiving is being held tonight at 1830hrs with Hong Kong Sailing Federation President, Tong Shing, officiating.
The provisional results for all other divisions can be found here.