RHKYC Hong Kong to Hainan Race 2018 – over the horizon and gone.
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia 18 Oct 2018 00:48 PDT
18 October 2018
Beau Geste. RHKYC Hong Kong to Hainan Race 2018 © RHKYC / Guy Nowell
Grey skies, but thankfully the early mosning rain had sgtopped by the time the eght boats came under starter’s orders for the start of the RHKYC’s 2018 edition of the Hong Kong – Hainan Race. 9 knots of breeze and an outgoing tide meant that boats were keen to keep away from the line as RO Simon Boyde fired the guns for an 1120 start, and there was plenty of room on a very long line. Two minutes later it was up to 14 knots, and after that there were soft patches and heavy gusts all the way down the harbour. Pick your puffs, gentlemen!
No surprises when the two big multihulls, Beau Geste (MOD 70) and SHK Scallywag Fuku (ORMA 60) popped out the front of the pack and started a two-boat tussle all the way to Lei Yue Mun, which was won by Beau Geste by a couple of hundred metres – and then they were gone and soon disappeared in the ‘haze’.
Three racing boats – Free Fire (TP52, Sam Chan), Ambush (Mills 41, Joachim Isler/Drew Taylor), Mandrake III (Sydney GTS43, Fred Kinmonth/Nick Burns) – were next through the gap with Ambush leading the group in style. And lastly the two cruising boats, Lion Rock (Azuree 40, Michael Lunn), Sea Monkey (Beneteau Sense 50, Emmanuel Pitsilis) joined by Joshua Cole’s A40 Avant Garde with an inexplicable reef in her main.
Boats now have a 360nm chase in front of them, with breeze fully aft all the way. Destination in Hainan is at the Serenity Marina, Sanya. In spite of recent Chinese media reports of the “Hong Kong/Hainan International Sailing Festival 18-23 October”, there is no further racing series in Sanya. This race is a constituent part of the RHKYC’s China Coast Raceweek 2018.
Tracking: https://www.chinacoastraceweek.com/hkhn2018tracking
Race info: https://www.chinacoastraceweek.com