Hebe Haven Yacht Club Peroni Summer Saturday Series - Race 3
by Rob Allen 30 Jun 2019 20:18 PDT
29 June 2019
Burning heat greeted the 30 starters for Race 3 of the Peroni Summer Saturday Series, held on the 29th of June 2019. As the fleet of 29 boats in four divisions assembled near the mouth of Port Shelter, winds of 6 to 7 knots were being recorded on the committee boat. Coming from the south, the breeze cleared the air and, as is the case for much of Hong Kong's June weather, the skies over the Nine Pins were brilliant blue with puffy white clouds. Oh, and occasionally there were gust of 16 knots, so it was going to be quite a challenge choosing the right islands course.
Eventually, race officer Eric Tomter settled for Course 71 for the faster boats, Course 75 for the Sportsboats, Course 87 for the HKPN division and Course 69 for the Dragons, based at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club's nearby Shelter Cove facility. He had the six IRC boats away on schedule (1400), followed by the four Sportsboats, then the nine HKPN entries and, after a 15-minute delay waiting for stragglers, the 11 Dragons set off at 1425.
Outside Port Shelter, from Bluff Island to Steep Island off Clearwater Bay, the boats criss-crossed open water, using a club mark deep inside Rocky Harbour to round and head for the finish of Little Palm Beach.
In IRC, the Ker 46, Lighthorse Alpha+, romped around its course, finishing in two hours and four minutes to claim both Line and Corrected honours. Despite finishing last on the water (17:16:02), the venerable Impala, Moll, helmed by Philip Bowring, came a shock 2nd on corrected, thanks largely to its IRC rating of 0.899. Blu took 3rd on corrected and the beautiful Blue Star finished 4th in an elapsed time of two hours and 39 minutes.
In the Sportsboats, the Ricochet's enthusiastic crew suffered a torn spinnaker forcing them out of the race. Out of three finishers, Gnarwhal claimed line and corrected honours, followed by Hotwired and Red Herring II.
The competitive Vixen took line honours in the HKPN Division but was relegated to 4th on corrected. On handicap, Ichiban scored a deserved 1st followed by the determined Lazy Piggy and Crystal.
The Shelter Dove Dragons all finished within 21 minutes of each other. Top scorer was Zephyr, then Eaux Vives, followed by Dragonfly.
Races 4 & 5 of the Peroni Summer Saturday Series will be held on the 13th of July 2019.