Hebe Haven Yacht Club Peroni Summer Saturday Series - Races 4 and 5
by Rob Allen 15 Jul 2019 22:22 AEST
15 July 2019
No Rush leads Red Herring II - Peroni Summer Saturday Series , Race 4 © Fragrant Harbour
Once again the Peroni Summer Saturday Series 2019 was blessed with fair winds. A 13-knot south-southwesterly, with occasional gusts of 18, meant there was plenty of action on the water.
Hebe Haven Yacht Club's Bridget Chan was race officer, ably supported by her Windseeker crew.
Two windward / leeward races were the order of the day, kept simple with the same two-lap course for all four classes. IRC and Sportsboats went to a windward mark (with an offset) at 200 degrees and 1.3nm distant, whilst the HKPN fleet and Dragons covered 1nm without an offset.
The four boats in IRC were away first in Race 4, followed by the four Magic 25s and one VX One in Sportsboats. Eight HKPN boats made it to their Race 4 start, followed by 12 Dragons from the RHKYC's Shelter Cove base.
The Dragon, Zephyr, was on course side (OCS) and had to restart, while an incident approaching the line between Maiden Hong Kong and Fei Chi saw the latter doing a penalty turn.
The IRC boats were less disciplined in their second start of the day - Race 5 of the series. Both Arcturus and Blu were OCS and had to restart. This gave the remaining two - Moll and RB - an initial advantage. It made no difference in the end with Arcturus winning both races. Moll was second in both with RB third in Race 4 and Blu third in Race 5.
There was a lot of excitement in the Sportsboats with the VX One FAB claiming handicap honours. Hotwired paid the penalty for pushing the limits with a broach, dunking the crew in the drink during the last race. No Rush finished second with Gnarwhal third in Race 4. Red Herring II was second and No Rush third in Race five.
Lazy Piggy was far from lazy, or was it its favourable 1216 handicap that gave it a distinct advantage to win both races? Zam Zammah came second in Race 4 with Bits and Pieces second in Race 5. Ichiban's crew, in the absence of Simon Jones, were wearing their red hot kit, and claimed third in both races.
The Dragons, particularly the front runners, got in some serious racing. Best on the day was Eaux Vives with second in Race 4 and first in Race 5. Very good to see they turned up for the prize-giving to collect their pennants and a bottle of wine for the win. Wudi won Race 4 with Dragonfly third, while Elphie and Zephyr were second and third respectively in Race 5. The prizegiving was held in the Garden Bar of the Hebe Haven Yacht Club where the sponsored Peroni beer soon disappeared.
Race 6 in the series comprises an islands race and will be held on the 27th of July, followed by the final two geometric races on the 10th of August 2019.