China Coast Regatta: Hong Kong Sailors take the lead
by Suzy Rayment 11 Oct 2019 09:04 PDT
11-13 October 2019
China Coast Regatta 2019 © Guy Nowell / RHKYC
Light and shifty winds made the first day of the China Coast Regatta challenging both for the Race Committee and competitors. Officer Inge Strompf-Jepsen managed to find a patch of westerly breeze averaging 6kts southeast of Hong Kong's Lamma Island and the 25 boats that made up the IRC Racer divisions were set windward/leeward courses and the two yachts from IRC premier Cruising division were sent around and island course that included Waglan and Sung Kong.
The first race of the series for the IRC O fleet was quickly abandoned when a sudden southerly shift kicked and the 80 degree shift turned the windward/leeward course into a reach. The Race Committee called a halt while the marke were reset and after an early lunch break the fleet has a busy afternoon completing three back to back races in 6-8 knots in a south-westerly breeze.
Local Hong Kong sailors finished at the top of the leader board at the end of the day with Sam’s Chan TP52 FreeFire taking IRC Div 0 ahead of Marcel Liedts’s Ker 46 Zannekin. Yuye Yan’s Ker 42 Custom Seawolf won (IRC Div 1) and is four points ahead of Joachim Isler /Andrew Taylor’s Ambush and Ellian Perch’s Cape 31, Orion DYP, which made the journey to Hong Kong from South Africa to compete. Noel Chan and Denis Ma’s Rampage were first in IRC Race 2 and it was a close battle between Mei Han Chung’s Dexter II IRC Div 3 just one point ahead of Nick Southward’s Whiskey Jack.
According to regatta photographer Guy Nowell, it was not ideal conditions for racing or photography today … and he quoted fellow photographer Andrea Francolini as saying… “You need three things for great racing photos: wind, waves, and sunshine. You can manage with two, but one by itself is no good.” Today, even the sunshine was mostly haze.
Three more boats from HKPN division will also join the weekend racing action taking the fleet to 33 yachts in total. The Prize giving for the first two racing will be held tomorrow night in conjunction with the Skippers Dinner being held in the Club Kellett Island Clubhouse. Best place to be in Hong Kong is out on the water no matter what the conditions just let’s hope the wind kicks in and blows away some of the haze. Fingers crossed.
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