Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally
by RHKYC Media 18 Oct 2019 20:35 AEDT
Free Fire. RHKYC Nha Trang Rally 2019 © Guy Nowell / RHKYC
American entry J/V Maxi 72, Lucky, sailed into Nha Trang, Vietnam on 18 October at 8h 40m 10s (HK time) to take the Monohull Line Honours for the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club Nha Trang Rally in an elapsed time of 41h 30m 10s.
Skipper Bryon Ehrhart, 2013 Hong Kong to Vietnam Race IRC Racing 0 Division winner, was thrilled to cross the finishing line after the two trimarans, taking Monohull Line Honours. “The rally was fantastic; good breeze all the way through. Powerful wave conditions, our depowered sail plan was to stay in sequence with the wave set. It was a very difficult sea state and everyone performed really well and we appreciate the chance to have participated in the rally.”
Lucky was third over the line after Italian Maserati Multi70, which was edged out of the Multihull Line Honours win by SHK Scallywag/FUKU in the final leg of the rally “It was a very nice rally until the finish!" said Maserati Skipper, Giovanni Soldini. He added, "the night was very wet, a lot of wind, a lot of speed, and we managed to get ourselves into a good position and had a great and hard-fought race, and thought we'd already won. However, when we arrived some 40nm from Nha Trang we had several squalls - the last of which was huge, leaving us with no wind at all for two hours and meanwhile our competitor Scallywag/FUKU managed to sail past us undisturbed”. Maserati Multi70 crossed the finish line at 22hr 57min 53s HK Time, 1h 38m behind her rival.
Next over the line (after Lucky) was Sam Chan’s TP52 FreeFire at 15h 37m 46s (HK time), resulting in Lucky being nudged out of contention for the winner of IRC Racer 0 and the IRC Overall positions. FreeFire now has to see if she can hold on to her win; nearest rival Ambush are yet to finish and are due to arrive in Nha Trang tonight. Ambush must finish by 2100hrs (HK time) to pull the IRC Overall trophy out of FreeFire’s hands. The rest of the fleet are still racing and due to arrive in the next 14 hours, save for Zanzibar who retired in the afternoon with rig damage.